Installation For Filling Packaging Units With Medicaments For Patients According To The Prescribed Weekly Requirements

• US 20080190076A1
• Filed: 01/03/2005
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Edwin Kohl
• Original Assignee: Edwin Kohl
• Inventors: Kohl, Edwin, Klingel, Hans
• Granted Patent: US 7,637,079 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 53/493
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 1/035 Blister-type containers blisters in general B65D75/36
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/04 Arrangements for time indication or reminder for taking medicine, e.g. programmed dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/103 for packaging pills or tablets
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 57/06 and operating to control, or to stop, the feed of articles or material to be packaged

Abstract

The invention relates to an installation for filling weekly blister packs, i.e. packaging units (11), with doses of different medicaments corresponding to the weekly requirements of several patients and to be taken by the respective patient in a certain order according to the day of the week and the time of the day, according to a doctor'"'"'s prescription. Said installation is provided with output stations (19) associates with the medicaments, for automatically filling all or selected compartments (12) line-by-line. A longitudinal transport device (14) is used to sequentially transport the weekly blister packs to the output stations (16) that are individually associated with the different medicaments. The medicament doses are supplied to the output stations by means of transversal transport devices (17) individually associated with the medicaments. The longitudinal transport device and the transversal transport devices are co-ordinated in terms of transport course and transport capacity, in such a way that for each transport course of the weekly blister pack (11), in the direction of the gaps of the receiving compartment arrangement, and for each transport course of the transversal transport devices, in the linear direction of the receiving compartment arrangement, the receiving compartments (12) can be filled sequentially line-by-line, during synchronised stationary phases of the blister pack and medicament transport cycles. In order to control the output stations (16) in such a way as to fill the weekly blister pack with the prescribed medicament, an electronic control unit (41) processes information about patients, said information being continuously supplied to said unit in such a way that it is synchronised with the blister pack advancing movements.

Claims

1. Arrangement for filling packaging units with a plurality of medicaments, which in each case correspond to the weekly requirements of a plurality of different patients who have to take these medicaments in an ordered sequence according to date (day of the week) and time of day (morning, midday, evening, night time) corresponding to a patient-related medical prescription, in which the packaging units have receiving compartments for the medicament administration units—

capsules, tablets, pills—

arranged in a matrix configuration of lines and columns, which medicaments have to be taken in each case within the time spans of the respective patient identified by the arrangement of the compartments within the matrix, with the following features,

a) delivery stations individually associated with the packaging units are provided, at which a line-by-line filling of all or only a proportion of selected compartments automatically takes place;

b) a longitudinal transporting device is provided, by means of which the packaging units can be transported in a predetermined direction sequentially to the delivery station associated individually with the various medicaments;

c) the feed of the medicament administration units to the delivery stations takes place by means of transverse conveying devices individually associated with the medicaments;

d) the longitudinal transporting device and the transverse conveying devices are matched to one another as regards transporting stroke and conveying capacity so that a sequential line-by-line filling of the receiving compartments can be achieved per transporting stroke of the packaging units in the column direction of the receiving compartment arrangement, and per conveying stroke of the transverse conveying devices in the line direction of the receiving compartment arrangement, the said filling taking place in each case in synchronised stoppage phases of the longitudinal transporting and transverse conveying cycles;

e) to control the delivery stations within the context of the medical prescription-oriented filling of the packaging units with medicaments, an electronic control unit is provided that generates the necessary control signals in this respect by processing information signals that contain information on the patients and on the contents of the packaging units associated in each case with the latter, which signals are continuously passed to the control unit in a sequence unambiguously associated with the patient and synchronised with the forward feed movements of the packaging units, wherein the administration units are delivered to the respective delivery stations by means of blister strips unwound from a storage roll.

2. Filling arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that within a spatially defined configuration relating to the packaging units, data carriers associated with the latter are provided, which contain the patient-related data in machine-readable form.

3. Filling arrangement according to claim 2, characterised in that reading stations for the data carriers of the packaging units are provided at the delivery stations and are integrated in the latter.

4. Filling arrangement according to claim 2, characterised in that the reading station provided for a delivery station, seen in the transporting direction of the packaging units, is arranged at a delivery station arranged upstream of the delivery station to be controlled.

5. Filling arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that the packaging units have printable areas on which label-type information, in particular on the procedures occurring at the delivery station, can be printed by means of printing devices associated, preferably individually, with the delivery stations.

6. Filling arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that the administration units—

tablets, capsules, pills—

are arranged equidistantly on the blister strips that are wound on the storage roll and can be withdrawn from the latter, that transporting drives for the transverse conveyance of the blister strips are arranged between the storage rolls and the delivery stations, and that the delivery stations, seen in the transporting direction of the blister strips, have ejection units arranged in succession one after the other, by means of which the medicaments can be ejected from the blister wells and delivered into the receiving compartments of the packaging units.

7. Filling arrangement according to claim 6, characterised in that the interspacing Lp of ejection units adjacent to one another corresponds to an integral multiple of the interspacing Ip of adjacent blister wells of the respective blister strip.

8. Filling arrangement according to claim 6, characterised in that the ejection units are designed as pneumatic linear cylinders.

9. Filling arrangement according to claim 8, characterised in that piston rods projecting from the housing of the pneumatic cylinders are provided with tappet heads that have an approximately concave shape complementary to that of the medicaments to be ejected.

10. Filling arrangement according to claim 6, characterised in that the blister strips have edge strips running preferably on both sides of a strip-shaped middle region in which the blister wells are arranged, the said edge strips being engaged by the drive devices.

