EP1776275A1

EP1776275A1 - Device for filling sales packages with pharmaceutical products in a solid form

Info

Publication number: EP1776275A1
Application number: EP05764472A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Horst Konstandin
Original assignee: Konstandin Engineering GmbH
Current assignee: Konstandin Engineering GmbH
Priority date: 2004-08-11
Filing date: 2005-08-04
Publication date: 2007-04-25
Anticipated expiration: 2025-08-04
Also published as: ES2324421T3; DE202004012512U1; EP1776275B1; WO2006018142A1; DE502005006887D1; ATE425921T1

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for filling sales packages with pharmaceutical products in a solid form, said device comprising a storage container (2) for the pharmaceutical products, a filling station (3) for the targeted filling of sales packages with the pharmaceutical products, transport devices (7) for guiding the sales packages to the filling station (3) and transporting them away from the same, and a rotating transfer drum (1) for separating and transferring the pharmaceutical products in an ordered manner from the storage container (2) to the filling station (3). Said transfer drum (1) is provided, on the periphery thereof, with a number of cups (4) for respectively receiving a pharmaceutical product, said cups being actively connected to a vacuum chamber (9) located inside the transfer drum, along the path of the cups from the container to the filling station, and to a pressurised chamber (11) located inside the transfer drum, in the region of the filling station. The pressurised chamber (11) is embodied in such a way that it can be deactivated as required, or transformed into another vacuum chamber.

Description

medically effective ingredients when ingested by a patient not to falsify.

Because of these special conditions, there are a large number of different devices for automatic filling of sales packaging with pharmaceutical products. Sometimes the simplest form of such a device consists of a transport path for a blister film, over which a reservoir is mounted without bottom. The tablets or capsules cover the blister foil passing under the open bottom of the storage container and intentionally also deposit in the wells of the blister foil. A scraping edge retains the tablets or capsules which are not inserted into the depressions of the blister foil. In an improved embodiment, one or more brushes are additionally provided for brushing the tablets or capsules into the recesses of the continuous blister foil.

In order to avoid the disadvantage associated with this simple design that dust and other contaminants are painted into the depressions of the blister foil, it has been proposed, for example, in DE 37 31 749 A1, between the reservoir and the filling station, ie the point, on which the blister foil passes through and is filled, a transfer device is provided which separates and separates the pharmaceutical products in the depressions of the blister foil. This happens according to this prior art via a multi-channel bridge.

A further development of the prior art just mentioned, for example in EP 0 797 525 B1, has led to the construction of the transfer device as a transfer drum with the properties mentioned at the outset. This transfer drum removes in each case one tablet or capsule from a supply magazine, in which the pharmaceutical products are already supplied in a separate form, in each case with a cup provided with a vacuum channel, the distances between the circumferentially distributed cups of the sequence of the wells correspond to the respective tablet or capsule at the filling station by Schwer¬ force falling down and additionally supported by a blast of compressed air from the In¬ neren the transfer drum targeted to the blister from. However, the different solutions to be found in the prior art have one problem in common: faulty filled sales packaging, ie blister foils with empty depressions or not completely filled tubes or glasses, must be sorted out and can not be sold. Due to the special safety and purity requirements for pharmaceutical products, the ready-to-use, almost complete content of such incorrectly filled sales packaging can not be returned to the production process, but it becomes a production committee. Due to the medically effective ingredients, this committee usually has to be disposed of as hazardous waste.

In order to avoid this problem, DE 196 17 014 C2, for example, has proposed a method and a device for refilling pharmaceutical products into optionally empty cups of a film web. A control device checks there after the filling process in the filling station the filling status of each cup and wins this information about about empty deep wells. With the aid of this information, a refill unit is actuated which specifically loads individual products to be packaged into the empty cavities in order to completely fill the sales pack and thus make it usable. An example of a corresponding control device can be found, for example, in EP 1 193 177 B1.

The present invention is therefore based on the object, a device for filling of sales packaging of the type mentioned hinsicht¬ Lich the problem of incomplete or incorrectly filled sales packaging to improve.

This object is achieved by a device with the feature combination of the appended patent claim 1.

