EP3009361B1

EP3009361B1 - Medicine packaging system

Info

Publication number: EP3009361B1
Application number: EP14189094.7A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Richard Johannes Antonius Stöteler
Original assignee: D De Weerdt BV; Rene Olthof Beheer BV
Current assignee: D De Weerdt BV; Rene Olthof Beheer BV
Priority date: 2014-10-15
Filing date: 2014-10-15
Publication date: 2018-02-21
Anticipated expiration: 2034-10-15
Also published as: EP3009361A1

Description

The invention relates to a medicine packaging system.
Because of their health, many people require one or more types of medicine. As the number and/or types of medicines required increases, it is preferred to pre-pack such medicines, pills in particular, using medicine collection systems to collect the medicines, into medicine packaging system, to pack the collected pills into a package, and optionally to provide such a package with instructions on the use of the medicines inside the package.
Currently available medicine collection systems comprise canisters for providing the medicines and the medicine packaging system is often an integral part of the medicine collection system. In order to be able to collect and pre-pack a wide variety of medicines, such medicine collection systems need to have a large number of canisters and are necessarily large in size and as such cumbersome to maintain. US6681550 B1 discloses a medicine packaging system according to preamble of claim 1. It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a medicine packaging system in which the above stated drawbacks are reduced or even obviated.
This object is achieved with a medicine packaging system according to claim 1. A packaging system according to the invention allows the collection of medicines from an order from one or more medicine collection systems, which may be relatively small in size, and its transfer via the transporting means between the medicine collection systems and, after collecting the medicines of the order, to a packaging station for packaging the collected content. The transporting means, such as a conveyor belt, comprise at least one receptacle which is moveable along the exit opening of a medicine collection opening. Such an exit opening may be part of a collection column of at least one medicine collection system described in an application filed on the same date by the applicant.
In such a system, the transporting means are generally moving at a continuous speed and in a continuous direction, whereas the receptacles on the transporting means may need to wait for the collected medicines for the order to reach the exit opening of the medicine collection system. In order to allow synchronization between the medicine collection system and the transporting means, the receptacle is slidably arranged on the transporting means, and the packaging system comprises blocking means, adjacent to the transporting means, able to temporarily block a receptacle on the transporting means while moving the transporting means, or, in other words, to slide the receptacle backwards with respect to the transporting means.
The controller will be able to control the blocking means to retain a receptacle to wait for a certain time whenever necessary for the medicines to collect at the exit opening of the adjacent medicine collection system. Possible other receptacles on the transporting means will still be able to move on the transporting means and collect medicines while the first receptacle is retained, except when these specific other receptacles will also reach the medicine collection system in which the retention of the first receptacle takes place in which case a temporary queue or buffer is formed. Other elements of the system, such as the packaging station and its elements may also be controlled by the controller to ease automatic operation of the system.
The medicine packaging system according to the invention increases the speed of processing an order using one or more medicine collection systems. It also avoid the necessity of changing the direction of the transporting means in the case that a receptacle would miss an order from the exit opening of the medicine collection system allocated to the receptacle.
In the case that more medicine collection systems are provided, the collection processes of the medicine collection systems may be linked to each other, e.g. a first medicine collection system is aware of the contents of a second medicine collection system, and may under circumstances determine that it is more efficient to collect the medicines for one order in the second medicine collection system.
