| 摘要 |
A method and apparatus orient, position and spin print indicia on pellet shaped articles, such as pharmaceutical capsules and the like. More specifically, the method and apparatus use a rotating pick-up drum that receives and transports the pellet shaped articles to a rotating positioning drum that is synchronized with the pick-up drum. The positioning drum receives the pellet shaped articles from the pick-up drum and properly aligns the pellet shaped articles so that they may be transferred to a rotating printing drum which is also synchronized with the positioning drum. The printing drum contains a vacuum source that maintains the pellet shaped articles within pockets as the pellet shaped articles are passed through a printing station. The printing station contains a movable printing roller capable of being moved toward and away from the printing drum such that the printing roller accurately spin prints indicia onto the pellet shaped articles. A control unit is connected to the apparatus and is configured to control, among other features of the apparatus, the rotation speed of the drums, but also the speed, position and/or contact force of the printing roller in relationship to the rotating printing drum. This control may be performed based on information associated with a length of the band of indicia of one of the pellet shaped articles, which is detected by a detection device. The detection device may be an optical device such as a video camera or a photo sensor.
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