US-12623800-B2 - Automatic medicine packing machine

US12623800B2US 12623800 B2US12623800 B2US 12623800B2US-12623800-B2

Abstract

There is provided an automatic medicine packing machine for automatically packing medicines on a dose basis according to prescription information. The automatic medicine packing machine includes a medicine cassette mounting part in which a plurality of medicine cassettes for supplying the medicines are mounted; a medicine collecting part configured to collect the medicines supplied according to the prescription information; a medicine packing part configured to pack the medicines collected by the medicine collecting part on the dose basis; a medicine cassette storage part in which a plurality of medicine cassettes are placed and stored; and a medicine cassette replacement system configured to grip the medicine cassette and replace the medicine cassette between the medicine cassette mounting part and the medicine cassette storage part.

Inventors

Jun-ho Kim

Assignees

JVM CO., LTD

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20241127
Priority Date: 20200318

Claims (5)

1 . An automatic medicine packing machine for automatically packing medicines on a dose basis according to prescription information, comprising: a medicine cassette mounting part in which a plurality of medicine cassettes for supplying the medicines are mounted; a medicine collecting part configured to collect the medicines supplied according to the prescription information; a medicine packing part configured to pack the medicines collected by the medicine collecting part on the dose basis; a medicine cassette storage part in which a plurality of medicine cassettes are placed and stored; and a medicine cassette replacement system configured to grip the medicine cassette and replace the medicine cassette between the medicine cassette mounting part and the medicine cassette storage part, wherein the medicine cassette replacement system includes a transfer robot for gripping the medicine cassette, and a temporary stage on which the medicine cassette is placed, and wherein the medicine cassette includes a first identification information storage part that stores first identification information regarding a type or quantity of the medicines stored therein, and wherein the temporary stage includes a second identification information storage part that stores second identification information regarding a position where the medicine cassette is mounted, and an interface unit for transmitting and receiving the first identification information and the second identification information.
2 . The automatic medicine packing machine of claim 1 , wherein the medicine cassette replacement system is configured such that the transfer robot is movable relative to the medicine cassette mounting part and the medicine cassette storage part along a guide rail, and the temporary stage moves along the guide rail together with the transfer robot.
3 . The automatic medicine packing machine of claim 2 , wherein the temporary stage, with another medicine cassette placed thereon, is moved to the vicinity of the medicine cassette that needs to be replaced by the movement of the transfer robot.
4 . The automatic medicine packing machine of claim 1 , wherein the temporary stage is configured to temporarily place the medicine cassette when the medicine cassette mounted on the medicine cassette mounting part or the medicine cassette storage part needs to be replaced with another medicine cassette, thereby allowing the another medicine cassette to be mounted on the medicine cassette mounting part or the medicine cassette storage part.
5 . The automatic medicine packing machine of claim 1 , wherein the medicine cassette has a first grip groove formed to extend from a top of the medicine cassette toward a bottom of the medicine cassette in a vertical direction, and the transfer robot has a gripper inserted into the first grip groove, such that the medicine cassette is transferred while being gripped.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/141,370 filed on Jan. 5 2021, which claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0033498 filed on Mar. 18, 2020, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to an automatic medicine packing machine for automatically discharging and packing medicines on a dose basis according to prescription information, and more particularly, to an automatic medicine packing machine configured to automatically replace a medicine cassette with a new one when the medicine cassette is empty or when the medicines accommodated in the medicine cassette are not sufficient, thereby packing the medicines in a faster manner and in larger quantities. The present disclosure has been derived from a study conducted as Next-generation leading technology development business of Daegu Techno Park (Project Number: 7212101-2019-0002, Project Name: Development of robotic tablet packing system for improving pharmacy efficiency by 30% and automatically refilling medicines so as to meet Mail Order Pharmacy). BACKGROUND ART Referring to FIG. 1, there is exemplarily shown an automatic medicine packing machine 10 for automatically discharging and packing medicines on a dose basis according to prescription information. As shown in FIG. 1, the automatic medicine packing machine 10 is typically configured as including a main body 10, a plurality of medicine cassettes 20 disposed on the upper portion of the main body 10 and configured to accommodate a variety of sizes and forms of medicines (for example, medicines such as tablets, capsules or the like), a hopper 30 provided at the lower portion of the main body 10 and configured to collect medicines discharged and dropped from the medicine cassettes 20, a printing device 40 configured to print a variety of information on the surface of a medicine bag that packs the medicines, a packing device 50 configured to pack the medicines collected by the hopper 30 in the medicine bag, and the like. As shown in FIG. 1, the automatic medicine packing machine 10 is configured to place the medicine cassettes 20 in a limited space provided in the upper portion of the main body 10 and receive the medicines through the medicine cassettes 20. As a result, there is a limit on the number of medicines that can be supplied to the automatic medicine packing machine 10 due to the constraint of a space in which the medicine cassettes 20 are accommodated, which may degrade the efficiency of the medicine packing operation. In addition, in the conventional automatic medicine packing machine 10, when all of the medicines stored in the medicine cassette 20 are used, a pharmacist or manager stops the operation of the automatic medicine packing machine 10, takes out the medicine cassette 20 from the automatic medicine packing machine 10, and directly fills the medicine cassette 20 with the medicines. This makes the filling operation cumbersome, and the pharmacist or manager has a difficulty of taking the inventory of medicines to be filled into the medicine cassette one by one. In addition, since the pharmacist or manager needs to mount the refilled cassette 20 correctly in its original position, the medicine refilling operation is very cumbersome. When the medicine cassette 20 is mounted in a position different from the original position, inappropriate medicines may be collected and packed, causing a medical accident. SUMMARY Technical Problem The present disclosure is proposed to solve the afore-mentioned problems of the conventional automatic medicine packing machine, and is to provide an automatic medicine packing machine configured to, when a medicine cassette mounted in the automatic medicine packing machine is empty, automatically replace the empty medicine cassette with a new one and perform packing of medicines in a faster manner and in larger quantities. Technical Solution Representative configurations of the present disclosure for achieving the above-mentioned object are as follows. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an automatic medicine packing machine for automatically packing medicines on a dose basis according to prescription information. The automatic medicine packing machine according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may comprise: a medicine cassette mounting part in which a plurality of medicine cassettes for supplying the medicines are mounted; a medicine collecting part configured to collect the medicines supplied according to the prescription information; a medicine packing part configured to pack the medicines collected by the medicine collecting part on the dose basis; a medicine cassette storage part in which a plurality of medicine cassettes are placed and stored; and a medicine cassette replacement system configured to grip the medicine cassette and replace the medici