Inventors:
Lisa W. Rogers - Houston TX
Thomas L. Kraft - Houston TX
John F. Berry - Houston TX
Scott A. Kelley - Houston TX
John A. Thompson - Houston TX
Clifford D. Ober - Missouri City TX
Michael C. Kuchar - Houston TX
Robert R. Mayer - Sugar Land TX
Van W. Hoskins - Friendswood TX
Vincent C. Weido - Houston TX
Mark G. Henckel - Katy TX
Assignee:
KVM Technologies, Inc. - Houston TX
International Classification:
B65G 5904, B65H 308
Abstract:
A vacuum operated system for individually dispensing items of oral solid medicine from bulk storage to a user, where the medicine is dispensed under computer control, and the quantity and type of medicine is selected in advance by the user. The invention includes medicine dispensing equipment and a computer that provides a user interface. A plurality of storage containers arranged in a rotatable carousel or a rectilinear array may contain various pharmaceutical articles, or various types, dosages, ages, and lot numbers of medicines. The storage containers may be easily refilled by inserting modular refill cartridges into the storage containers. After a user enters certain data into the computer, the invention aligns a universal vacuum probe with the storage container that contains the desired items. The universal vacuum probe is lowered to the desired storage container and engaged with a container probe that is exclusive to that storage container. After a vacuum source creates suction within the universal vacuum probe and the container probe, the universal vacuum probe and the container probe are operated to individually extract items from the storage container.