Preferably, the path of the transporting means is continuous.
If the path of the transporting means is continuous, the receptacles will automatically be replaced on the transporting means towards the medicine collection system or systems after delivering their content to the packaging station, ensuring continuous operation of the system and reducing the necessity of actions by a supervisor of the system.
In a preferred embodiment, the blocking means comprise a divider plate at least movable in the transport direction and extending at least partially over the transporting means in transverse direction.
In the medicine packaging system according to the invention, the blocking means according to the invention may be, as explained, in a retaining state or in a free state. In a free state, i.e. when there is no delay in the delivery of medicines of the adjacent medicine collection system, the divider plate may move in the transport direction, preferably at the same speed as the transporting means, allowing the receptacles on the transporting means to move at the speed of the transporting means. In case of a delay in an order in the medicine collection system, the adjacent blocking means will be in a retaining state, and the plate will temporarily be in a fixed position to avoid preliminary passage of the allocated receptacle.
The blocking means may also comprise more than one divider plate. At least one of these divider plates may be extending over the transporting means from an opposing side of the transporting means as the other divider plate or plates in order to improve the ease and reliability of blocking.
The divider plate may also be non-moving when there are no receptacles approaching the medicine collection system adjacent to the divider plate, since the divider plate will not impede the movement of the receptacles in such a case.
In an even more preferred embodiment, the blocking means further comprise a conveyor belt with at least two end rollers, wherein the axis of both end rollers is perpendicular to the transport surface of the transporting means and wherein the divider plate is perpendicularly arranged to the conveyor belt.
By perpendicularly arranging the divider plate to a conveyor belt with such at least two end rollers, the divider plate may generally move continuously from the first end roller in transport direction towards the second end roller in the free state, and it will be easy to control the position of the divider plate by movement of the conveyor belt.
Preferably, in all positions of the conveyor belt, the opposing sides of one conveyor belt adjacent to the transport means comprise at least one divider plate. In that case, the conveyor belt will at all times allow instantaneous switching to the retaining state to retain a receptacle. According to the invention, a diaphragm shutter is arranged in the bottom of the receptacle.
The arrangement of a diaphragm shutter at the bottom of the receptacle increases the ease of removal of the contents of the receptacle, for instance when packaging the contents of the receptacle at the packaging station, without requiring to put the receptacle in an upside down position.
The shutter may be controlled by the controller to ease automatic operation of the packaging system.
In a preferred embodiment, the packaging station comprises a tube sealer.
A tube sealer is an efficient way of packaging contents such as medicines and comprises a sheet of plastic, possibly arranged on a roll and a motor for rolling the sheet towards a folding station. At the folding station, the sheet is folded into a tube shape in a length direction generally parallel to the direction of gravity, and the tube sealer further comprises sealing means for creating seals in the sheets to create individual bags with medicines.
A receptacle with collected medicines from one order may then be arranged above the tube shaped sheet in which a bottom seal is made by the sealing means, generally perpendicular to the direction of gravity, thereby creating a bag in the tube, and the contents of the receptacle may be released into the tube shaped sheet by opening a diaphragm shutter which is arranged on the bottom of the receptacle, and a top seal may is made by the sealing means above the medicines released in the tube, thereby producing a closed bag. The top seal of the previous bag may be the bottom seal of the next bag.
Optionally, the packaging station also comprises slitting means, for providing slits adjacent to the seals, in order to ease the separation of the individual packs created.
In another preferred embodiment, the packaging station is arranged with at least a receiving opening below the transporting means, such that medicines from the receptacle can fall into the receiving opening.