Preferred embodiments and further developments of the device according to the invention are laid down in claims 2 to 19. According to the present invention, therefore, a device of the type mentioned above is modified in that the pressure chamber of the transfer drum at the filling station can be deactivated as required or can be reversed into a second vacuum chamber. This makes it possible that the arranged in the circumferentially arranged wells of the transfer drum pharmaceuti cal products are not delivered in each case at the filling station to the sales pack, but if necessary remain in the corresponding bowl of the transfer drum and with the further movement of the same again can be returned to the reservoir. In particular, when it is recognized that a sales package is not completely filled, or would be, the still present on the transfer drum, not yet delivered in the sales packaging products can be returned to the reservoir, ie these products are not unnecessarily in the already incorrectly filled and thus auszuschusende as Committee auszuschusende sales packaging delivered, but remain in the process.

The invention has particular advantages when a scanning device for monitoring the correct, ie complete and damage-free, loading of the drums of the transfer drum is arranged on the transfer drum, between the storage container and the filling station. This scanning device may be a camera with digital image processing, and it is preferably designed and arranged so that it detects the correct occupancy of a certain number of wells of the transfer drum, which corresponds to the content of a sales packaging unit, before the first of these detected cups in the filling station passes.

This scanning device, which is preferably arranged in front of the filling station, thus detects an incorrect filling of a sales package already in the process by recognizing that all the cups of the transfer drum are not occupied or individual cups are occupied by fragments of products or, if appropriate, damaged products. By then prompt Um¬ control or deactivation of the pressure chamber then the entire contents ei¬ ner sales packaging is performed by the filling and held on the transfer drum and with this again in the reservoir recycled, so that then an empty sales packaging remains, which can be disposed of as a committee, without having to dispose of a valuable partial filling of pharmaceutical products. With this preferred embodiment of the invention, incorrectly filled sales packages are therefore prevented even before they are filled. A complicated refill into the sales packaging or the disposal of partially filled or incorrectly filled sales packaging is therefore a thing of the past.

The reversing or deactivating of the pressure chamber takes place in this case preferably in synchronism with the cycle times and / or the transport times of the conveying devices for the sales packaging, so that always complete sales packages remain empty, if necessary, or are no longer refilled in the event of a recognized error.

It is also expedient if the cups of the transfer drum are in operative connection not only on their way from the storage container to the filling station, but also on their way back from the filling station into the storage container with the first or another vacuum chamber located in the interior of the transfer drum that the optionally leading back into the reservoir pharmaceutical products are kept safely in the wells of Transfertrom¬ mel.

In order to avoid that damaged products, which were recognized as such and therefore remain on the transfer drum by reversing the pressure chamber, are returned to the storage container or pass through it and cause a further accident, it is preferably provided that between the loading station and the storage container a be¬ angesweise activatable discharge pressure chamber is arranged, which is in operative connection with the dar¬ on passing wells of the transfer drum and ejects damaged or otherwise useless products. Alternatively, it is of course also possible to deliver the damaged product at the filling station in the otherwise empty sales packaging and to dispose of it together. In addition to an explicit reversal of the pressure chamber in a second Va¬ vacuum chamber, for example, to compensate for gravity, and a simple shutdown of the pressure chamber (when the transfer drum is ange¬ arranged so that the pharmaceutical products at the filling station does not fall from its own bowl ), the deactivation of the pressure chamber can also be such that the cups of the transfer drum remain connected to the vacuum chamber during its passage through the filling station, for example by Ab¬ coupling and swinging away the pressure chamber from the implementation between the interior of the transfer drum and the respective cup.

In the region of the storage container, it may be advantageous to provide a further pressure chamber, which can also be switched to neutral as a vacuum chamber. For the purpose of a frictionless insertion of the phar¬ maceutical products into the wells, it sometimes makes sense not to apply the cups with vacuum, but to switch neutral. With the further pressure chamber, the wells in the reservoir can now also be subjected to compressed air. This has the consequence that the pharmaceutical products in the reservoir by the compressed air in motion and thus lighter and more uniform in the wells of the transfer drum vertei¬ len.

With the device according to the invention both blister packs and drug containers, tubes or jars can be filled. In the former case, a sheet-shaped blister foil, as known per se, runs under the transfer drum; in the latter case, the device operates intermittently, since in each case a container to be filled has to be transported to and from the filling station. In the case of drug containers or glasses to be filled, the advantages of the invention become doubly noticeable, because even before the transfer of the pharmaceutical products from the transfer drum into the sales packaging it can be counted whether the sales packaging is completely filled or not.

