Installation for filling packaging units with medicaments for patients according to the prescribed weekly requirements

• US 7,637,079 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2005
• Issued: 12/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Edwin Kohl
• Original Assignee: Edwin Kohl
• Inventors: Kohl, Edwin, Klingel, Hans
• Primary Examiner(s): GERRITY, STEPHEN FRANCIS
• Application Number:
  US11/568,303
• Publication Number:
  US 20080190076A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,821 Days
• Field of Search: 532/37, 532/38, 532/40, 532/46, 532/48, 53250-252, 531/312, 531/313, 53 55- 58, 531/54, 531/55, 535/39, 535/43, 533/811, 533/812, 535/59, 535/61
• US Class Current: 53/55
• 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

An installation for filling weekly blister packs, i.e. packaging units, 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. The installation is provided with output stations associated with the medicaments, for automatically filling all or selected compartments line-by-line. In order to control the output stations in such a way as to fill the weekly blister pack with the prescribed medicament, an electronic control unit processes information about patients, the information being continuously supplied to the unit in such a way that it is synchronized with the blister pack advancing movements.

Claims

1. An arrangement for filling packaging units with a plurality of medicaments, that correspond to the weekly requirements of a plurality of different patients who take these medicaments in an ordered sequence according to date and time of day corresponding to a patient-related medical prescription, in which the packaging units have receiving compartments for medicament administration units arranged in a matrix configuration of lines and columns, which medicaments are prescribed to each be taken within time spans of the respective patient identified by the arrangement of the compartments within the matrix, the arrangement including;

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

b) a longitudinal transporting device to transport the packaging units in a predetermined direction sequentially to the delivery station of the plurality of delivery stations associated individually with the various medicaments;

c) transverse conveying devices individually associated with the medicaments to effect the feed of the medicament administration units to the delivery stations;

d) a matching of the longitudinal transporting device and the transverse conveying devices 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 synchronized stoppage phases of the longitudinal transporting and transverse conveying cycles; and

e) an electronic to control the delivery stations within the context of the medical prescription-oriented filling of the packaging units with medicaments, the electronic control unit structured to generate control signals from input information signals that contain information about the patients and about the contents of the packaging units which signals are continuously passed to the control unit in a sequence unambiguously associated with the patient and synchronized 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 1 in which, within a spatially defined configuration relating to the packaging units, data carriers are provided, which contain the patient-related data in machine-readable form.

3. A filling arrangement according to claim 2 in which reading stations for the data carriers of the packaging units are provided at the delivery stations.

4. A filling arrangement according to claim 3 in which 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 1 in which the packaging units have printable areas on which label-type delivery station procedure information can be printed by printing devices associated, with individual one of the delivery stations.

6. A filling arrangement according to claim 1 in which the administration units are in the form of tablets, capsules, and pills, and are arranged equidistantly on the blister strips that are wound on the storage roll, in which transporting drive devices for the transverse conveyance of the blister strips are arranged between the storage rolls and the delivery stations, and in which the delivery stations, seen in the transporting direction of the blister strips, have ejection units arranged in succession one after the other, by which the medicaments can be ejected from the blister wells and delivered into the receiving compartments of the packaging units.

7. A filling arrangement according to claim 6 in which an 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 6 in which the ejection units are designed as pneumatic linear cylinders.

9. A filling arrangement according to claim 8 in which piston rods projecting from respective 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 6 in which the blister strips have edge strips running 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 10 in which U-shaped guide elements that at least in sections surround the edge strips of the blister strips are provided for transportation guidance, the guide elements providing an interlocking guidance of the blister strips on both sides of drive devices.

12. A filling arrangement according to claim 11 in which the U-shaped guide elements have mutually parallel guide arms and the distance between the guide arms is less than double the thickness of the edge strips of the blister strips.

13. A filling arrangement according to claim 6 in which 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 13 in which the embossings and/or slits have an H-shaped configuration, in which covering wings, staggered with respect to one another by 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.

15. A filling arrangement according to claim 6 in which a guide for a movable cover strip is arranged at a vertical distance (h) from a 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 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 the embossings, perforations and/or slits.

16. A filling arrangement according to claim 15 in which 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, corresponding to the periodicity length Lp.

17. A filling arrangement according to claim 15 in which L-shaped or T-shaped release elements that can swivel by at least 90°

are provided in a housing block, the release elements able to be swivelled from a base position in which vertical passage channels of the 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 17 in which a device is provided for a common opening actuation of the release elements.

19. A filling arrangement according to claim 6 in which drive for the transverse conveyance of the blister strip comprises pair of roller which are supported on at least one of the edge strip 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 19 in which drive elements are provided that include toothed pinions with smooth curved teeth, which on account of an elasticity of the blister material engage in an interlocking manner.

21. A filling arrangement according to claim 6 in which, 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 6 in which position transmitters detecting edge markings of the blister strips are provided, that outline a defined position of the respective blister strip.

23. A filling arrangement according to claim 21 in which cutting or stamping devices for producing the edge markings are provided, which are arranged at a defined distance from the delivery station proximate the blister guide devices.

24. A filling arrangement according to claim 22 in which, seen in the transporting direction of the blister strips, in each case at least one marking device is provided on a first side of the delivery station, and at least one marking device is arranged on a second side of the delivery station.

25. A filling arrangement according to claim 24 in which, 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 a far side of the delivery station.

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

27. A filling arrangement according to claim 26 in which detection of medicaments in the respective delivery station takes place at an intermediate level, which is marked by the arrangement of a transportable cover strip, which covers in a controllably releasable manner the receiving compartments of the respective packaging units.

28. A filling arrangement according to claim 26 in which, 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 a near side and a far side of the delivery stations.

29. Filling arrangement according to claim 28 in which the sensors and/or the the detectors are formed as light barriers.

30. A filling arrangement according to claim 1 in which at least two delivery stations are provided for at least one of the medicaments.

31. A filling arrangement according to claim 30 in which a plurality of delivery stations provided for the same medicament are arranged immediately adjacent to one another.

32. A filling arrangement according to claim 1 in which two parallel transporting systems are provided for packaging units, in which, for a first type of medicament, two delivery stations associated with the individual systems are arranged next to one another and are supplied by a common transverse conveying device.

33. A filling arrangement according to claim 1 in which a 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. A filling arrangement according to claim 1 in which 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 a first workstation of a transporting stretch of the filling arrangement and can be transported from there to the delivery stations of the arrangement.