JPS6117541B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an elliptical seamless microcapsule whose shape is oval like a rugby ball to improve handling properties, and a method and apparatus for manufacturing the same.

Conventionally, seamless microcapsules were produced by solidifying the encapsulating material in a cooling liquid due to its own surface tension, and therefore only spherical microcapsules could be produced.

That is, as conventional manufacturing apparatuses, there are those shown in FIGS. 1 to 5.

In FIG. 1, container 1 contains an encapsulating material in liquid form, such as a mixture of gelatin, water and glycerin. The contents within this container can be heated to an appropriate temperature. That is, in the drawings, a heating or cooling liquid is circulated through a tube 2 to heat or cool. From this container the encapsulating material flows down through the conduit 3 to the outlet 4.

The amount of encapsulated material flowing through the conduit and out of the annular orifice of the outlet 4 can be regulated by means of the valve 5 and further depends on the hydrostatic head and also on the fluid viscosity and the fluid dynamics between the conduit and the outlet 4. Depends on the resistance.

Similar heating or cooling tubes 30 are also provided in the container 6.
The device contains a filler material such as oil in which pharmaceutical ingredients are dissolved. From the container 6 this filling material flows down through the conduit 7 into the central orifice of the outlet 4. Since this flow can only occur under its own gravity, in this case it is necessary to equip this conduit with a regulating valve.

However, the filling material is transferred from the container 6 to the outlet 4.
Advantageously, the transfer is carried out by means of a pump 8 designed to provide a constant flow of fill material to the outlet 4 continuously at a constant rate.

The encapsulating material and the filling material form a combined stream which is forced out of the outlet 4 as a stream consisting of the core of the filling material and the outer skin of the encapsulating material. The outer opening of this outlet 4 is below the surface of the cooling liquid 9.

A hollow ring having an annular orifice or slit 11 (FIG. 2) located substantially below this orifice and facing the same center as the flow of the encapsulating material that falls and envelops the filling material extruded from the outlet 4. 10 are provided.

Cooling liquid is intermittently forced out of this annular slit 11 by water pressure.

This pressure impulse is transmitted by the cooling liquid in the container 12 between the annular opening 11 and the flow of the encapsulating material falling around the filling material, and acts on this flow as a kind of vibration. The action on the flow will create an initial compression on the flow.

Said stream falling into the cooling liquid under the influence of natural forces, such as surface tension and gravity, is compressed further than in the initial compression position and finally consists of a core of the filling material and an outer shell of the encapsulating material. Separates into composite drops.

During their further descent through the cold liquid in this container 12, the drops become approximately spherical and are then cooled to such a temperature that the shell material condenses to form a seamlessly filled capsule. Ru. Since initial compressions are formed in the flow at a constant number of oscillations, their magnitude depends only on the amount of liquid flowing from the outlet during each period of this oscillation.
Therefore, if the delivery rate and frequency of the filler material are kept constant, the capsules will contain approximately the same amount of filler material. The cooling liquid forced through the annular slit 11 passes from the squeeze tank 13 via the conduit 14, the rotary interrupter 15, the conduit 16 to the annular chamber 18 (FIG. 2) in the upper part of the annulus or pulsating device 10; From this annular chamber 18 the second annular chamber 17 is then entered through a number of conduits 19 between these annular chambers, and the annular slit 1
Supply liquid uniformly to the entire circumference of 1. slit 1
The width of the ring 10 can be adjusted as desired since the lower part 63 of the ring 10 is screwed to the vessel body 10.

The distance between the outlet 4 and the annular slit 11 must not be too large in order to prevent initial compression caused by natural forces. This compression is undesirable as it interferes with the initial compression caused by the vibrations.

FIG. 1 shows the downward flow of cooling liquid within vessel 12, and the capsule and cooling liquid pass through conduit 20, where the cooling liquid within vessel 12 is transferred such that the liquid is hydraulically transferred. The hole 21 is considerably lower than the liquid level.
It shows that it flows to

Through the hole 21, the liquid and capsule fall onto the filter 22 in the container 23. This cooling liquid passes through a filter into the lower part of the container. The capsules separated from the liquid are then continuously removed through the slit 24. The cooling liquid is pumped from container 23 via conduit 26 to container 12 by means of pump 25.
is pumped into tube 27 of.

