Supports: racks – Special article – Article includes elongated portion
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-09
2001-07-31
Chin-Shue, Alvin (Department: 3634)
Supports: racks
Special article
Article includes elongated portion
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267256
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to various cooperating devices for storing lipped or winged articles, especially cylindrical articles such as syringes.
Many containers for liquids, particularly those made from glass, are, by virtue of their purpose, of such a shape that they are not easily storable and as such many are often broken or damaged during processing—filling, quality control, labelling and packaging for example.
Glass syringes, in particular, suffer from these disadvantages. Furthermore, they also have protruding glass wings which can easily crack under shock, and are often supplied with a needle attached which can bend under pressure.
For sterilisation processes, it has been proposed to secure one or more rows of syringes to stainless steel rail-trays, supporting the wings on the rails. These rail-trays can subsequently be used to support the syringes during filling.
In another conventional technique, glass syringes may be vertically stored and filled whilst resting in a hole and being supported by its wings. Generally, a number of syringes are supported in a matrix of holes in a nest held in a tub formed from plastics material (for example, the Becton-Dickinson SCF system). Once filled with the appropriate liquid, the syringes to be inspected individually for particulate contamination, which for careful examination necessitates removal of the syringe from the nest.
Syringe bodies may also be stored and removed from nests for operations such as insertion of plungers, labelling and final packing.
Automated removal requires either grasping of the syringe from above by a robot and thereby risking cracking the glass, or pushing of the needle from below and thereby risking damage to the needle. As such it is preferable for this removal and replacement to be carried out manually. As a result of this fragility, on production lines where syringes are filled and packaged it is difficult to achieve a throughput of greater than 6000 syringes per man hour in removing syringes from the nest and just 4000 per man hour in replacing syringes.
As the filling, insertion of the syringe plunger, labelling and packaging processes occur at differing rates either the whole process runs as a single continuous process, running at the rate of the slowest individual procedure, or the syringes must be removed from the tub, processed and then returned to the tub for intermediate storage at every stage in the production of a filled syringe. These different operations may be carried out at different locations of a production facility. All this results in further opportunities for the occurrence of damage to the syringe or needle during transfer.. It is therefore preferred to run the whole process as a single continuous procedure. However, this results in a further problem in that whenever an individual procedure comes to a standstill, due to a machine breaking down for example, the whole process is also stopped. Alternatively complex buffer devices, such as spiral racks, are needed to absorb continuous production.
There is a need therefore for the development of a system whereby glass syringes can be conveniently stored and moved from one process to another with a reduced risk of damage thereto, with the system being of low cost (for example by using injection moulding) and requiring a reduced labour involvement.
The present invention is based on the use of a support rack for storage of lipped or winged articles, especially cylindrical articles such as syringes. The support rack comprises a plurality of elongate fingers connected together at one end by a spine member, the fingers thereby defining parallel support channels open at one end. The articles are located in the channels with their lips or wings resting on the elongate fingers.
The support rack itself forms one aspect of this invention.
Generally the fingers extend from one side only of the spine. Therefore the support rack typically has a generally comb-like appearance with the teeth of the comb defining the open-ended channels.
The articles may be placed in the channels from above as in existing nest systems, or more preferably by sliding through the open end of each channel. The articles rest in the channels with their lips or wings supported by the fingers (or teeth).
The support rack is better adapted than existing systems for cooperation with automated machinery since it can receive articles into the channels by a horizontal translation movement, readily provided by a simple pushing device.
The“comb” may be conveniently moulded in one piece from plastics material, such as polystyrene.
In another aspect of the invention the support rack may be provided with a support body or cradle to allow a support rack to be stored with articles loaded thereon in a generally upright fashion. The cradle comprises a base having extending upwardly therefrom means for supporting the “comb”. The comb is supported above the base so as to allow articles such as syringes to hang via their wings or lips supported on the fingers of the comb, without the articles contacting the base. The supporting means may be in the form of a plurality of support posts, preferably including a post under the end of each elongate finger in order to keep their positions steady during the various operations such as loading and unloading. Preferably the support posts are disposed around the periphery of the base.
In a further aspect of the invention, for transfer of the comb, there may be provided a carrying handle comprising a handle portion and two or more comb-engaging means. This allows for safe transfer of loaded comb between cradle and storage box. Typically, two engaging means cooperate respectively with opposed ends of the comb, preferably the spine and the free ends of the fingers. Preferably at least one of the engaging means is movable by a pivoting or sliding motion between a first position wherein the engaging means engage the comb; and a second position wherein the engaging means are out of engagement with the comb. The engaging means may include a flange to support the comb from the underside face thereof, or may have projections that cooperate with recesses provided in the outer-facing edges of the spine member and elongate fingers. A grip may be provided on the carrying handle to allow the comb to be lifted by means of the handle when the engaging means engage the comb.
In a yet further aspect of the present invention there is provided a storage box comprising a base portion and a cover portion at least one of which portions has an internal shelf or ledge having a plurality of projections extending therefrom, the projections in use, engaging the open end of the comb channels to -restrain the fingers from lateral movement; and wherein the base portion and cover portion cooperate to restrain vertical movement of the comb. When syringes have been previously stored using the Becton-Dickinson SCF system, the base portion may conveniently be an existing or conventional Becton-Dickinson tub, so that the channel-engaging protrusions are provided in the cover portion.
In another aspect the present invention provides apparatus for transferring syringes to and from a storage rack comprising:
a loading channel for receiving syringes from or for a processing operation,
means for transporting a syringe support rack of this invention to a position where an end channel of the support rack is in alignment with the loading channel,
means for urging syringes from the loading channel into the support rack channel or vice versa,
means for indexing the transporting means to bring the next free support rack channel into alignment with the loading channel.
In transfer of syringes into a support rack, preferably a counter is provided so that syringes can be retained in the loading channel when a rack channel has been filled and indexing is taking place. Therefore in a preferred embodiment, the apparatus includes:
means for counting syringes entering the loading channel,
means for preventing syringes leaving the loading channel until a predetermined number of syringes are in the channel,
Chin-Shue Alvin
Kerekes Zoltan
Kinzig Charles M.
Purol Sarah
SmithKline Beecham Biologicals, sa
LandOfFree
Storage devices does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Storage devices, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Storage devices will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2552975