EP3081927B1 - Device for packaging loose medicament portions and method for the operation thereof - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a device for packaging individual medication portions.

Corresponding devices are also referred to as blister machines and are known from the prior art. For example, this describes WO 2013/034504 A1 one in pharmacies and hospitals or, with appropriate dimensioning, even in blister centers usable Blisterautomaten, the drug compilations of several drug portions patient-individually according to the medically prescribed intake times compiles. The device packs order data corresponding drug compilations (which may comprise only a single portion of medication or a plurality of individual portions of medication) in bags formed of a packaging material sheet, so-called blister bags, these bags being a strand of blister bags (also referred to as "blister tubing") for further packaging Leave use. A blister bag regularly corresponds to a time of administration of a patient, ie contains all portions of medication that a patient must take at a given time of day. The order data itself may be, for example, data derived from recipes or the like.

The known device for packaging individual medication portions comprises a plurality of storage and dispensing stations for medication portions, which cooperate with a plurality of circulating guide means which supply the medication portions also circulating collection means which supply the drug compositions to a packaging station in which the blister packs are formed and the each Medication portions when forming the blister pack are introduced into this. Due to the special construction of the device described above, a plurality of blister bags per hour is produced, and a corresponding identification of the blister bag is therefore of crucial importance.

Labeling the blister pack after inserting the individual portions of medication is not practical, since the application of u.a. the contents of the blister bag characterizing data the medication portions are damaged. The application of the corresponding data is therefore carried out before the actual blistering, d. H. the formation of the blister bag and the introduction of the drug portions during molding. For this purpose, a labeling or printing device is arranged in front of the actual packaging site, which applies the data corresponding to the order data on the packaging material, which data uniquely identify the subsequently produced blister bag and reflect the content of each blister bag.

The DE 10 2008 047 975 A1 describes a method and apparatus for customizing tablets wherein the tablets are placed in blister bags. The device comprises a printer with which the individual sachets are printed on the underside of the bag string with a print, such as the name of a patient, the scheduled time of ingestion, etc. After blistering, the number of tablets in the blister with a Camera determined and compared with a target amount.

If a (systematic) error occurs during the application of the data to the packaging material (print image blurred or unreadable, offset, partially applied), this can not be done by a user due to the working speed and the type of data applied (barcode or similar) are found to be very difficult, so that if necessary, a large number of defective blister bag is made before the error is noticed by a user.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device for packaging individual medication portions, with which the number of incorrectly produced blister pack is reduced. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a corresponding method.

The object is achieved by a device for packaging individual medication portions according to claim 1. The device according to the invention comprises a plurality of storage and dispensing stations for dispensing individual medication portions, at least one guiding and collecting arrangement for receiving the dispensed from the storage and dispensing stations medication portions and Forwarding said medication portions to a packaging station coupled to a controller which forms a string of connected blister bags from supplied packaging material and introduces the dispensed medication portions into the blister bags as the blister bags are formed. Depending on the exact configuration of the device, one or a plurality of guiding and collecting arrangements may be used. This may or may be made in one piece, but it is also envisaged that the guiding and collecting arrangements comprise separate guiding and collecting devices.

The apparatus further comprises a labeling or printing station coupled to the control device and arranged in front of the packaging station for applying data predetermined by the control device in a predetermined arrangement to the packaging material of each blister bag to be formed in the packaging station. The data to be applied are applied in a predetermined arrangement, ie on a predetermined section of the packaging material (and thus the subsequent blister bag), and may include, among other things, the date of manufacture of the blister bag, the exact content and possibly information on the deterioration of the contents of the blister bag. The manner of applying the data is not essential to the present invention. For example, the data can be printed on the packaging material However, it is also conceivable that previously printed labels are glued to the packaging material at a predetermined location. Furthermore, it is not essential what type of data is applied. It is thus possible for the data to be "readably" applied to a user, ie, for example, the name of the patient and the content of the blister pack, ie the type of the individual medication portions, to be printed or affixed next to possibly further data. However, it is also conceivable that only a barcode is applied, which at a later date may be supplemented or replaced by further data. Depending on the particular embodiment, the labeling or printing station and the packaging station may be a group of components. Alternatively, the labeling or printing station can be a separate component, which possibly improves the accessibility in the presence of a fault. Regardless of the nature of the application of the data and the nature of the data itself, it is essential that the data applied be readable by a user or machine at a later time.

