US20130042574A1 - Blister sheet loading apparatus with bounce prevention means - Google Patents

Blister sheet loading apparatus with bounce prevention means Download PDF

Info

Publication number: US20130042574A1
Authority: US; United States
Prior art keywords: dose; cavity; blister; bore; containers
Prior art date: 2010-03-11
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.): Abandoned

Application number

US13/583,590

Other languages

English (en)

Inventor

Norman D. Knoth

Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)

Manrex Pty Ltd

QEM Inc

Original Assignee

Manrex Pty Ltd

QEM Inc

Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)

2010-03-11

Filing date

2011-03-08

Publication date

2013-02-21

2010-03-11 Priority claimed from AU2010901017A external-priority patent/AU2010901017A0/en

2011-03-08 Application filed by Manrex Pty Ltd, QEM Inc filed Critical Manrex Pty Ltd

2012-09-10 Assigned to QEM INC, MANREX PTY. LTD. reassignment QEM INC ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: KNOTH, NORMAN D.

2013-02-21 Publication of US20130042574A1 publication Critical patent/US20130042574A1/en

Status Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
- B65B5/00—Packaging individual articles in containers or receptacles, e.g. bags, sacks, boxes, cartons, cans, jars
- B65B5/10—Filling containers or receptacles progressively or in stages by introducing successive articles, or layers of articles
- B65B5/101—Filling containers or receptacles progressively or in stages by introducing successive articles, or layers of articles by gravity
- B65B5/103—Filling containers or receptacles progressively or in stages by introducing successive articles, or layers of articles by gravity for packaging pills or tablets
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
- B65B39/00—Nozzles, funnels or guides for introducing articles or materials into containers or wrappers
- B65B39/007—Guides or funnels for introducing articles into containers or wrappers
- A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
- A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
- A61J—CONTAINERS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR MEDICAL OR PHARMACEUTICAL PURPOSES; DEVICES OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR BRINGING PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS INTO PARTICULAR PHYSICAL OR ADMINISTERING FORMS; DEVICES FOR ADMINISTERING FOOD OR MEDICINES ORALLY; BABY COMFORTERS; DEVICES FOR RECEIVING SPITTLE
- A61J1/00—Containers specially adapted for medical or pharmaceutical purposes
- A61J1/03—Containers specially adapted for medical or pharmaceutical purposes for pills or tablets
- A61J1/035—Blister-type containers

