Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D75/00—Packages comprising articles or materials partially or wholly enclosed in strips, sheets, blanks, tubes, or webs of flexible sheet material, e.g. in folded wrappers
  • B65D75/28—Articles or materials wholly enclosed in composite wrappers, i.e. wrappers formed by associating or interconnecting two or more sheets or blanks
  • B65D75/30—Articles or materials enclosed between two opposed sheets or blanks having their margins united, e.g. by pressure-sensitive adhesive, crimping, heat-sealing, or welding
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D75/00—Packages comprising articles or materials partially or wholly enclosed in strips, sheets, blanks, tubes, or webs of flexible sheet material, e.g. in folded wrappers
  • B65D75/28—Articles or materials wholly enclosed in composite wrappers, i.e. wrappers formed by associating or interconnecting two or more sheets or blanks
  • B65D75/30—Articles or materials enclosed between two opposed sheets or blanks having their margins united, e.g. by pressure-sensitive adhesive, crimping, heat-sealing, or welding
  • B65D75/32—Articles or materials enclosed between two opposed sheets or blanks having their margins united, e.g. by pressure-sensitive adhesive, crimping, heat-sealing, or welding one or both sheets or blanks being recessed to accommodate contents
  • B65D75/325—Articles or materials enclosed between two opposed sheets or blanks having their margins united, e.g. by pressure-sensitive adhesive, crimping, heat-sealing, or welding one or both sheets or blanks being recessed to accommodate contents one sheet being recessed, and the other being a flat not- rigid sheet, e.g. puncturable or peelable foil
  • B65D75/327—Articles or materials enclosed between two opposed sheets or blanks having their margins united, e.g. by pressure-sensitive adhesive, crimping, heat-sealing, or welding one or both sheets or blanks being recessed to accommodate contents one sheet being recessed, and the other being a flat not- rigid sheet, e.g. puncturable or peelable foil and forming several compartments
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D2215/00—Child-proof means
  • B65D2215/04—Child-proof means requiring the combination of different actions in succession
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D2585/00—Containers, packaging elements or packages specially adapted for particular articles or materials
  • B65D2585/56—Containers, packaging elements or packages specially adapted for particular articles or materials for medicinal tablets or pills