The device according to the invention further comprises an optical detection device coupled to the control device, which optically detects the data of the individual blister bags of the strand applied by the labeling or printing station, and an evaluation device coupled to the control device, which records the data acquired with a single blister bag Features compares. The evaluation device can be integrated in the control device. It is also conceivable that the function of both devices is performed by a common component, for example a computer.

For example, the data collected may only be the location of the application of the data on the blister bag. If it is determined in a comparison with target features that the data is applied in a location that is unsuitable for a subsequent automatic recording of the data, this can be a systematic error in the Indicating the application of the data (for example, if there are five or more blister packs in a row have the same error), and the device is stopped, if necessary, with the precise responses to determining a discrepancy between sensed data and desired characteristics of the nature and frequency of the deviations is dependent.

For storing the manufactured strand of connected blister bags, the device according to the invention further comprises a storage station, in which the strand is stored in an orderly manner. By "ordered" storage is meant that the strand of linked blister pack is rolled up, for example, or unfolded to a specific specification. In order that the occurrence of a possibly systematic error can be detected, it is essential to the invention that the optical detection device is arranged between the packaging station and the storage station.

As already stated, blister bag associated with the blistering or the production of the strand can cause systematic errors (application of the data in the case of the wrong location, "unreadable" application of the data). If a systematic error occurs, it may be appropriate to stop the device so as to avoid producing a large number of defective blister bags. However, if there is only one bag-related error, it is usually not advisable to stop the device. To make it easier for a user to recognize a faulty blister bag, it is provided in a preferred embodiment of the device according to the invention that this comprises a arranged between the optical detection device and the storage station and coupled to the control device marking, with which individual, recognized as defective Blister bag can be marked. For example, it is conceivable to simply provide a faulty blister bag with a striking color marking.

The object is further achieved by a method according to claim 3. In the method of operating the device for packaging individual medication portions Order data are initially provided to the control device, these order data relating to drug compilations, each with at least one portion of medication. From the storage and dispensing stations, based on the order data, medication portions of a drug composition are dispensed and fed to the packaging station via at least one guiding and collecting arrangement. From the labeling or printing station data are applied to the packaging material at predetermined application locations and then a strand of connected blister packs is formed by the packaging station from the provided packaging material with the data applied, whereby each blister bag is assigned data, ie the blister bags are shaped in such a way, that are arranged on each previously applied data. During the molding of the blister bag, the dispensed drug compositions are introduced into the blister bag.

The strand of blister packs produced in this way is fed to an optical detection device, and with the latter, applied data of the blister packs are optically detected and the recorded data for a blister pack is compared with desired features. When a deviation between the acquired data and the desired characteristics is determined, a response associated with the deviation is triggered.

Finally, the strand of blister packs leaving the optical detection means is stored, d. H. ordered stored (for example, on a roll).

With the aid of the method according to the invention, it is possible to detect (systematic) errors when applying the data to the packaging material. The optical detection device, which may for example comprise a camera, detects predetermined features of the applied data. In the simplest case, for example, this may merely be the point of application of the data. For example, if the labeling or printing station functions correctly, the data is applied exactly to the center of the blister bag (and thus to an appropriate location of the packaging material) and if it is determined with the optical detection means that the data is located too far "out" on the blister bags, the device may be stopped in response to, for example, five consecutive defective blister bags. In this way, it is avoided that a large number of defective blister bag is generated.

Which reaction is triggered depends on the type and frequency of the deviations determined. If, after a misprint of data on each other, for example, more than five blister packs printed without error occur, the operation of the device can be maintained despite the misprint. With the method according to the invention in its above-mentioned form, systematic errors in the application of the data can be detected and the device can be stopped if necessary, so that the production of a large number of defective blister bags, which could possibly be re-manufactured, can be avoided.

