AU2009100522A4

AU2009100522A4 - Blister Package Stiffening

Info

Publication number: AU2009100522A4
Application number: AU2009100522A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Gerard Stevens
Original assignee: Manrex Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Manrex Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2009-05-28
Filing date: 2009-05-28
Publication date: 2009-08-06
Anticipated expiration: 2017-05-28
Also published as: EP2435334A4; AU2010251865A1; EP2435334B1; CA2763060C; HK1168335A1; AU2010251865B2; WO2010135766A1; ES2536550T3; CA2763060A1; US20120118782A1; MY159617A; CN102448845A; EP2435334A1; CN102448845B

Description

AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION INNOVATION PATENT Invention Title: .............. .............................................. BLISTER PACKAGE STIFFENING ................. .......................... ...................... . ................................... The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: * . . . ees ees.... . . . . .................................. ....... ..........I..................... ....... ................................................. (See within) 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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I ............... I BLISTER PACKAGE STIFFENING Field of the invention THIS INVENTION relates to enhancing the stiffness of a blister package and is more specifically concerned with a blister package having sealed blisters between which air 5 can pass by way of ducts extending between them. State of the art Patients required to take prescribed medication doses at pre-determined times of the day are often provided with a blister package containing the doses. The package is constructed from a transparent blister sheet having blisters which individually contain the 10 medication which the patient is required to take at a particular time on a particular day. The medication doses are held in the blisters by a frangible backing sheet, such as a thin metal foil. The blisters are transparent and have a relatively flexible front face so that finger pressure applied to the front face of a selected blister presses the doses inside it downwardly and against the backing sheet with sufficient force to cause it to rupture. 15 Such rupturing allows the doses to be released from the blister so that they can be collected for subsequent administration to the patient. Elderly patients and those having relatively weak fingers sometimes have difficulty in exerting enough thrust on the front face of the blister to push the medication doses within it against the backing sheet to rupture it. This problem is partially caused by compression 20 of a cushion of air held inside the blister resisting the downward movement of the front face of the blister. To overcome this difficulty we have created a new form of blister sheet which has pairs of parallel, narrow ducts communicating at their pairs of ends with respective blisters. An increase in air pressure inside one of the blisters is then dissipated by air flowing through the duct or ducts into one or more neighboring blisters which are 25 preferably designed to expand slightly to absorb the additional air. This new form of blister sheet is described and claimed in our co-pending patent-of-addition application No. filed on even date herewith.

It is customary practice to stiffen and protect a blister package loaded with medication doses. This may be achieved by covering the exposed surface of the package from which the blisters protrude, with a stiff panel made of plastics, card or some other material which will enhance the stiffness of the package to protect it from subsequent damage. 5 The panel may also be marked with legend to denote the times of day and the days of the week in which particular blisters are to be opened. Such marking cannot be easily carried out on the blister sheet itself. In some situations, such as in nursing homes, it is preferable to trap a loaded blister package inside a stiff plastics folder so that it can be easily accessed by authorized 10 personnel entrusted with the responsibility of administering the medication doses to a particular patient. However, if the patient is mobile it is usually more convenient to provide the patient with a light, cheap, easily-portable blister package which only has to be used once and is still strong enough to withstand normal day-to-day handling by the patient. 15 Object of the invention An object of this invention is to provide a blister sheet with a stiffening panel. The invention In accordance with the present invention a planar stiffening panel for placing against the face of a blister sheet from which the blisters protrude, has: a rectilinear array of windows 20 for the reception of respective blisters; strips separating the windows from one another; and, openings extending transversely across some of the strips for accommodating ducts formed on the sheet and extending between respective blisters to permit air to travel between them. Preferred features of the invention 25 The panel may be made from card or board or even plastics. Being planar it allows legend or other markings to be provided on its exposed face. As the panel can now lie 3 flush against the sheet it can be firmly secured to it throughout its area. Contact between the panel and the sheet is thus uniform and not impaired in any way by the existence of the ducts extending between the blisters. In the preferred arrangement the windows are rectangular and the openings are formed 5 between the shorter sides of the blisters flanking the two sides of the strip. Introduction to the drawings The invention will now be described in more detail, by way of example, with reference to the accompany drawings, in which: In the drawings 10 FIGURE 1 shows in plan a rectangular stiff card having a pressure adhesive layer on its hidden face covered by a removable slip which can be peeled off to expose the adhesive layer, the card displaying thin lines of severance which extend through the thickness of the card but do not extend through the slip; FIGURE 2 is a plan view of a stiffening panel formed when the adhesive layer is 15 removed from the card and which takes with it card portions which are not required in the stiffening panel; FIGURE 3 shows an unloaded blister strip having a rectilinear array of blisters and formed with pairs of parallel ducts which open at their ends into the cavities of respective blisters; and, 20 FIGURE 4 shows the combination of panel and blister sheet which is formed when the panel is pressed down to adhere onto coplanar lands of the blister sheet which extends around and between the blisters.

