Tablet printing apparatus

{
  "publication_number": "US10220640B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Tablet printing apparatus",
  "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.",
  "claims": [
    "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."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "Embodiments described herein relate generally to a tablet printing apparatus.\n\nThere has been known a tablet printing apparatus that uses an inkjet print head to print a character, a letter, a mark, or the like on a tablet. In the tablet printing apparatus, tablets are conveyed by a conveyor belt, and ink is ejected from the ejection port of the inkjet print head (nozzle opening) located above the conveyor belt toward each tablet passing under the print head to perform printing on the tablet.\n\nMeanwhile, the tablets sucked and conveyed by the conveyor belt may sometimes shake on the conveyor belt. This is due to continuous vibration caused by the supply of the tablets dropped from above the conveyor belt or is due to a slight swing of the moving conveyor belt, or the like. If the tablet continues to shake until it passes under the print head, normal printing cannot be performed. Therefore, it is necessary to suppress the shaking motion of the tablet on the conveyor belt as much as possible.\n\nFIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the schematic configuration of a tablet printing apparatus according to an embodiment;\n\nFIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating a part of a first printing device of the embodiment;\n\nFIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating a shake prevention region of a conveyor belt of the embodiment;\n\nFIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a protrusion provided to the conveyor belt;\n\nFIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement example of protrusions on the conveyor belt;\n\nFIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a tablet that is shaking on a conventional conveyor belt (having no protrusion);",
  "cpc": [
    "B41J 11/007",
    "A61J 3/007",
    "B41F 17/36",
    "B41J 11/0085",
    "B41J 2/135",
    "B41J 3/407",
    "B65G 15/58"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B41J 11/00",
    "B41J 3/407",
    "B65G 15/58"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "Shibaura Mechatronics Corp"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Yasutsugu TSURUOKA",
    "Hironori Haijima",
    "Toru Kuribayashi",
    "Yuki Umemura"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2018-04-26",
  "publication_date": "2019-03-05",
  "grant_date": "2019-03-05",
  "priority_date": "2017-04-27",
  "application_number": "US-201815963549-A",
  "family_id": "63916422",
  "cited_by_count": 2,
  "citations": [
    "JPH0781050A",
    "US7114445B2",
    "US7102741B2",
    "JP2017006457A"
  ]
}