In order to be able to react to errors in the drug composition in a blister bag, the desired characteristics can be derived from the order data, whereby the target features in addition also include information about, for example, the number of individual drug portions in a blister bag.

In the optical detection of the characteristics of a blister bag, not only is the location of the data on the blister bag determined, for example, but also, for example, the number of individual medication portions is determined. If it is determined that although the application of the data on the blister bag is error-free, but a number of drug portions has been introduced into the blister, which does not match the desired characteristics, the blister bag can be marked as defective in such a bag-related deviation.

In a preferred embodiment, furthermore, the order data associated with the defective blister bag is marked as defective so as to facilitate, for example, later finding of the defective blister bag in the strand of the associated blister bag. Alternatively or In addition, the order data of a faulty blister bag for re-processing are provided so that it is possible without the intervention of a user, despite a first erroneous compilation to produce a blister bag whose drug composition corresponds to the order data.

• Figur 1 eine schematische perspektivische Ansicht einer ersten Ausführungsform der erfindungsgemäßen Vorrichtung zeigt;
• Figur 2 eine schematische Seitenansicht einer zweiten Ausführungsform des erfindungsgemäßen Verfahrens zeigt; und
• Figur 3 eine Detailansicht des Abschnittes der Vorrichtung vor der eigentlichen Herstellung der Blisterbeutel zeigt.

In the following, two preferred embodiments of the device according to the invention and a preferred embodiment of the method according to the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which

• FIG. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of a first embodiment of the device according to the invention;
• FIG. 2 a schematic side view of a second embodiment of the method according to the invention; and
• FIG. 3 a detail view of the portion of the device before the actual production of the blister bag shows.

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the device 1 according to the invention, wherein in this illustration only essential features are shown for the invention. Insignificant structural features such as the outer wall, display and input means, etc. have been omitted for the sake of simplicity.

The device according to the invention comprises a support structure or frame 4 on which (m) a plurality of storage and dispensing stations 2 are detachably fastened, wherein a specific type of medicament portions can be arranged in each storage and dispensing station 2. Usually, two different portions of medication are arranged in each storage and dispensing station. In the case of such medication portions, which are frequently requested, however, it is also possible for the same portions of medication to be stored in several storage and dispensing stations 2.

The storage and dispensing stations 2 are arranged in the embodiment shown in two opposing matrix structures 5 (of which only one matrix structure is shown), wherein the matrix structures 5 are two first horizontal Include conveyor belts 6a, 6b, to which guide means 7 are attached. The guide means are releasably secured by fasteners 8 which are part of the first two conveyor belts 6a, 6b. In the embodiment shown, only a few guide devices 7 are shown; in practice, a guide device 7 is regularly fastened to each fastening element 8, so that the two first conveyor belts 6a, 6b are completely provided with conveying devices.

In the embodiment shown, the guide means are movable over the first conveyor belts along the storage and dispensing stations 2. As a result, a parallel processing of order data is made possible, since a guide device moves past each available portion of medication and thus with each guide device a medicament composition can be processed. However, a corresponding embodiment of the guide means is not essential to the present invention. For example, only a single guide device can be provided which can receive medication portions from all available storage and dispensing stations.

The conveyor belts 6a, 6b are driven by drive rollers 12, which are coupled via a vertical shaft 10 with a motor 11. To prevent slippage of the first conveyor belts 6a, 6b in the drive rollers 12, these are advantageously provided with a surface contouring.

In order to be able to receive medication portions from all the storage and dispensing stations 2, the guide means 7 have a plurality of openings (not shown). In order to reduce the height of fall of the individual portions of medication in the guide means 7, they have in the embodiment shown a plurality of undercuts 14, which are each associated with a horizontal row of storage and dispensing stations.