Definitions

• the present invention relates to strip packaging and, in particular, to a strip package which offers a higher level of resistance to being opened by children than current strip packages.
• a strip package which essentially can meet the above criteria, and which offers a higher level of child-resistance, can be produced by employing planar webs of two dissimilar materials to enclose the elements to be packaged, and thus to form the strip package, one material being highly tear resistant and the other sufficiently frangible to release a tablet or like packaged element when pressure is applied to the material via the tablet or the like.
• the present invention provides a child-resistant strip package, which package comprises a plurality of packaged elements each individually enclosed between a first sheet comprising a material which is tear resistant and which will not easily permit release of an element by tearing or application of pressure, and a second sheet adhered thereto and comprising a material which retains the elements but which is sufficiently frangible to permit release of an element by application of finger pressure to the element through the first sheet.
• the strip packaging of the invention may be used to package any element which is relatively infrangible.
• the packaging may be particularly appropriate for pharmaceutical products, it can also be used for other products where safety of young children is a factor.
• the invention particularly provides strip packaging for relatively infrangible pharmaceutical or like unit dosage forms such as tablets, caplets, capsules and the like.
• the individually enclosed elements may be arranged in any convenient manner which (at the same time) generally affords a strip configuration.
• the elements may be in an in-line arrangement or staggered, and may be disposed in a single row, or in two or more rows, which generally will be essentially parallel to each other.
• the first and second sheet materials are preferably opaque.
• the tinting or opacity may be provided by printing, or by the incorporation of one or more dyes, or more preferably one or more pigments, for example, a white pigment.
• a material which in itself is opaque such as one comprising a metal foil, may be selected.
• the overall minimum width of any band of adherance between the first and second sheets should be at least about 5 mm.
• the first and second sheets are adhered together except where they form pockets around the elements packaged between the sheets.
• first and second sheets should be chosen so that they can be adhered together by heat sealing, typically under pressure, for example, by crimping.
• the minimum crimp width should preferably be at least about 5 mm.
• the materials for the two sheets of the strip package of the invention may be chosen from a number of available packaging materials such as paper, metal foil and plastics materials.
• the materials will preferably comprise laminated materials.
• the first and second sheets may be provided as materials comprising a plurality of plies laminated together and preferably selected as follows:
• the first sheet preferably comprises one of the following materials, namely:
• the second sheet is preferably one which requires a push-through force of at least about 70 Newton, for example, about 75 Newton, before rupture takes place.
• the second sheet preferably comprises one of the following materials, namely:
• the two sheets chosen in any particular instance must have compatible adhesive properties within the limits of the chosen method of manufacture. Furthermore, they should preferably for convenience have a common adhesive material.
• the strip package of the invention is compatible with that known method of manufacture which typically comprises continuously feeding two planar webs to a packaging station where they are both disposed essentially vertically, feeding a plurality of elements to be packaged between the webs at the said station, and individually sealing the elements between the webs.
• the invention also includes a method of manufacturing a strip package, which method comprises continuously feeding a web of first sheet material and a web of second sheet material, both as hereinbefore defined, to a packaging station where they are disposed essentially vertically, feeding a plurality of elements to be packaged between the webs at the said station, sealing together the webs to form pockets around and to enclose the elements as one or more rows between the webs and, if necessary or desired, subdividing the sealed webs into strip packages.
• the webs are preferably chosen so that they can be adhered together by heat sealing i.e. by the application of heat and pressure, as the webs are brought together.
• any perforations could considerably reduce the level of its resistance to being opened by children, because any initiated cut or tear such as might be introduced by perforation could make the package susceptible of opening by further tearing.
• the package permits the removal of individual elements through the second sheet by application of finger pressure, the presence of perforations, for example, to permit individually packaged elements to be torn away from the remainder of the_package, is in any event not required.
• the package of the invention is that kind of package known as a "strip package” or “strip packaging” formed by a method in which planar webs are brought together and sealed around the elements to be packaged.
• the strip package or packaging of the invention is based on two flexible sheets or foils which can be run as vertical webs on existing strip packaging machinery, and which contain no pre-formed blisters (whether they be cold-formed or thermo-formed) to which the said elements are fed to be packaged, and which are subsequently "lidded".
• the flexible sheets on which the present strip packaging is based both together (and essentially equally) enclose the elements to be packaged, and the necessary accommodation of the elements is afforded by any necessary stretching of the material of each sheet as sealing takes place, not by any pre-forming operation. That is to say, the packaged elements are envelopped between two sheets, one of which is burstable and the other of which is neither burstable not tearable, and which together are sealed around them to form a pocket enclosing each element.
• strip packages of the invention are illustrated by the following specific Examples of such packages.
• a package was formed on conventional strip packaging machinery to provide a strip package of the following description:
• a package was formed on conventional strip packaging machinery to provide a strip package of the following description:
• the present invention provides a new type of strip package which affords increased child-resistant properties and which, at the same time, can be used by adults without difficulty.
• the unidirectional press- or push-through characteristics of the package (which typically may present the same overall appearance from both sides) can be conveyed to the adult user either in instructions printed on the package and/or in separate instructions on a package insert or on another associated packaging item.
• the mode of opening the package of the invention differs from that of the conventional form of strip packaging in that with the present package there is a much higher level of resistance to tearing from the side - effectively amounting to a complete resistance to tearing by both young children and most adults - coupled with an intelligence element associated with the press-or push-through technique necessary to achieve opening. Furthermore, when a tab of second sheet material is provided by a first opening, adjacent pockets generally cannot easily be opened subsequently by pulling the tab of second sheet material across the package.

Landscapes

• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Composite Materials (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Packages (AREA)
• Medical Preparation Storing Or Oral Administration Devices (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=10553875

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Cited By (3)

Citations (8)

Family Cites Families (6)

• 1983
  • 1983-12-24 GB GB838334503A patent/GB8334503D0/en active Pending
• 1984
  • 1984-12-21 GB GB08432486A patent/GB2151581B/en not_active Expired
  • 1984-12-21 EP EP84309065A patent/EP0148020A3/de not_active Withdrawn

Patent Citations (8)

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