The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 17, 1998
Filed:
Oct. 01, 1996
Yoichi Ido, Susono, JP;
Yazaki Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
Each suction tip on a support member is moved between a seed-sucking position and a seed-supplying position by a drive source (20) at a supplying unit, and a seed vessel is moved up and down by a drive source (40). A pressurizing plunger is moved front by a drive source (50) at a nozzle unit and pressurizes the gel inside a gel flow channel to move a cutting plunger up and open a valve to allow gel to be discharged. A part of the gel discharged drops, and the remainder forms a layer on which a seed is supplied. A counter of a controller counts the number of unsuccessful seed-sucking operations, and when the counted value reaches a predetermined number of times, the running of the apparatus is stopped. If a suction tip does not suck a seed at the seed-supplying position, instead of moving the pressurizing plunger front, another suction tip is moved to the positions. The running of the apparatus is automatically stopped when the seed vessel becomes empty of seeds, thereby eliminating the necessity for constant monitoring and preventing the production of capsules with no seed therein.