A cooling coil 28 in the tube connected to a refrigerator (not shown) cools the liquid to the desired temperature. The cooling liquid in this tube flows upwards and on its upper side,
It flows over the top of the container 12 and back into the container.

The side pipe 29 prevents the fluid in the container 12 and the pipe 27 from rising to prevent the liquid level from becoming unnecessarily high.

The required linear velocity of the cooling liquid flowing downwardly within the container 12 depends on the manufacturing speed and the size of the capsule.

The compression tank 13 is connected to a pipe 2 so that the cooled cooling liquid flows into the tank 13 by a pump 32.
7 through the conduit 31. A pressure valve 34 in the side pipe 33 keeps the pressure in the tank constant.

If a certain amount of fill material is transferred from the annular slit 11 by means of the pump 8 at any time between two successive compressions of coolant, capsules with substantially equal fill material contents are formed.

In FIG. 3, the shaft 36 is the shaft 37 of the interrupter 15.
The worm of the upper worm gear 35 is driven, and the same shaft 36 drives the worm gear 38 by means of another worm. This worm gear 38 is mounted on the same shaft as a gear 39 which drives a gear 40 mounted on a shaft 45 of the pump 8 by means of a pinion, and drives the filling material through the conduit 16 to the outlet 4.
Transfer to.

Depending on the method of connecting the pump 8 and the interrupter 15, a predetermined amount of the filling material is transferred by the pump, and at each cycle of vibration, the filling material is enveloped and pushed into the flow of falling encapsulated material. put out. By replacing gears 38, 39, 40 with other gears having a different number of teeth, the speed ratio of pump 8 and interrupter can be adjusted as desired. This interrupter 15 may be of any type capable of intermittent delivery of liquid from the tank 13 into the conduit 16 at exactly equal periods and at exactly equal intervals between two successive extrusions. obtain.

The type shown in Figures 3, 4 and 5 consists of a box 41 with a cylindrical hole. A cylindrical rotating body 42 provided with four slits in this cylindrical hole is connected to the shaft 3.
7. These four slits have exactly the same width and are provided at equal intervals along the circumference of the rotating body 42.

Thus, as the rotary body rotates, the right end of each slit is intermittently in communication with the pore of the hole 44, which in turn connects with the conduit 16, so that with each successive communication there is no flow from the annular slit 11 of the ring 10. Extrudes cooling liquid intermittently.

Pump 8 may be of any type capable of delivering a fixed amount of fill material into the jet.

That is, as described above, the flow of the encapsulated material that envelops the filling material and falls is cut by the pressure of the cooling liquid and released into the liquid, producing spherical microcapsules based on its own surface tension. It is something.

However, according to the conventional method for manufacturing seamlessly filled capsules, only spherical capsules can be manufactured because the capsules are solidified in the cooling liquid due to the effect of surface tension. As a result, the direction in which the capsule rolls is not constant, making it difficult to handle during manufacturing, and there is a fear that work efficiency may not be improved.

In view of the above, the present invention provides an elliptical seamless filled capsule shaped like a rugby ball in order to provide unidirectional rolling direction of the capsule, and a method and apparatus for manufacturing the same.

The present invention will be explained in detail below based on the drawings.

Note that the same configurations and operations as those in FIGS. 1 to 5 are redundant, so their explanations will be omitted.

6 to 8 are one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 6A is a partial sectional view of the interrupter, FIG. 6B is a perspective view of the hollow cylindrical body, and FIG. ，
B and C show the manufacturing process of oval seamless microcapsules over time, and FIG. 8 shows the oval seamless microcapsules.

As shown in FIG. 6B, the hollow cylinder 45 has a slit 46 with a large area and a slit 4 with a small area.
It has 7.

From the slit 46, a cooling liquid for cutting the encapsulated material that wraps around the filling material and falls down flows out, and from the slit 47, a cooling liquid that wraps around the filling material and gives a depression to the falling encapsulated material flows out of the slit 46. do.

