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:
Dec. 24, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 30, 2000
Bin Zhang, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Manoj K. Wangu, Wexford, PA (US);
McKesson Automated Healthcare, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Abstract
A unit dose medicine feeder for use in a packaging machine that can receive pills individually from a reservoir has a cylindrical housing having a base with an opening through which a pill may pass. There is a wheel-like component on the base that has a plurality of slots about its outer periphery. The slots are sized to receive a single pill in the form of a tablet, capsule or caplet and are oriented to have walls that are 10° to 45° from vertical. A gear mechanism is provided to connect the wheel-like component to a motor to rotate the wheel-like component. That rotation will sequentially align the slots with the opening in the base allowing a pill within the slot to pass from the slot through the opening. The orientation of the slots enables the wheel to receive a wider range of pill sizes without jamming and without dispensing more than one unit from a slot. Preferably there is a trap door in the medicine feeder that directs a dispensed pill directly to packaging material in a packaging machine.