The storage container of the device according to the invention can be placed on the transfer drum in a manner known per se, and with an open bottom and with a brush for individual application of the pharmaceutical products. be formed in the wells of the transfer drum. This ultimately simplifies the return of products held on the transfer drum from the filling station back into the storage container. The efficiency of the coating of the pharmaceutical products in the wells of the transfer drum is in this case significantly higher than the efficiency of a conventional application of pharmaceutical products directly into the wells of a blister pack. This is due to the fact that the cups of the transfer drum can be provided with a larger edge opening and a larger insertion angle, as the wells of the blister pack. Furthermore, the cups of the transfer drum can be kept flatter, since it does not interfere here, if the pharmaceutical products über¬ over the surface of the transfer drum. In a blister pack, the wells must be formed so deep that the pharmaceutical products fit completely.

Preferably, the transfer drum of the device according to the invention by means of a quick release device is designed to be removable, which on the one hand facilitates the cleaning, especially in a product change and to an¬ a quick and easy conversion of the device on unterschiedli¬ che sales packaging or different product forms to which the transfer drum be adapted must, guaranteed.

The vacuum chamber as well as the reversible in a second vacuum chamber pressure chamber and optionally the discharge pressure chamber and the supply pressure chamber are suitably supplied from outside the transfer drum with vacuum or compressed air, what then pneumatic lines are present in the transfer drum inside. These pneumatic lines have plug-in connections in the region of the introduction into the transfer drum according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, so that the mechanism located inside the transfer drum can nevertheless be removed very easily for cleaning or for a product change.

The preferred embodiment of the invention, in which a scanning device for monitoring the correct, so complete and damage-free assignment of the wells of the transfer drum between the reservoir and the filling station is arranged, offers in connection with the filling of blister packs, further advantages which have been unprecedented have been found when a second scanning device, as known per se, for monitoring the correct filling of the blister pack is arranged downstream of the filling station. Because in this way, the pharmaceutical products are inspected for damage from above and below, because the surfaces of the pharmaceutical products which are scanned on the transfer drum lie later in the blister pack at the bottom, and the second scanning device, which scans the pharmaceutical products from above the blister pack inspects the other side of the products as a result.

The preferably existing open-bottomed storage container can be equipped, for example, with vibrating walls, for further improvement of the filling efficiency. In particular, in pharmaceutical products which have an elongated shape, it may also be advantageous to equip the Vor¬ storage container to form a format segmentation with acting on the alignment of the pharmaceutical products partitions. The pharmaceutical products then pass along these partitions already pre-aligned on the surface of the transfer drum and can be so easily streaked in their cups.

Instead of or in addition to the scanning device for monitoring the correct placement of the cups on the transfer drum, a printing device can advantageously be provided between the supply container and the filling station, which can be used to print the surfaces of the pharmaceutical products with characters, symbols, Logos and the like are used. In this case, it is particularly advantageous that the surface of the pharmaceutical products is printed, which comes to rest later when placed in a blister pack, ie on the transparent side of the blister pack. The printed surface of the pharmaceutical products is then recognizable from the outside, even if the blister packaging is damaged.

As already mentioned, the separation of the pharmaceutical products from the storage container into the wells of the transfer drum with respect to a single Ver¬ of pharmaceutical products from a reservoir directly into Blister packaging much more efficient, since the cups of the transfer drum must not completely absorb the pharmaceutical products. Of Weite¬ Ren a variety of Napfformen are possible, which further simplify a singling. For example, the cups of the transfer drum can have an asymmetrical cross-section in the circumferential direction, which on the one hand has a long, slight slant between the drum surface and the base of the bowl in the manner of a paddle wheel. The association with a paddle wheel already indicates that the insertion of the pharmaceutical products into such shaped wells of the transfer drum is particularly easy and efficient.

An embodiment of the device according to the invention will be described in the following Sequenz¬ with reference to the accompanying drawings and explained in more detail. Show it:

Figure 1: a side sectional view of the embodiment;

Figures 2a to 2d: side sectional views of different cup shapes.