The number of depressions can be changed by changing the number of slits 47 with small areas, as shown in Fig. 7 A, B,
As shown in Fig. 8 and 8, the recesses are the partition walls of the elliptical seamless microcapsules, so by changing the number of large and small slits, it is easy to create elliptical seamless microcapsules with different numbers of partition walls. Can be manufactured.

That is, by reducing the area of every other slit, an elliptical seamless microcapsule having one partition wall can be obtained.

Moreover, if the area of every two slits is made small, an elliptical microcapsule having two partition walls can be obtained.

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture oval seamless microcapsules in the shape of a rugby ball, so it is possible to obtain capsules that have unidirectionality in the rolling direction of the capsules.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a partially cutaway schematic diagram of a conventional seamless microcapsule production device, and Fig. 2 is a first sectional view showing a first device that envelops a filling material and applies vibrations transmitted by a cooling liquid to act on the falling encapsulated material. Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the pulsating part of the device, which consists of a filler pump and an interrupter that ensure the inclusion of the same amount of filler material at all times; A top view showing a preferred embodiment of that part of the FIG. 1 apparatus for manufacturing microcapsules, FIG.
The figure is a cutaway plan view of the interrupter cut along the line - in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a side view cut along the line - in FIG. 4. Fig. 6 shows one embodiment of the present invention, A is a partially cutaway side view of the interrupter, B is a perspective view of the hollow cylindrical body inside the interrupter, and Fig. 7 A, B, and C are oval seamless The manufacturing process of the microcapsules is shown, and FIG. 8 shows an elliptical seamless microcapsule. Explanation of symbols, 1... Container, 2... Pipe, 3... Conduit, 4... Outlet, 5... Valve, 6... Container,
7... Conduit, 8... Pump, 9... Cooling liquid, 1
0...Hollow ring, 11...Annular slit, 12...
Container, 13... Pressure tank, 14... Conduit, 15
... Rotating interrupter, 16 ... Conduit, 17 ... Annular chamber, 18 ... Annular chamber, 19 ... Conduit, 20 ... Conduit, 21 ... Port, 22 ... Filter, 23 ...
...Container, 24...Slit, 25...Pump, 2
6... Conduit, 27... Tube, 28... Cooling coil,
29... side pipe, 30... pipe, 31... conduit, 32
... pump, 33 ... side pipe, 34 ... pressure valve, 35 ... worm gear, 36 ... shaft, 37 ...
...Shaft, 38...Worm gear, 39...Gear, 4
0... Gear, 41... Box body, 42... Cylindrical rotating body, 43... Slit, 44... Hole, 45... Cavity rotating body, 46... Large slit, 47... Small slit, 48... ... Encapsulation material, 49 ... Filling material, 50 ... Capsule membrane, 51 ... Partition wall.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An elliptical seamless microcapsule characterized in that a plurality of filling holes in an elliptical capsule membrane having partition walls are filled with a filling substance. 2. In a method for manufacturing an elliptical seamless capsule, in which a falling encapsulating material enveloping a filling material is cut at a predetermined period, a predetermined number of encapsulating materials are added to the encapsulating material to the extent that partition walls are formed in the capsule film in the middle of the predetermined period. A method for producing elliptical seamless microcapsules, characterized by providing hollows. 3. An elliptical shape according to claim 2, wherein the recess is formed by applying a cooling liquid pressure around the encapsulating material, and the cutting is performed by applying a cooling liquid pressure greater than the cooling liquid pressure. Method for manufacturing seamless microcapsules. 4. In an apparatus for manufacturing oval seamless microcapsules by cutting the encapsulated material that envelops the filling material and cuts the falling encapsulated material, the hydraulic pressure adding mechanism is A hydraulic pressure adjustment mechanism consisting of a box body having an inlet and an outlet, and a hydraulic pressure control rotor that outputs cooling liquid pressure from a large slit and a small slit of a hollow cylindrical body rotationally located within the box body through the outlet. The hydraulic pressure applying mechanism has a first cooling fluid pressure that cuts the encapsulated material that wraps around the filling material and cuts it, and a capsule that wraps the filling material and falls between the output of the cooling fluid pressure that cuts the encapsulated material. 1. An apparatus for producing elliptical seamless microcapsules, characterized in that the second cooling liquid pressure is outputted to give a depression to a substance.