Package making – Register control
Patent
1998-12-03
2000-08-29
Sipos, John
Package making
Register control
53282, 533294, 533744, 53559, B65B 5708, B65B 4700
Patent
active
06109000&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to machines for packaging pharmaceutical products, in particular tablets, capsules or pills, into packages commonly known as blister packs.
It is known that pharmaceutical products, such as tablets, capsules or pills are usually introduced individually into receptacles made in a heat-formable band, which is closed with a covering band, usually by heat-welding.
Afterwards, the blister band with the products and covering band is cut so as to obtain single portions, containing one or more receptacles, which are packaged in cases and delivered to be distributed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Until now, because of practicality and simplicity, the material used for covering band has been other than the heat-formable material from which the blister band was made and usually a sheet of aluminium has been used.
On the surface of the covering band destined to remain outside, there are written various notices, which must correspond to respective portions of the blister band, each of which contains the products of one package.
In order to obtain this correspondence, the covering band has printed thereon reference sings, which are read by an optical detector.
It is possible to act on the aluminium band tension to plastically change its length in predetermined parts on the grounds of the detector readings and prearranging the reference signs and notices relative to each package, suitably spaced.
This allows to restore the centring of the printed messages with respect to the relative packages, in case it is lost.
Following the necessity to use materials less and less harmful to the environment, substances like polypropylene, with high degree of biodegradability, have been used.
Polypropylene has been used for the production of blister band already for some time and the problems resulting from its high behaviour which varies in relation to different temperatures to which it is subjected as well as from some of its composition characteristics, have been settled by various solutions.
The use of different materials for blister band and covering band creates difficulties in subsequent disposal of scraps, including residues and wastes left after the packages production, because the two different materials should be separated before their recycling.
These difficulties would not be overcome but eliminated by producing packages using only one material for both bands.
However, it is difficult to connect the covering band to the blister band using the present techniques.
In fact, immediate heating of the covering band to the softening temperature, which allows its heat-welding, causes cracking of the material, which having become fragile as the result of rapid heating, gives way to mechanical stresses deriving from the joining to the blister band operation.
In particular, this results from the fact that polypropylene can be treated and manipulated without jeopardising its structure only within a very limited temperature range with respect to other thermoplastic materials.
Therefore, it becomes difficult to heat the covering band to the welding temperature within usual heating step time, because it is not possible to use heating means with operation temperature higher than the temperature range allowed by the material.
The solution of this problem, proposed by the present invention, consists in gradual pre-heating of the covering band carried out in a first step and then its definitive heating up to the necessary temperature carried out in a subsequent step.
In this way, it is possible to reach an advantageous compromise between the temperature difference between the band and heating means, and the period of time necessary to reach the heat-welding temperature.
As a matter of fact, the reduction of the temperature obtained by the heating means has been compensated by lengthening of space, in which the band is heated.
However, also this technique presents different substantial problems, the first of which derives from the material lengthening during the pre-heating step, be
REFERENCES:
patent: 3126431 (1964-03-01), Harder
patent: 3294301 (1966-12-01), Richter
patent: 3411767 (1968-11-01), Moser
patent: 3555768 (1971-01-01), Miller
patent: 3589095 (1971-06-01), James
patent: 3815322 (1974-06-01), Wyslotsky
I.M.A. - Industria Macchine Automatiche - S.p.A.
Sapone, Esq William J.
Sipos John
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