Figure 1 shows an embodiment of a device according to the invention in a lateral sectional view. As a central element, a transfer drum 1 can be seen, on top of which a storage container 2 for pharmaceutical products (not shown) is placed in tablet form. By means of circumferentially distributed in the transfer drum 1 recessed cups 4 Trans¬ fertrommel 1 transports the tablets from the reservoir 2 to a filling station 3, where the transfer of the tablets from the wells 4 in recesses 5 a blister sheet 6 takes place. Via a transport table 7, the blister foil 6 is transported with a certain transport speed through the filling station 3, wherein the circumferential speed of the transfer drum 1 is adapted to the transport speed, so that exactly one respective cup 4 of the transfer drum 1 in the filling station 3 just above a recess 5 of the blister sheet 6 comes to rest. In the storage container 2, at its boundary wall, a rotating brush 8 is provided for filling the tablets in the wells 4, in order to ensure a correct and complete equipping them with tablets. By appropriate modifications of the storage container 2, such as the introduction of vibration walls, format segmentation and the like, the degree of filling of the wells 4 of the transfer drum 1 can be further positively influenced.

The degree of filling of the cups 4 of the transfer drum 1 can also be positively influenced by providing a supply pressure chamber 15 in the region of the storage container 2, which separates the cups 4 located in their area from the vacuum chamber 9 and thus depressurises them as required or pressurized with compressed air. If the cups 4 are pressurized with compressed air by the supply pressure chamber 15, then the pharmaceutical products lying above them move in the storage container 2, so that they are better distributed to the cups 4. If necessary, the supply pressure chamber 15 can of course also be reversed so that the wells 4 are in turn subjected to vacuum.

The interior of the transfer drum 1 forms a vacuum chamber 9, with which the cups 4 are connected via feedthroughs 10. This ensures that the tablets remain in the cups 4 when the transfer drum 1 is rotating and do not fall out. Only in the filling station 3, the connection of the cup 4 located there is interrupted with the vacuum chamber 9. Instead, that cup 4, which is located exactly in the filling station 3, communicates with a pressure chamber 11, which ensures that the tablet located in the cup 4 is pushed into the opposite recess 5 of the cup by means of a pressure jet guided through the feedthrough 10 Blister foil 6 is handed over reliably.

Between the storage container 2 and the filling station 3, an observation surface 12 is provided on the transport path of the transfer drum 1, which is indicated here by means of broken lines. In this observation surface 12, a CCD camera (not shown) with appropriate evaluation electronics detects whether all of the bowls 4 of the transfer drum 1 are filled correctly, ie completely and without damage, and thus assume this It can be that the corresponding blister film 6 is also correctly filled by transferring the tablets in the filling station 3.

If the CCD camera (not shown) in the observation surface 12 detects one or more wells 4 which are not correctly filled with tablets, the pressure chamber 11 is reversed at the filling station 3 so that it becomes the vacuum chamber and thus until reactivated the pressure chamber 11 all tablets also remain at the filling station 3 in the wells 4 of the transfer drum and be returned with their rotational movement back into the reservoir 2. In the second pass of the storage container 2, the cup 4, which is empty during the first pass, of the transfer drum 1 is then also fitted, so that the filling process can be continued. The deactivation of the pressure chamber 11 takes place here in such a way that the first cup 4 of a new section of the blister foil 6, which corresponds to a sales packaging unit, remains on the transfer drum 1, and only the first cup 4 of a subsequent further new section of the blister foil 6 in the filling station 3 wie¬ is acted upon with compressed air. In this way, that portion of the blister sheet 6, which would not have been completely filled because of an unoccupied cup 4 of the transfer drum 1, remains completely empty. The tablets which would have had to be disposed of with this section of the blister film 6 are advantageously returned immediately to the storage container 2, or again passed past it, and are therefore not lost.

At the beginning of the observation surface 12, a printing unit for printing on the surfaces of the pharmaceutical products lying in the cups 4 is indicated by a pressure roller 17. However, the printing device arranged at this point can also be an ink-jet system, a thermal transfer system or a laser printing system or the like. In this way, all possible information and symbols can be printed on the pharmaceutical products, wherein the printing takes place on that side of the pharmaceutic products which points downwards in the filling station 3 and which, therefore, in the blister film 6 transparent side lies. This means that the pressure applied by the pressure roller 17 imprinted in the finished Blister film 6 can be seen from the outside, without the blister film 6 must be open sen.