Description of preferred embodiment Figure 1 shows a rectangular stiff card I backed by a layer of a pressure-sensitive adhesive (not shown) which is covered by a protective cover slip (also not shown). The adhesive layer is pressure sensitive in the sense that when it is exposed to air by peeling 5 off the slip, it will adhere to virtually any surface onto which it is pressed without being heated. The card is slit through its thickness along closed outlines 3 which define separate portions 4 of the card which are not required. The remainder 5 of the card I provides the stiffening panel 6 having the shape shown in figure 2. The portions 4 comprise closed 10 bodies and remain adhering to the protective slip when it is peeled off the back of the card 1. The panel 6 is formed with a rectilinear array of windows 7 individually framed by thin unbroken strips 8 and interrupted strips 9 which are each formed with a central gap 10. One end-portion 11 of the panel is formed with a large window 11 for displaying 15 personal details of a patient together with the doses of medication which a doctor has prescribed and which are contained in the cavities of blisters of a blister sheet 20 shown in figure 3 and which is to be stiffened by the panel 6. The end portion 1 1 of the panel 6 is marked with a line 14 of small slits shown in figure 2 to facilitate its folding into two parts 15 and 16 which can be folded together beyond the 20end of the blister sheet to bring two holes 13 on each of the parts 15 and 16 into registration with one another. Slits 17 extending between the registering holes enable the panel with an adhering blister to be easily hung and removed from hooks (not shown). The unloaded blister sheet is shown in figure 3. It has a rectilinear array of rectangular blisters 21 positioned to match the positions of the windows of the panel and so shaped 25 that each blister can protrude through a respective window of the panel. Each pair of blisters have their cavities interconnected by a pair of parallel and relatively narrow ducts 22 which are formed between the blister sheet and its foil backing strip (not shown) These ducts are conveniently of the design described and claimed in our co-pending patent-of-addition application No. . Likewise the blister sheet may also be of the design described and claimed in said patent-of-addition application. After the cavities of the blister sheet have been loaded with doses of medication and 5 sealed, the stiffening panel 6 is placed over the blistered face of the blister sheet and pressed down so that the thin continuous strips 8 are pressed onto the coplanar lands of the blister sheet. The thin interrupted strips 9 are likewise pressed against the coplanar lands of the blister sheet so that the gaps 10 in the strips 9 provide channels through which the ducts 22 can pass in an unobstructed manner and without spoiling the flush 10 adherence of the stiffening panel 6 to the blister sheet 20. The result is a stiffened blister package which has the face of the stiffening panel 6 flush with the coplanar surface of the blister 20 sheet and the ducts 22 can pass between the blister cavities without risk of being obstructed.

Claims

1. A planar stiffening panel for placing against the face of a blister sheet from which the blisters protrude, the panel providing a rectilinear array of windows for the reception of respective blisters; strips separating the windows from one another; and, openings 5 extending transversely across some of the strips for accommodating ducts formed on the sheet and extending between respective blisters to permit air to travel between them.

2. A panel as claimed in Claim 1, made from stiff card.

3. A panel as claimed in claim I or claim 2, in which the openings are formed between the shorter sides of the blisters flanking the two sides of the strip. 10

4. A panel as claimed in claim 3, in which the openings provide channels for accommodating two straight parallel ducts having one pair of ends opening into the central portion of one of the shorter sides of a first blister, and the other pair of ends opening into the central portion of the cavity of a neighboring blister.

5. The combination of a blister sheet and adhering stiffening panel, made substantially as 15 above described with reference to the accompanying drawings. MANREX PTY LTD By.p...'. Pat A.......... (Appli nt's Patent Attorney)