A receiving opening allows the contents of the receptacle to be temporarily stored in the packaging station, before packaging the contents, for instance before releasing the contents into a bag. This may be useful for instance when one order is distributed over a number of receptacles, which may especially be the case when the contents of one order do not fit inside one receptacle, or when the medicine packaging system, e.g. one or more medicine collection systems part of such a system, determines that it is more efficient to process one order using more than one receptacle. It may also allow the contents of a receptacle to be mixed with manually supplied medicines. It may further allow a bag to be placed adjacent to the receiving opening to ease the filling of the bag.
A preferred embodiment of the medicine packaging system further comprises a manual filling station.
Whereas medicine collection systems are generally suitable for collecting a wide variety of medicines, it may be necessary to supply pills not present in the medicine collection system or systems or other items, e.g. medicines pre-packed in a special package, sensitive medicines, expensive medicines, additional tools or fluids. In order to allow such medicines and items to be packed by the medicine packaging system, the system preferably comprises a manual filling station to supply these to an order, preferably after collection of the remainder of the order in the medicine collection system or systems.
The manual filling station may comprise a screen or other means of prompting the operator to provide the manual filling station, most preferably comprising instructions on which amount of what items needs to be inserted in which parts of the manual filling station. The medicine packaging system may have means for the operator to confirm the provision of these items to the system, e.g. by voice or by pressing a button.
The manual filling station may also comprise blocking means according to the invention whenever required.
Preferably, the manual filling station is arranged above the transporting means.
By arranging the manual filling station above the transporting means, the manually supplied medicines may be easily released into receptacles and/or receiving openings by the force of gravity.
More preferably, the medicine packaging system comprises lifting means, for lifting the receptacle from the transporting means to secondary transporting means arranged just below the manual filling station.
Since the manual filling station is used by an operator, it is ergonomically beneficial if the manual filling station is at a height suitable for easily inserting matter into the manual filling station. Preferably, the receptacle into which the contents of the manual filling station may be released is adjacent to the manual filling station in order to avoid damage to the matter inserted in the manual filling station when releasing the contents or damage to the contents of the receptacle as well as release next to a receptacle or a neighboring receptacle due to the distance. Additionally, the packaging means, such as a sealer, is preferably located below the secondary transporting means that transport the receptacles within the packaging station.
If the secondary transporting means would be at the same height as the (primary) transporting means, this would require digging a cavity in the floor for the sealing means and for the space required for the operator to work on an ergonomic height as well. Therefore, the medicine packaging system preferably comprises lifting means, for lifting the receptacle from the transporting means to secondary transporting means in the packaging station placed higher than the transporting means. Especially when the (primary) transporting means are continuous, it is advantageous if there are also lifting means at the end of the packaging station to return the receptacles to the (primary) transporting means.
The manual filling station preferably comprises at least one container, comprising closing means at the bottom of the container.
When the manual filling station comprises closing means at the bottom, amendment of a manually executed part of the order is made possible before releasing it into the packaging station.
In a preferred embodiment, the closing means of the container comprise a diaphragm shutter.
A diaphragm shutter at the bottom of the container allows the closing means to be fully opened swiftly and easily.
These and other elements of the invention will be further elucidated using the accompanying figures.