Shortly before reaching the storage container 2, the cups 4 of the transfer drum 1 pass an ejection pressure chamber 14, which can be activated as required. Here, if necessary, damaged pharmaceutical products or product sections, for which the pressure chamber 11 has been reversed, can be ejected and thus discharged from the circulation. For such damaged products or parts would pass through the storage container 2 and repeatedly cause the same incident during further transport.

The quick-release device 13, which is also shown diagrammatically, makes it possible for the transfer drum 1 to be easily removed or placed in the manner of a bayonet closure. The transfer drum 1 can therefore be readily exchanged for adaptation to other tablet forms or other blister films or removed for cleaning purposes.

The vacuum chamber 9, the pressure chamber 11, the discharge pressure chamber 14 and the supply pressure chamber 15 are supplied with compressed air or vacuum by a pneumatic device arranged outside the transfer drum 1. For this purpose, pneumatic lines (not shown) run through the quick-release device 13, where they are expediently separable by means of plug connections. This ensures that the mechanism located in the interior of the transfer drum 1 can be removed very easily and quickly for a product change or for cleaning and exchanged for another one.

The transfer drum 1 shown here with the storage container 2 and the viewing surface 12 can also be used as a pure inspection system, ie without the transport table 7, without blister film 6 and thus without filling station 3. In combination with a second, downstream identical one Ein¬ unit products can then be inspected on both sides and the front. FIGS. 2a to 2b show various shapes of the cups 4, wherein FIG. 2a shows the depression 5 of a blister foil 6 for comparison. A tablet 18 is completely received by the recess 5, so that the blister film 6 then covers abge with a (not shown) cover sheet and thus can be closed. As can be seen directly from FIG. 2 a, the tablet 18 must be inserted very precisely into the depression 5. A simple brushing of disorganized on the blister sheet 6 lie¬ ing tablets 18 is hardly possible in an efficient manner.

Figure 2b shows a cup 4 in the transfer drum 1 according to the invention with the vacuum passage 10 and an inserted tablet 18. In direct comparison with the recess 5 of Figure 2a is noticeable that the cup 4 is funnel-shaped at its upper edge, and that the tablet 18 projects beyond the surface of the transfer drum 1, that is, does not completely dive into the bowl 4.

The same applies to the shape of the cup 4, which is shown in Figure 2c. Here, the entire cup 4 is funnel-shaped, which allows a much easier insertion of randomly placed on the transfer drum 1 in the storage container 2 lie¬ ing tablets 18 in the wells 4.

Finally, FIG. 2d shows a special shaping of the cup 4 in the manner of a paddle wheel. On one side of the cup 4, the tablet 18 is held by a cup shape, which essentially corresponds to the outer contour of the tablet 18, while on the other side a very flat bevel 16 is provided in order to allow the tablet 18 to slide in easily to make the cup 4 possible.

The present invention thus provides a filling device for pharmaceutical products which very gently treats the products, which ensures a continuous filling process without product jamming, which can also handle unusual and difficult-to-handle product forms and is insensitive to the thickness tolerances of the products. Previously known problems with biconvex designed products, such as shingles to overlap, there is not with the present invention. The filling the level of filled sales packaging is extremely high; Aluminum blister packs can also be filled easily, even if their indentations are very different from the product shape. Furthermore, standardized and thus sometimes too large depressions of blister packs can be reliably filled with the filling device according to the invention. In addition, partially filled packaging hardly ever occur, since a product recovery is integrated according to the invention. Also, a product inspection is inherent, since the product monitoring for the detection of damage and empty wells can also be used for product inspection itself. By means of the quick-release device, a quick exchange of all product-contacting components (within about 60 seconds) is possible. If pharmaceutical products are to be filled with a different active substance than in previous production, the replacement of all product-contacting components is possible.

