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(11) | EP 1 595 795 A1 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
| published in accordance with Art. 158(3) EPC |
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| (54) | DEVICE FOR SUPPLYING/DOSING PACKAGED TABLETS FOR THE FOOD INDUSTRY |
| (57) The invention relates to a tablet-supply device which allows the use of food additive
in the solid phase or, more specifically, in the form of tablets. According to the
invention, the tablets are dosed to a series of packages or receptacles used in the
food industry and containers for other products that require the inclusion of the
aforementioned solid additives. The inventive device is fully automatic and can operate
at medium and high distribution speed, such as to produce tablets with a low level
of compression therein, in order to facilitate the subsequent dissolution thereof,
and without causing any deterioration during handling. |
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to a device for supplying tablets consisting of solid additives, from a tank or reservoir for supplying said tablets, such that they are delivered in a unitary or multiple dosed form to a series of packages or containers used in the food industry and containers of other products to which said solid additives is required to provide.
[0002] The object of the invention is to ensure a fast process for fully automatically supplying said tablets and without an excessive compactness in said tablets, which might negatively influence on the subsequent dissolution thereof.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] In the practice application scope of the invention, that of delivering of food additives to packages containing food products, additives in the liquid phase are mainly used due to feed-dosage problems involved in using additives in the solid phase.
[0004] More particularly, in medium or high speed lines and with the purpose of achieving a suitable functionality, the use of additional vibrant material, for displacement of the tablet-shaped food additives, is always essential at present, which involves that said tablets must have a high compression, so as to prevent collapse thereof caused by said vibration.
[0005] However, compression of said tablets must be low so that its dilution in the package wet environment is facilitated since, as stated above, additives in the liquid phase are mainly used in this field.
[0006] On the other hand, there is a legislation that limits the maximum quantity of additives both by quantity and typology, which makes the use of excipients and binders in the precise quantities for obtaining high collapse strength to be difficult.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0007] The supplying-dosing device provided by the invention allows the use of food additives in the solid phase, specifically in the form of tablets, at a medium and high distribution speed with a low level of compression in said tablets in order to facilitate the subsequent dissolution thereof, and without causing any deterioration during handling.
[0008] For this purpose and more specifically, the supplying-dosing device is structured from a tablet tank, having a suitable capacity so that its reload frequency is also suitable, the tank having a bottom portion defining a retaining ramp and including a side opening for outlet of tablets, in a layered form, to a down ramp, with a gradual slope, where a vibrator is placed transmitting a slight vibration to said ramp, enough for causing the gravitational displacement of the tablets but in turn low enough for not to endanger the compactness of said tablets.
[0009] Said down ramp, arranged according to the tank bottom itself, which assumes a sloped arrangement, leads to an extractor mechanism in which a motor element acts on a pair of counter rotating blades and which mutually determine a unitary passageway for the tablets, which are coming in alignment to a second tank, in the form of a closed conduit, having sensors determining at every time the quantity of pills or tablets existing in its interior, and that is closed at its lower portion by means of a pair of pneumatic cylinders, which stems act inside the conduit-tank and do it alternatively, such that while one of them supports the tablets existing in said conduit tank, excluding the first or lower one, the other allows said terminal tablet to drop down into the corresponding reservoir to be dosed, which will be passed down to said conduit tank and which presence will be also detected by a sensor.
[0010] The device may be either unitary, supplying a tablet to a reservoir in each operational cycle thereof, or it may be multiple with several conduit-tanks and several extractor mechanisms receiving the pills from a single tank, in which case dosed provision of additives to several reservoirs may be carried out simultaneously.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] For completing the description herein and with the purpose of assisting in a better understanding of the features of the invention, according to one preferred example of a practical embodiment thereof, a set of drawings is herein enclosed forming part of said description in which the following has been depicted for illustrative and non limiting purposes:
Figure 1 shows a side elevational diagrammatic representation of a device for supplying-dosing packaged tablets for the food industry made according to the object of the present invention.
Fig. 2 shows a detail in perspective of the configuration intended as the preferred one for the tablets to be handled with the supplying-dosing device of the above figure.
Fig. 3 shows an enlarged detail of the extractor mechanism.
Fig. 4 shows a plan diagrammatic representation of how the tablets are positionally discriminated by the blades in the extractor mechanism making them to be unitarily passed into the corresponding conduit-tank.
Fig. 5 shows an enlarged detail of the free end of said conduit-tank, with its corresponding ejection mechanism.
Figs. 6 and 7 show two side elevational views in detail of the assembly depicted in Fig. 5 in the two positions for the ejection mechanism.
PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION
[0012] In view of the above figures it may be seen how the supplying-dosing device provided by the invention is formed from a tablet tank 1, having a significant capacity so that its reload frequency is less often in time, mounted in a high position on a supporting frame 2.