Figure 1 shows a perspective overview of an embodiment of a medicine packaging system according to the invention.
Figure 2 shows a perspective view of the blocking means of figure 1.
Figure 3 shows a cross sectional view of a receptacle of the embodiment according to the invention.
Figure 4 shows a detail of the embodiment of figure 1 in cross sectional view.
Figure 5 shows a perspective view of the manual filling station of the embodiment of figure 1.
Figure 6 shows a cross sectional view of the manual filling station of figure 5.

Figure 1 shows a perspective overview of an embodiment 1 of a medicine packaging system according to the invention.
A medicine collection system 10 is arranged next to a transport system 4. The medicine collection system 10 has a cylindrical wall 2, in which a carousel 3 rotates. Medicines, collected by the collection system 10 are transported over the transport system 4 along a second medicine collection system 20 (partly shown) and a third medicine collection system 30 (partly shown) to a packaging station 5, in which the medicines are packaged in plastic bags and labeled.
At the packaging station 5, a small medicine collection system 6 is provided as well as a manual filling station 7.
Figure 2 shows a perspective view of the blocking means 40, which are provided at medicine collection system 10, 20, 30 to ensure that the correct receptacle 41 is positioned under a discharge pipe 42 of the medicine collection system 10, 20, 30.
The blocking means 40 have on both sides of the conveyor 43 a conveyor belt 44, 45 with two end rollers 46, 47, wherein the axis of both end rollers 46, 47 are perpendicular to the transport surface of the conveyor 43. Each conveyor belt 44, 45 is provided with divider plates 48, 49, such that receptacles 41 can be blocked from being transported further on the conveyor 43, as well as can be separated from the queue of receptacles 41 upstream of the blocking means 40 to move the receptacles 41 one by on under the discharge pipe 42.
Figure 3 shows a cross sectional view of a receptacle 41 of the embodiment according to the invention. The receptacle 41 has a somewhat cube shaped outer housing 50 and a funnel 51 on the inside. At the bottom a closure 52 is arranged to discharge collected medicines at the packaging station 5. This closure 52 is a diaphragm shutter.
Figure 4 shows the packaging station 5 in more detail with on top a small medicine collection system 6 as well as a manual filling station 7. Inside of the packaging station 5, a lift 53 is provided to lift receptacles 41 from the transport system 4 to a secondary transport system 54 at the top of the packaging station 5. This second transport system 54 moves the receptacles along the small medicine collection system 6, the manual filling station 7 as well as a receiving tube 55 of a tube sealer 56, which packages the collected medicines from a receptacle 41 into a plastic bag.
After emptying the receptacles 41 at the receiving tube 55, the receptacles 41 are put back on the conveyor system 4 via a slide 57.
Figure 5 shows a perspective view of the manual filling station 7 of the embodiment of figure 1. The manual filling station 7 has at the top a number of openings 60, in which a person can put specific medicines.
As can be seen in the cross sectional view of figure 6, the openings 60 are the openings 60 of funnels, which are closed at the bottom by a diaphragm shutter 61.
When the person is ready with putting the specific medicines in the different openings 60, the controller of the packaging system according to the invention will control the secondary conveyor 54, such that the correct receptacles 41 are moved under a secondary funnel 62 and the diaphragm shutters 61 are opened or kept closed depending on which medicine from which opening 60 should be added to the receptacle 41 below.

Claims

Medicine packaging system (1), comprising:
- a packaging station (5);

- at least one medicine collection system (10; 20; 30) with an exit opening (42);

- transporting means (4; 43) with at least one receptacle (41), moveable by the transporting means (4; 43; 54) along the exit opening (42) of the at least one medicine collection system (10; 20; 30) and towards the packaging station (5), wherein the at least one receptacle (41) is slidably arranged in the transporting means (4; 43; 54);

- a controller; and

- blocking means (40), controllable by the controller, adjacent to the transporting means (4; 43) and to the at least one medicine collection system (10; 20; 30), for blocking the movement of the receptacle (41) on the transporting means (4; 43) to keep the receptacle (41) registered with the exit opening (42) while moving the transporting means (4; 43)
characterized in that
a diaphragm shutter (52) is arranged in the bottom of the receptacle (41).
Medicine packaging system (1) according to claim 1, wherein the path of the transporting means (4; 43) is continuous.
Medicine packaging system (1) according to any of the claims 1 or 2, wherein the blocking means (40) comprise a divider plate (48; 49) at least movable in the transport direction and extending at least partially over the transporting means (4; 43) in transverse direction.
Medicine packaging system (1) according to claim 3, wherein the blocking means (40) further comprise a conveyor belt (44; 45) with at least two end rollers (46; 47), wherein the axis of both end rollers (46; 47) is perpendicular to the transport surface (43) of the transporting means (4; 43; 54) and wherein the divider plate (48; 49) is perpendicularly arranged to the conveyor belt (44; 45).
Medicine packaging system (1) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the packaging station (5) comprises a tube sealer (56).
Medicine packaging system (1) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the packaging station (5) is arranged with at least a receiving opening (55) below the transporting means (4; 43), such that medicines from the receptacle (41) can fall into the receiving opening (55).
Medicine packaging system according (1) to any of the preceding claims, wherein the medicine packaging system (1) further comprises a manual filling station (7).
Medicine packaging system (1) according to claim 7, wherein the manual filling station (7) is arranged above the transporting means (4; 43).
Medicine packaging system (1) according to claim 8, comprising lifting means (53), for lifting the receptacle from the transporting means (4; 43) to secondary transporting means (54) arranged just below the manual filling station (7).
Medicine packaging system (1) according to any of the claims 7, 8 or 9, wherein the manual filling station (7) comprises at least one container, comprising closing means (61) at the bottom of the container.
Medicine packaging system (1) according to claim 10, wherein the closing means (61) of the container comprise a diaphragm shutter.