Tablet printing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10220640-B2
Application number	US-201815963549-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 26, 2018
Priority date	Apr 27, 2017
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a tablet printing apparatus includes: a conveyor belt including a suction hole to suck a tablet; and an ink jet print head configured to perform printing on the tablet; wherein the conveyor belt further includes a plurality of protrusions formed around the suction hole and configured to support the tablet in contact with the tablet, and a recess formed between the protrusions and communicated with the suction hole, each of the protrusions has a bottom surface, an upper surface, area of which is smaller than that of the bottom surface, and a side surface having an inclined surface, the protrusions support the tablet such that a gap is formed between a surface of the tablet on conveyor belt side and the suction hole, and a suction force is applied to the gap and space of the recess through the suction hole to suck the tablet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A tablet printing apparatus, comprising:
a conveyor belt including a suction hole to suck a tablet; and
an ink jet print head configured to perform printing on the tablet conveyed by the conveyor belt; wherein
the conveyor belt further includes
a plurality of protrusions formed around the suction hole and configured to support the tablet in contact with the tablet, and
a recess formed between the protrusions and communicated with the suction hole,

each of the protrusions has a bottom surface, an upper surface, area of which is smaller than that of the bottom surface, and a side surface having an inclined surface,
the protrusions are configured to support the tablet such that a gap is formed between a surface of the tablet on conveyor belt side and the suction hole, and
a suction force is applied to the gap and space of the recess through the suction hole to suck the tablet.

2. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the protrusions have a conical shape or a frustum shape.

3. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the protrusions are arranged in rows on a surface of the conveyor belt.

4. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the recess is formed in a line between rows of the protrusions and is communicated with the suction hole.

5. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein rows of the protrusions are arranged along a direction crossing a conveying direction of the tablet in a horizontal plane.

6. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the rows of the protrusions are arranged along two axes perpendicular to each other, each at an angle of 45° with respect to the conveying direction of the tablet.

7. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein outer angle formed between the side surface of the protrusion and a bottom surface of the recess is an obtuse angle.

8. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the protrusions are formed in a region where the tablet can be placed on the conveyor belt, and
a bottom surface of the recess is located at a height lower than height of the surface of the conveyor belt outside the region where the protrusions are formed.

9. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the protrusions are formed integrally with the conveyor belt.

10. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the tablet to be printed has a recessed portion on its surface, and
the protrusions are configured to support the tablet while the upper surface or the side surface thereof are in contact with a periphery of the tablet.

11. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the conveyor belt further includes a groove extending along a conveying direction of the tablet, and
the suction hole is formed in a bottom surface of the groove.

12. The tablet printing apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein a plurality of second protrusions are formed in the bottom surface of the groove.

Assignees

• Shibaura Mechatronics Corp

Inventors

• Tsuruoka Yasutsugu
• Haijima Hironori
• Kuribayashi Toru
• Umemura Yuki

Classifications

• B41J11/0085

  Using suction for maintaining printing material flat (on rotatable drums B41J13/226) · CPC title

• B41J3/407

  for marking on special material · CPC title

• B41J11/007 Primary

  Conveyor belts or like feeding devices · CPC title

• B65G15/58

  with means for holding or retaining the loads in fixed position, e.g. magnetic · CPC title

• B41J2/135

  Nozzles · CPC title