Drug packaging machine

• US 5,839,257 A
• Filed: 04/21/1997
• Issued: 11/24/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Yuyama Seisakusho, ArXium, Inc. (Van Humbeck Family)
• Original Assignee: AutoMed Technologies Incorporated (Cencora, Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Yuyama Seisakusho
• Inventors: Shultz, David A., Soderstrom, Jan, Kitai, Ryuji, Honda, Shinichi, Hamada, Hiroyasu
• Primary Examiner(s): JOHNSON, LINDA B
• Application Number:
  US08/845,237
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: 53/131.5, 53/168, 53/550, 53/562, 53/411, 53/450
• US Class Current: 53/411
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 61/26 for marking or coding completed packages
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 9/087 the web advancing continuously

Abstract

A drug packaging machine which can provide patients with information of any drug which cannot be packaged in a drug bag if prescribed drugs include such a drug. If prescribed drugs include a drug which cannot be packaged in a drug bag, an empty bag is formed at a position corresponding to the order in which this particular drug is to be taken, and the data for taking this particular drug is printed on the empty bag. A patient can thus take all of his or her necessary drugs simply by following the order in which the drug bags are series-connected.

Claims

1. A drug packaging machine comprising:

means for forming a plurality of bags in series from a packaging sheet;

a distinguishing means for distinguishing between a first type of prescribed drugs which can be packaged in the bags and a second type of prescribed drugs which cannot be packaged in the bags;

a drug dispenser for dispensing prescribed drugs into the bags;

a printer for printing drug taking data on said bags; and

a control means for controlling said dispenser and said printer in order to dispense the first type of drugs into predetermined ones of said bags in an order in which the first type of drugs are to be taken, and to form at least one empty bag at a position corresponding to the order in which said second type of drugs are to be taken by not dispensing any drug into the empty bag, to print, on said predetermined ones of said bags, drug taking data regarding said first type of drugs dispensed into each of said predetermined ones of said bags, and to print drug taking data regarding said second type of drugs on said empty bag.

2. A drug packaging machine comprising:

a bag forming device for forming a plurality of bags in series from a packaging sheet;

a drug dispenser for dispensing prescribed drugs into the bags;

a printer for printing predetermined data on the bags; and

a control means for controlling said dispenser and said printer in order to dispense drugs into predetermined ones of said bags in a prescribed order of taking the drugs, to form at least one empty bag by not dispensing any drug into at least one of said bags, and to print, on said predetermined ones of said bags, drug taking data regarding the drugs in each of said predetermined ones of said bags, and to print one of an advertisement and billing data on said empty bag.

3. A method of packaging drugs in a series of connected bags in accordance with a prescription, said method comprising:

distinguishing between a first type of drugs and a second type of drugs, wherein said first type of drugs can be packaged in a bag and said second type of drugs cannot be packaged in a bag;

forming a series of connected bags from a packaging sheet, wherein said plurality of bags includes a bag corresponding to each of said first type of drugs prescribed in said prescription and a bag corresponding to each of said second type of drugs prescribed in said prescription;

dispensing, in a prescribed order of taking, said first type of drugs into each bag which corresponds to said first type of drugs such that each bag which corresponds to said second type of drugs is an empty bag; and

printing drug taking data for each of said first and second types of drugs prescribed in said prescription on each of said corresponding bags.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising heat sealing said series of bags.