Definitions

THIS INVENTION relates to the prevention of bounce occurring when small objects are loaded into pockets into which they may be subsequently sealed.
the invention is particularly well-suited, although not exclusively so, to preventing solid medication doses, such as tablets, from bouncing when falling into a pocket formed by the cavity of a blister of a blister sheet.
the provision of prescribed medication to a patient by means of a pre-loaded blister package is commonly used to enable the patient to carry several days supply of prescribed doses of medication.
the doses are prescribed by a doctor and appropriately packaged by a pharmacist to provide the patient with a sealed blister sheet having individual blisters marked with the days and times at which the doses in each blister are to be administered to the patient.
the program determines which blister of the blister sheet is to be loaded at a particular moment with a particular prescribed medication.
the blister sheet is normally loaded while inverted and has its blisters extending downwardly into respective openings provided in a horizontal support table.
the table can be indexed horizontally in its own plane by a mechanism to bring each blister in turn to a pre-arranged loading position at which the appropriate medication dose selected from one of the containers can be released into its cavity.
the distance through which the dose drops from the underside of the container should be made as small as is practical. However there is a limit to the reduction of this distance if there is to be no risk of a dose bouncing out of the cavity interfering with the operation of the indexing mechanism.
An object of this invention is to reduces the risk of problems occurring during loading of doses or other hard objects into a blister cavity.
apparatus for loading individual cavities of a blister sheet with small hard objects released into the cavities from above includes: first means for locating individual containers holding the objects at a level above the position of the blister cavity to be loaded; second means for releasing an object from the container so that it follows a path leading downwards towards the cavity; and, third means located in the path of descent of the object and acting to retard its rate of descent to an acceptable level (as below defined) before it reaches the cavity.
acceptable level is a level at which a released object will not bounce back out of the cavity nor will its impact on other objects already loaded into for different objects to be loaded into the blister cavity.
the third means is formed by a deflector which is struck by the object during its descent to absorb part of its momentum and thus slow it down.
the deflector is in the form of an elongated opening such as a bore, extending downwardly through a plate and at an angle to the plane of the plate, the upper end of the opening being located beneath a bottom outlet of the container and the lower end of the opening being located above a loading position at which the blister cavity to be loaded is positioned.
the lower end-portion of the opening is shaped to direct an object descending through it towards a side-wall of the blister cavity
apparatus for loading cavities of a blister sheet with prescribed doses of medication includes: a support table provided with means for positively locating respective blisters of the blister sheet at a level spaced beneath and displaced horizontally with respect to a position at which dose-storage containers can be located, and a deflector positioned between the storage containers and the table to deflect a dose falling from the storage container laterally towards a blister cavity intended to receive it.
the deflectors referred to immediately above are provided by the internal surfaces of respective axially parallel bores formed through a relatively thick and horizontal plate located between the level of the blister sheet on the table, and the level of the dose-discharge position of the container.
an indexing mechanism of the table may be operated to bring the cavity of the blister to be loaded and its associated deflector, to a position at which the deflector is located beneath the lower end of a storage container from which the dose is to be released.
the dose then strikes the deflector during its descent, and its momentum is reduced as a consequence.
the deflection also preferably deflects the descending dose towards a side-wall of the selected blister. Impact with the side wall slows down the descent still further so that the risk of the descending dose damaging itself or other doses which may already be in the blister is reduced still further.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view from above of a relatively thick plate penetrated by an array of axially-parallel bores inclined to the plane of the plate and providing one form of deflecting means;
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the plate of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 3 is a side view of the plate of FIG. 2 ;
FIG. 4 is an end view of the plate of FIG. 2 ;
FIG. 5 shows diagrammatically, and to a greatly enlarged scale, the path of descent of a dose through one bore of the plate, the dose being released from a dose-storage container above the plate and striking against a deflecting surface provided by the interior wall of the bore so that the dose is deflected towards the upper internal wall of a blister cavity beneath;
FIG. 6 shows a modification of FIG. 5 and where identical parts bear identical reference numerals but they are primed, and the lower end of the bore is rebated.
FIG. 1 a blister support table is identified in FIG. 1 by the reference number ‘thirty’ and the same reference numeral is used in FIG. 5 of the present specification to denote a like part.
the support table 30 of FIG. 5 is provided with openings 14 for the reception of respective blisters 15 of an inverted blister sheet 12 moulded from a resilient plastics material and placed blistered-side down on the table 30 .
FIG. 5 shows one of a number of dose-storage containers 6 located at a level spaced above the plate 3 and at a dose-discharge position vertically above the upper end of a bore 2 .
a mechanism at the lower end of the container 6 and controlled by a computerized control system (also not shown) allows a dose to be released from the container 6 in response to a control signal generated by the system and controlling operation of the apparatus.
a dose in the form of a hard solid medication tablet or pill, shown at 4 in FIG. 5 is dropped from the lower end of the container 6 into the upper end of the bore 2 immediately beneath, and descends along the fall line indicated by a broken line in FIG. 5 .
the dose strikes against the inside wall of the bore intermediate its ends, at a location 7 .
the distance through which the dose falls before striking the location 7 is found empirically and ensures that the momentum of the dose 4 is, insufficient to cause damage to I when impacting on the location 7 . This fall distance may be varied in the apparatus to achieve this result and it will be found empirically and changed to suit different types of dose.
the contact of the dose with the location 7 acts to reduce the vertical momentum of the dose 4 and deflects it down the inclined bore 2 towards its lower end.
the dose leaving the lower end still has a horizontal component of velocity so that it impacts on the side wall of the blister cavity positioned beneath the lower end of the bore 2 and associated with it.
a rebate 100 is provided on the side of the lower portion—of the bore 2 opposite the location 7 .
This rebate 100 serves to accommodate overflow of doses within the cavity of a blister being loaded, and also to prevent doses from stacking up at one side of the blister and possibly blocking the lower end of the bore 2 .
the invention is capable of being used in any apparatus where it is required to reduce the velocity of descent of hard solid objects which might otherwise free-fall with an undesirably high velocity.
the deflecting bores of such apparatus may, for example, be used to reduce the velocity with which tablets or other solid medication doses are inserted into respective single dose blisters, or to orientate the dose to a desired position required for entry into a blister.