[0013] The tank defines a sloped reservoir inside of which a retaining ramp 3 is provided over which the tablets 4 are indiscriminately located, passing to the lower portion of said ramp 3 through the opening 5 formed in correspondence with the lowermost edge thereof, for reaching the bottom 6 of the tank 1, that is sloped in comparison to the ramp 3 y through which the tablets 4 come down also indiscriminately but in a laminar flow, the configuration of the tablets itself facilitating their displacement, specially visible in the detail of the figure 2, and the provision of a vibrator 7 in the bottom of the tank 1 imparting a very slight vibration to said bottom 6 and consequently to the tablets 4 which facilitates gravitational displacement to an extractor mechanism 8 located to the outlet of the tank or reservoir 1.
[0014] This extractor mechanism 8, especially visible in the figure 3, consists of a motor 9 which directly drives one blade 10 and that is provided with a gear wheel 11 in its shaft for synchronous movement transmission, through another gear wheel 12, to a second blade 10' that is rotated in a reverse direction to blade 10.
[0015] Said blades 10-10', as shown in figure 4, have a rounded vertex, equilateral triangular configuration, and they are angularly phase shifted and properly spaced apart for forming a unitary passageway between them for the tablets 4, which are thus forced to leave the extractor mechanism in line for reaching a conduit-tank 13.
[0016] In this conduit-tank, also having a considerable slope, even steeper, an ejection mechanism is also provided fitted on a support 14, located in the vicinity of its lower free end, and consisting of a pair of cylinders, particularly a head cylinder 15 and a tail cylinder 16, very near to each other, so that, e.g. from the location shown in the figure 6, in which the head cylinder 15 is retaining all the line of tablets 4, when the tail cylinder 16 comes down, its stem is located between the last and the last but one tablets 4 as shown started in said figure 6 and at the end of operation as shown in figure 7, the head piston 15 is retracted allowing the last tablet 4 to drop down to the reservoir 7 to be dosed, which will be previously located under the ejection mechanism 14 and which presence will have been detected by a sensor 18.
[0017] As a complement of the structure described in the device there is a pair of air injectors 19 and 20 which eliminates the possible dust which could result from the tablets 4 when moving, at the time that a sensor 21 located in the conduit-tank 13 detects the need for feeding tablets into said conduit-tank.
[0018] The supplying-dosing device of the invention provides a number of advantages which are mainly focused to the following aspects:
[0019] It allows tablets to be dosed even in lines with water vapor emission by using said air injectors 19 and 20 keeping an overpressure in the working area.
[0020] It eliminates the human factor in dosage process, relieving the operator for this task, only with the participation for feeding new tablets when the tank 1 is empty.
1. Device for supplying-dosing packaged tablets for the food industry which has the purpose
of unitarily delivering the proper dose of solid additives in the form of a tablet
to said packages, characterized in that it consists of a tank (1) for said tablets inside of which a retaining ramp (3) is
provided indiscriminately leading the tablets (4) to an opening (5) communicating
with the bottom (6) of the tank, wherein the tablets (4) keep a indiscriminate location
but with a laminar flow to at least one extractor mechanism (8), from which the tablets
(4) gain access to the interior of a conduit-tank (13), having a ejection mechanism
(14), under which tablets (4) to be dosed are unitarily and sequentially located.
2. Device for supplying-dosing packaged tablets for the food industry, as claimed in
claim 1, characterized in that under the sloped bottom (6) of the tablet tank (1) a vibrator (7) is provided imparting
a slight vibration for facilitating the displacement of the tablets (4) to the extractor
mechanism (8).
3. Device for supplying-dosing packaged tablets for the food industry, as claimed in
claim 1, characterized in that the extractor mechanism (8) consists of a motor (9) which synchronously transmits
a rotary movement in a reverse direction to a pair of coplanar blades (10) between
which a passageway is defined having a width suitable to the size of the tablets (4),
for determining said unitary passage and in alignment of said tablets.
4. Device for supplying-dosing packaged tablets for the food industry, as claimed in
claim 1, characterized in that the conduit-tank (13) consists of a tube properly sized so that the tablets (4) are
located therein in alignment, said conduit-tank (13) being assisted by a sensor (21)
which detects the presence of tablets (4) and enables the extractor mechanism (8)
when there are no tablets.
5. Device for supplying-dosing packaged tablets for the food industry, as claimed in
claim 1, characterized in that the extractor mechanism consists of a pair or cylinders (15) and (16), one being
a head cylinder and the other one being a tail cylinder, working alternately, for
allowing the unitary outlet of the tablets (4) through the lower end of the tube that
is part of the conduit-tank (13).
6. Device for supplying-dosing packaged tablets for the food industry, as claimed in
claim 1, characterized in that it includes a pair of air injectors (19) and (20), one located at the lower portion
of the tank (1), in the vicinity of its outlet mouth (5), and another one at the access
area to the conduit-tank (13), which eliminate the possible dust resulting from tablets
(4) and which cause an overpressure for preventing said tablets from being affected
by wet environments.