Special receptacle or package – For eyeglass or spectacle – Contact lens
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-30
2001-07-03
Foster, Jim (Department: 3728)
Special receptacle or package
For eyeglass or spectacle
Contact lens
C053S396000, C206S461000, C493S073000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06253912
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method for separating packages, especially blister packages, that are initially interconnected with a strip or sheet of lidstock material.
A conventional manner of packaging various items, including contact lenses, is in so-called “blister packages”. Such packages include a recess designed to hold the item, and the recess is covered with lidstock. In the case of contact lenses, the recess is typically designed to hold an individual lens, with the lens usually being immersed in a saline solution. The packages are then enclosed and sealed with a lidstock, one example being a flexible laminate including a layer of a metal such as aluminum. Frequently, multiple blister packages of contact lenses are then enclosed in a secondary carton, for example, a paperboard box designed to hold a predetermined number of blister packages in a predetermined arrangement.
In manufacturing and assembling packages, it may be desirable to enclose several packages with the same strip or sheet of lidstock, following by severing the lidstock at predetermined locations so to divide the packages and lidstock into smaller segments. One manner of severing the lidstock is with a cutting knife. The present invention provides an improved method of separating the lidstock interconnecting multiple packages that does not rely on a cutting knife.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention provides a method and apparatus for separating packages that are connected to a common sheet of lidstock, such as contact lens blister packages. The invention provides a tray comprising a generally planar member having a top surface with depressions formed therein, wherein each depression is adapted to receive a respective bottom portion of one of the packages, and wherein at least two adjacent depressions terminate at the top surface in tapered annular recesses having different tapers. The respective bottom portions of the packages are pressed into the at least two apertures in the tray to sever the lidstock between the packages.
According to various embodiments, the tray comprises at least two rows of depressions, the depressions in one row terminating in a tapered annular recess having a first taper, and the depressions in the second row termination in a tapered annular recess having a second taper. The annular recesses preferably have a frustoconical shape or a partial frustum shape, and the depressions may extend through the generally planar member to form apertures therein. The adjacent depressions are offset from one another by a different degree than the offset between respective packages that are intended to be separated. For those packages that are not intended to be separated, their respective depressions have the same offset as those packages. The lidstock may include perforated lines, or some other line of weakness, between the adjacent packages to be separated.
According to other embodiments, the tray comprises at least three depressions arranged in a side-by-side arrangement, where each of the at least three depressions terminate at the top surface in tapered annular recesses having different tapers. The depressions may be arranged in at least three rows arranged in a side-by-side arrangement, and each row of depressions has a different taper than an adjacent row of depressions. The lidstock is severed along lines, which are preferably perforated, between these rows.
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patent: 6023916 (2000-02-01), Bouthiette
patent: 6155423 (2000-12-01), Katzner et al.
Cardiff John
O'Neill Trevor
Bausch & Lomb Incorporated
Foster Jim
Thomas John E.
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