Blister pack scanner device

• US 5,555,707 A
• Filed: 02/18/1994
• Issued: 09/17/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Novartis Ag)
• Original Assignee: Hans O. Schwenger
• Inventors: Schwenger, Hans O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coan, James F.
• Application Number:
  US08/198,728
• Time in Patent Office: 942 Days
• Field of Search: 53/53, 53/54, 53/52, 53/493, 53/495, 53/494, 53/507, 53/508, 209/936, 209/643
• US Class Current: 53/493
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 57/16 and operating to stop, or to control the speed of, the machine as a whole
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 57/18 causing operation of audible or visible alarm signals

Abstract

A blister pack scanning device for detection and removal of overfilled or defective pharmaceutical blister packs is comprised of a photoelectric LED transmitter and sensor with a scanning beam channel bar disposed therebetween. The blister pack web is passed below the bar through a space precisely equivalent to the thickness of a properly filled blister. Overfilled or improperly molded blisters will contact a beveled edge of the bar as the web passes thereunder and the lateral movement forces the bar and its two end plates which are in juxtaposition to the transmitter and receiver respectively, to move upward, thereby interfering with the beams transmission. The interference created thereby shuts off the blister production machine and sounds an alarm for removal of the defective package.

Claims

1. A blister pack photoelectric laser sensor device for the detection of overfilled and defective blister cavities comprising:

a) a housing base;

b) a laser transmitter disposed at one end thereon;

c) a photoelectric sensor disposed opposite said transmitter for receiving a laser signal therefrom, and;

d) a scanner beam interference bar disposed between said transmitter and said sensor, said interference bar comprising a centrally grooved top surface for alignment of said laser beam, a bottom surface and two end posts that elevate the bottom surface of said bar slightly above the housing base to allow a plastic polymer blister pack web to pass therethrough.

2. The sensor device of claim 1 wherein said scanner bar further comprises two plates secured to said end posts that partially cover the ends of the centrally grooved top surface in said scanner bar and are proximate to the transmitter and receiver, respectively.

3. The sensor device of claim 2 wherein said bottom surface of said scanner bar has two beveled edges along its length under which properly filled blister cavities pass.

4. The sensor device of claim 3 wherein the end posts of said scanner bar guide the plastic polymer blister web through the scanner.

5. The sensor device of claim 4 wherein said beveled edge of said bottom surface of the scanner bar contacts overfilled and defective blister cavities thereby urging the scanner bar upwards so that the end plates intersect and interfere with transmission of the laser beam.

6. The sensor device of claim 5 wherein the interference of the laser beam actuates an alarm and turns off a blister packaging machine.

7. The sensor device of claim 6 wherein said scanner beam interference bar further comprises a cover plate secured to the top thereof that partially or totally covers the central groove of the top surface.

8. A means for detecting defective blister packs containing pharmaceutical dosage forms using the photoelectric sensor device of claim 7.

9. The means of claim 8 wherein said pharmaceutical dosage form is selected from the group consisting of coated and uncoated tablets, capsules, caplets, gel caps, lozenges and mixtures thereof.