Landscapes

Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
Medical Preparation Storing Or Oral Administration Devices (AREA)
Packages (AREA)
Basic Packing Technique (AREA)

US13/583,590 2010-03-11 2011-03-08 Blister sheet loading apparatus with bounce prevention means Abandoned US20130042574A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number	Priority Date	Filing Date	Title
AU2010901017A AU2010901017A0 (en)		2010-03-11	Bounce Prevention
AU2010901017		2010-03-11
PCT/AU2011/000255 WO2011109861A1 (en)	2010-03-11	2011-03-08	Blister sheet loading apparatus with bounce prevention means

Publications (1)

Publication Number	Publication Date
US20130042574A1 true US20130042574A1 (en)	2013-02-21

Family

ID=44562736

Family Applications (1)

Application Number	Title	Priority Date	Filing Date
US13/583,590 Abandoned US20130042574A1 (en)	2010-03-11	2011-03-08	Blister sheet loading apparatus with bounce prevention means

Country Status (9)

Country	Link
US (1)	US20130042574A1 (es)
EP (1)	EP2544950B1 (es)
CN (1)	CN102803074B (es)
AU (1)	AU2011226737B2 (es)
CA (1)	CA2792375C (es)
ES (1)	ES2611149T3 (es)
HK (1)	HK1178136A1 (es)
WO (1)	WO2011109861A1 (es)
ZA (1)	ZA201206286B (es)

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number	Priority date	Publication date	Assignee	Title
US9394070B2 (en) *	2012-10-08	2016-07-19	Pearson Medical Technologies, Llc	Pill packaging machine
JP6397836B2 (ja) *	2016-02-04	2018-09-26	Ckd株式会社	ピックアップ装置及びブリスタ包装機

Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number	Priority date	Publication date	Assignee	Title
US3775941A (en) *	1972-02-10	1973-12-04	Pennwalt Corp	Article packaging machine
US4627225A (en) *	1984-05-02	1986-12-09	Josef Uhlmann Maschinenfabrik Gmbh & Co. Kg	Loading apparatus for a packaging machine for small products
US5737902A (en) *	1996-09-19	1998-04-14	Aylward Enterprises, Inc.	Apparatus and method for packaging pills
US5752368A (en) *	1995-08-23	1998-05-19	Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.	Medication filling apparatus
US7225597B1 (en) *	2005-12-23	2007-06-05	Qem, Inc.	Machine to automate dispensing of pills
US7779614B1 (en) *	2007-05-30	2010-08-24	Walgreen Co.	Method of loading a multi-dose blister card using intermediate blister cards
US7784244B2 (en) *	2007-08-13	2010-08-31	Mts Medication Technologies, Inc.	High speed automated filling of solid pharmaceutical product packaging via a conveyor system
US20110036644A1 (en) *	2009-08-16	2011-02-17	Mahmoud Razzaghi	Pill counter
US8271128B1 (en) *	2008-07-30	2012-09-18	Kirby Lester, Llc	Pharmacy workflow management system including plural counters