Claims

Patent claims

1. A device for filling sales packaging with pharmaceutical products in solid form, with a storage container (2) for the pharmaceutical products, with a filling station (3) for the targeted filling of sales packaging (6) with the pharmaceutical products, wherein conveying devices (7) are present for bringing and removing the sales packages (6) to and from the filling station (3),

- And with a rotating transfer drum (1) for separating and ge orderly transferring the pharmaceutical products from the Vorrats¬ container (2) in the filling station (3), the transfer drum (1) peripherally fen with a number of Näp¬ (4 ) for receiving in each case a pharmaceutical product, the cups (4) on their way from the storage container (2) to the filling station (3) with a vacuum chamber (9) located in the interior of the transfer drum (1) and in the area the filling station (3) are in operative connection with a pressure chamber (11) located in the interior of the transfer drum (1), characterized in that the pressure chamber (11) is configured such that it can be deactivated as required or reversed into a second vacuum chamber.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that on the transfer drum (1) between the reservoir (2) and the filling station (3) a scanning device for monitoring the correct assignment of the cups (4) of the transfer drum (1) is arranged, and a reversing device is provided which is connected to the scanning drum and the pressure chamber (11) in such a way that the pressure chamber (11) is deactivated or reversed into a second vacuum chamber when the scanning device is switched on a faulty assignment of the cups (4) of the transfer drum (1) detected.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that the scanning device comprises a camera with digital image processing.

4. Device according to one of claims 2 or 3, characterized in that the scanning device is configured and arranged so that it detects the correct occupancy of a certain number of wells (4) of the transfer drum (1), the contents of a sales packaging Unit corresponds before the first of these detected wells (4) enters the filling station (3).

5. Device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the reversing device is designed so that they the Druck¬ chamber (11) in synchronism with the cycle times and / or transport times and / or transport times of the conveyors (7) for bringing and Removal of the sales packaging (6) deactivated or um¬ controls.

6. Device according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the cups (4) of the transfer drum (1) on its way from the filling station Be¬ (3) to the reservoir (2) back to the or another inside the Transfer drum (1) located vacuum chamber (9) are in operative connection.

7. The device according to claim 6, characterized in that between the filling station (3) and the storage container (2) an as required activatable discharge pressure chamber (14) is arranged, with the passing past them wells (4) of the transfer drum (1) in Active compound is.

8. Device according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the cups (4) of the transfer drum (1) at the filling station (3) with deactivated pressure chamber (1 1) with the vacuum chamber (9) in Wirkver¬ bond.

9. Device according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that in the region of the storage container (2) a supply pressure chamber (15) is arranged, which, if necessary, in the reservoir (2) befindli¬ chen cups (4) of the transfer drum ( 1) is at least partially pressurized with excess pressure, maintained at ambient pressure or subjected to a vacuum.

10.Vorrichtung according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the sales packages are blister packs.

1 1.Vorrichtung according to claim 10, characterized in that the conveying means (7) are designed as a continuous conveying path for a sheet-like blister sheet (6).

12. Device according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the sales packages are drug containers, tubes or jars.

13. The device according to one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the storage container (2) with at least one brush (8) for ver¬ individually filling the pharmaceutical products in the wells (4) of the transfer drum (1) is provided.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the storage container (2) is provided with vibration walls or with acting on the Aus¬ direction of the pharmaceutical products partitions to form a format segmentation.

15. Device according to one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that the transfer drum (1) by means of a quick-release device (13) is designed to be removable.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that pneumatic lines for providing compressed air for the pressure chamber (11) and optionally the ejection pressure chamber (14) and the filling pressure chamber (15) and for forming the vacuum in the vacuum chamber ( 9) and in the pressure chamber (11) and, if appropriate, in the supply pressure chamber (15), the pneumatic lines being provided with plug connections in the area of their entry into the transfer drum (1).

17. Device according to claims 2 and 9, characterized in that a second scanning device for monitoring the correct placement of the Blisterverpackung downstream of the filling station (3) is arranged ange¬.

18. Device according to one of claims 1 to 17, characterized in that on the transfer drum (1) between the reservoir (2) and the filling station (3) a printing device for printing in the wells (4) of the transfer drum (1) located pharmaceutical Pro¬ products with characters, logos and the like is arranged.

19. Device according to one of claims 1 to 18, characterized in that the cups in the circumferential direction have an asymmetrical cross section, wherein one side of each cup (4) has a gently sloping slope (16) from the surface of the transfer drum (1) to the bottom of Napfes (4) out.