11. Filling arrangement according to claim 10, characterised in that U-shaped guide elements that at least in sections surround the edge strips of the blister strips are provided for the transportation guidance of the latter, the said guide elements providing an interlocking guidance of the blister strips on both sides of drive devices.

12. Filling arrangement according to claim 10, characterised in that the clear distance of the mutually parallel guide arms, of the U-shaped profiles is less than double the thickness of the edge strips of the blister strips.

13. Filling arrangement according to claim 6, characterised in that the blister strips have plastics strips forming the wells for the medicaments, as well as flexularly elastic cover strips covering the well openings, which cover strips are provided in the region of the openings with embossings and/or perforations and/or narrow slits to facilitate the ejection of the medicaments.

14. Filling arrangement according to claim 13, characterised in that the embossings and/or slits have a H-shaped configuration, in which covering wings staggered with respect to one another by means of a transverse slit and staggered with respect to the edge strips of the blister strip by longitudinal slits, form cover flaps that open and close again in the manner of a pair of double doors.

15. Filling arrangement according to claim 6, characterised in that a guide for a movable cover strip is arranged at a vertical distance (h) from the blister strip guide, at a level running parallel thereto between the blister strips and the transporting guide for the packaging unit, which cover strip is likewise provided with embossings, perforations or slits facilitating the release of passage openings, as well as with a device for actuating the opening of cover flaps bordered by such embossings, perforations and/or slits.

16. Filling arrangement according to claim 15, characterised in that the cover strip arranged at the intermediate level has the same periodicity length Lp as the blister strip, and is independently further transported per delivery cycle that takes place at the respective delivery station, after completion of the cycle, by a defined stretch, preferably by a step corresponding to the periodicity length Lp.

17. Filling arrangement according to claim 15, characterised in that L-shaped or T-shaped release elements that can swivel by at least 90°

are provided, which can be swivelled from a base position, in which vertical passage channels of a housing block that extend between the blister strip and the guide for the cover strip are released, into a position in which these channels are blocked and the medicaments are delivered into the compartments of the respective packaging unit arranged underneath the cover strip.

18. Filling arrangement according to claim 17, characterised in that a device is provided for a common opening actuation of the release elements.

19. Filling arrangement according to claim 6, characterised in that as drives for the transverse conveyance of the blister strips pairs of rollers are provided, which are supported on at least one of the edge strips of the blister strip in a manner engaging with drive rollers and sliding rollers on the respective edge strip, and by force closure and/or self-closure effect the conversion of drive force into forward movement.

20. Filling arrangement according to claim 19, characterised in that drive elements are provided that are shaped in the manner of toothed pinions with smooth curved teeth, which on account of the elasticity of the blister material engage in an interlocking manner with the latter.

21. Filling arrangement according to claim 6, characterised in that in order to determine the path of the blister strips incremental path transmitters are provided, which count successively covered path sections of equal length.

22. Filling arrangement according to claim 6, characterised in that position transmitters detecting edge markings of the blister strips are provided, which by means of their output signals display a defined position of the respective blister strip.

23. Filling arrangement according to claim 21, characterised in that cutting or stamping devices for producing the edge markings are provided, which are arranged at a defined distance from the delivery station in the region of the blister guide devices.

24. Filling arrangement according to claim 22, characterised in that, seen in the transporting direction of the blister strips, in each case at least one marking device is provided on this side of the delivery station, and at least one marking device is arranged on the other side of the delivery station.

25. Filling arrangement according to claim 24, characterised in that, seen in the transporting direction of the respective blister strip, a cutting station for separating the emptied end section of the blister strip is arranged on the far side of the delivery station.

26. Filling arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that sensor devices are provided that check whether medicaments are present, and detectors are provided that recognise that medicaments have been delivered.

27. Filling arrangement according to claim 26, characterised in that the detection of medicaments in the respective delivery station takes place at the intermediate level, which is marked by the arrangement of the transportable cover strip, which covers in a controllably releasable manner the receiving compartments of the respective transporting sheet.

28. Filling arrangement according to claim 26, characterised in that, seen in the transporting direction of the blister strip, sensors and/or detectors recognising the presence of medicaments in the blister wells are provided on the near side and far side of the delivery stations.

29. Filling arrangement according to claim 22, characterised in that the sensors and/or the detectors are formed as light barriers.

30. Filling arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that at least two delivery stations are provided for medicaments whose statistical requirement is significantly higher than the average requirement.

31. Filling arrangement according to claim 30, characterised in that a plurality of delivery stations provided for the same medicament are in each case arranged immediately adjacent to one another.

32. Filling arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that two—

parallel—

transporting systems are provided for packaging units, in which for statistically relatively infrequently required medicaments two delivery stations associated with the individual systems are arranged next to one another and can be supplied by means of a common transverse conveying device, whereas an individual transverse conveying device for supplying medicaments is associated with each of the statistically more commonly required medicaments.

33. Filling arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that the longitudinal transportation of the packaging units takes place in groups, in which the packaging units making up a group are moved with the same transporting speed or with the same step sizes, though these speeds or step sizes may be different, and free buffer zones are provided between successive groups of packaging units, which permit the relative movement of the groups adjacent to one another.

34. Filling arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that the packaging units provided for accommodating the medicaments each have a thermoformed part forming the receiving compartments, which part is fabricated by a thermoforming station forming the first workstation of a transporting stretch of the filling arrangement and can be transported from there to the delivery stations of the arrangement, possibly after necessary post treatment.