Receptacles – Horizontally attached receptacle sets – Detachable
Patent
1999-02-22
2000-09-12
Foster, Jim
Receptacles
Horizontally attached receptacle sets
Detachable
206526, 206820, 206538, B65D 102
Patent
active
061164496
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119 to Italian patent application MI96A001385 filed Jul. 5, 1996, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a strip of single dose or multiple dose containers for liquids, pastes or powders, for pharmaceutical, diagnostic, cosmetic or similar uses, made of plastic material by injection moulding and joined between themselves by removable couplings.
2. Discussion of the Background
Container strips of this type are well known and must be extensively adjusted before being placed on the market.
In particular, the containers of the strip are substantially tubular in shape, with one open end for the filling of the product. The moulded strips are placed in a hopper and transferred from there onto machines which supply the various functional groups which control, for example, the operations of transfer, filling, closing and welding of the containers, as well as packaging or alignment or boxing of bare strips or strips contained in packages and so on.
The individual containers of each strip are normally joined together by two series of fins or bridges: a series of fins set in an intermediate position along the containers and a series of fins set at level of the capped ends of the containers, provided with a plug obtained during moulding. The two series of fins are disposed in the plane containing the axes of the containers and are provided with weakening creases or pre-fracture lines which allow the separation of the individual containers during use. The containers are opened at the far end by twisting the plug.
The biggest problem which occurs with these strips of containers is that due to a lack of rigidity, they tend to get entangled, to overlap, to become deformed or to break, either during filling, positioning into the machine, or during the various manufacturing steps. To try to overcome these difficulties, EP-B-0 326 529 proposes a container strip in which: individual containers have arrow shaped pre-fracture lines, or are at least, diverging with respect to the axes of the containers; butts disposed at right angle to the plane occupied by the fins, aligned between themselves and having a width less, or at the most, equal to the thickness of the containers; the intermediate, transverse butts are connected on both sides to the respective end fins by one or more triangular ribs; the terminal fins are deeper to have a greater width and are provided with external ribs as wide as the transverse butts, tapered towards the area of the weakening creases; cylindrical thickening.
This solution has been adopted particularly to reduce the possibility of entangling and overlapping of the strips.
However, the solution proposed in EP-326 529 does not completely solve these problems, as the strips of containers leaving the injection press while they are still hot, tend to bend and are consequently still subject to overlapping and entanglement during the successive operations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to eliminate these disadvantages in proposing a strip of containers which has sufficient rigidity to resist bending of the plane passing through the axes of the containers and consequently of overcoming the problems of entanglement and overlapping of the containers during the successive operations.
Another object of the invention is to provide a strip of containers of the type described above, which will allow the easy removal of the individual containers when required for use.
A further object of the invention is to provide a strip of containers which will be easy to injection mould with a consequent lowering of costs.
The main object of the invention is reached with the characteristics listed in the annexe, independent claim 1.
The other objects and advantageous applications of the invention appear in the dependent claims.
Substantially, the solution proposed by the invention to increase rigidity
REFERENCES:
patent: 3221939 (1965-12-01), Brown
patent: 4469254 (1984-09-01), Hansen
patent: 4512475 (1985-04-01), Federighi
Chiesi Paolo
De Salvo Ross
Del Corno Marco
Tagliapietra Luigi
Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.
Foster Jim
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