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Publication number	Priority date	Publication date	Assignee	Title
CH628847A5 (en) *	1977-05-26	1982-03-31	Bosch Gmbh Robert	Apparatus for feeding and inserting hard-gelatine capsules or oblong sugar-coated pills
IT1273854B (it) *	1994-12-16	1997-07-11	Ima Spa	Sistema per l'alimetazione di articoli negli alveoli di un nastro alveolato
IT1310483B1 (it) *	1999-09-21	2002-02-18	Ima Spa	Dispositivo per l' alimentazione di compresse e simili in una macchina confezionatrice.
DE102004049560B4 (de) *	2004-10-12	2006-08-31	Mediseal Gmbh	Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Einlegen von Tabletten in die Höfe einer tiefgezogenen Bodenfolie
US7426814B2 (en)	2005-12-23	2008-09-23	Qem, Inc.	Method of dispensing pills from a movable platen
US7510099B2 (en)	2005-12-23	2009-03-31	Qem, Inc.	Cassette for dispensing pills
US8200366B2 (en) *	2008-08-06	2012-06-12	Walgreen Co.	Method and system for determining a volume-based fill pattern of a multi-dose medicament container

2011
- 2011-03-08 US US13/583,590 patent/US20130042574A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2011-03-08 CA CA2792375A patent/CA2792375C/en active Active
- 2011-03-08 EP EP11752743.2A patent/EP2544950B1/en active Active
- 2011-03-08 AU AU2011226737A patent/AU2011226737B2/en active Active
- 2011-03-08 WO PCT/AU2011/000255 patent/WO2011109861A1/en active Application Filing
- 2011-03-08 ES ES11752743.2T patent/ES2611149T3/es active Active
- 2011-03-08 CN CN201180013323.9A patent/CN102803074B/zh active Active
2012
- 2012-08-21 ZA ZA2012/06286A patent/ZA201206286B/en unknown
2013
- 2013-05-20 HK HK13105885.2A patent/HK1178136A1/xx unknown

Patent Citations (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number	Priority date	Publication date	Assignee	Title
US3775941A (en) *	1972-02-10	1973-12-04	Pennwalt Corp	Article packaging machine
US4627225A (en) *	1984-05-02	1986-12-09	Josef Uhlmann Maschinenfabrik Gmbh & Co. Kg	Loading apparatus for a packaging machine for small products
US5752368A (en) *	1995-08-23	1998-05-19	Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.	Medication filling apparatus
US5737902A (en) *	1996-09-19	1998-04-14	Aylward Enterprises, Inc.	Apparatus and method for packaging pills
US7225597B1 (en) *	2005-12-23	2007-06-05	Qem, Inc.	Machine to automate dispensing of pills
US7779614B1 (en) *	2007-05-30	2010-08-24	Walgreen Co.	Method of loading a multi-dose blister card using intermediate blister cards
US8915051B1 (en) *	2007-05-30	2014-12-23	Walgreen Co.	Method of loading a multi-dose blister card using a transfer fixture
US7784244B2 (en) *	2007-08-13	2010-08-31	Mts Medication Technologies, Inc.	High speed automated filling of solid pharmaceutical product packaging via a conveyor system
US8271128B1 (en) *	2008-07-30	2012-09-18	Kirby Lester, Llc	Pharmacy workflow management system including plural counters
US20110036644A1 (en) *	2009-08-16	2011-02-17	Mahmoud Razzaghi	Pill counter

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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Title
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionaryhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/laterally Site Accessed: Jan 20, 2015 WayBack Accessed: Apr 25, 2009 *

Also Published As

Publication number	Publication date
HK1178136A1 (en)	2013-09-06
CA2792375A1 (en)	2011-09-15
ES2611149T3 (es)	2017-05-05
CA2792375C (en)	2017-08-22
CN102803074B (zh)	2015-05-20
AU2011226737A1 (en)	2012-09-06
EP2544950A1 (en)	2013-01-16
ZA201206286B (en)	2013-05-29
EP2544950A4 (en)	2013-09-04
CN102803074A (zh)	2012-11-28
AU2011226737B2 (en)	2016-12-15
WO2011109861A1 (en)	2011-09-15
EP2544950B1 (en)	2016-11-09

Legal Events

Date

Code

Title

Description

2012-09-10

AS

Assignment

Owner name: QEM INC, FLORIDA

Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:KNOTH, NORMAN D.;REEL/FRAME:028925/0556

Effective date: 20120820

Owner name: MANREX PTY. LTD., AUSTRALIA