The apparatus further comprises a second conveyor belt 15, which is arranged below the two first conveyor belts, and which also has a plurality of fasteners 16. In each case a collecting device 17 is fastened to the fastening elements, in which medicament compositions are temporarily stored intermediately prior to transfer to a packaging station 3. The second conveyor 15 is also coupled via a gear and the vertical shaft 10 to the motor 11, so that the guide means 7 and the collecting means 17 are moved at the same rotational speed. As this particular at FIG. 1 can be seen, however, does not extend the matrix of the storage and dispensing stations and the two first conveyor belts 6a, 6b over the entire length of the conveyor belt 15, but are, in view of the "length" of the device, kept shorter, so that at At a certain point within the device there is a separation between the guide means and the collecting means. The guiding and collecting devices (which together form the guiding and collecting arrangement) move synchronously in the area of the storage and dispensing stations in the shown embodiment, a separation takes place at the end of the matrix structure of the storage and dispensing stations. However, such an embodiment is not essential to the invention. In another, significantly simpler embodiment of the device according to the invention, it is conceivable that the device has several (or even only one) combined guiding and collecting arrangement, by means of which or which medicament compositions are guided to the packaging station 3.

In the in the FIGS. 1 and 2 In the embodiments shown, the collected drug compositions are supplied to the packaging station 3 by means of the plurality of movable collecting devices 17. With reference to FIG. 3 In the following, the packaging station and the packaging station upstream components of the two embodiments of the device according to the invention will be described.

The packaging station 3 is associated with a supply roll 32 with packaging material 34. The supply roll 32 itself is moved by a drive 33. The packaging material 34 is supplied to one by one with a (in FIG. 3 not visible) control means 80 coupled labeling or printing station 20 for applying predetermined by the controller data in a predetermined arrangement on the packaging material 34 out. How exactly the given data is applied to the packaging material depends on the particular embodiment. For example, it is conceivable that the data is printed on the packaging material 34, or that a label with the predetermined data is glued to the packaging material.

The packaging material 34 leaves the labeling or printing station 20 with applied data 52, the data being applied to the packaging material 34 in such a way that the data are arranged at a likewise predetermined position on the blister bag for each blister bag to be subsequently formed. By means of two guide rollers 35, the packaging material provided with data is supplied to a forming area of the packaging station 3, in which the packaging material is folded centrally into a V-shape into which the drug compositions can be introduced upon opening the collecting means 17.

The packaging material 34 is provided with a longitudinal and two transversely extending to the transport direction seals, which are formed by these seals self-contained blister. These are not separated after completion, but it forms a strand 50 with associated blister bags 51st

For producing the longitudinal seal two heating means 37 are provided, of which in FIG. 3 only one is shown. These two heating means press the two upper ends of the V-shaped folded packaging material together and weld them together. The transverse seals of the blister bag are made by two rotating heating means 39, the rotation of which is coordinated with each other. On the basis of the speed of movement of the packaging material 34 and the rotational speed of the heating means 39 leave Precisely control the length, and thus the capacity, the blister bag.

In a sealing or production of the blister bag with heating means, a corresponding packaging material 34 is to be selected. In alternative embodiments, it is possible to make the individual blister bags in other ways, in which case the packaging material must be adapted accordingly. Thus, for example, it is also possible to apply a sealing or adhesive material during the production of the blister pack, via the adhesive effect of which the blister bag is produced.

Like this in the FIGS. 1 and 2 can be seen, the strand 50 is connected to the blister bags 51 from the packaging station 3 to a downstream of the packaging station 3 and guided to the control device 80 coupled optical detection device 40. This optical detection device comprises at least one detection means 41, which may be, for example, a camera. With the aid of this detection means 41, data of the blister bags passing through the detection device are detected. In the simplest case, for example, it is merely detected at which point of application of the blister bag the data previously applied with the labeling or printing device are arranged or whether (readable) data at all is arranged on the blister bags.

These "data" of a blister bag passing through the optical detection device are detected by an evaluation device 90 coupled to the control device 80 (the two aforementioned devices are merely in FIG FIG. 1 shown, but also in the embodiment according to FIG. 2 available) compared with desired characteristics of the respective blister bag. For example, referring to the simplest embodiment described above, it is compared whether the applied data is applied to the blisters at the right place.

Since the data is usually applied in a machine readable form (for example, in the form of a bar code), it is essential that these are applied so that they are readable by a machine. For this purpose, it is necessary for the data to be arranged on the blister bag in a specific detection range of a machine reading out this data. If it is determined in the aforementioned comparison that this is not the case, the first blister bag in which this error was determined initially has a bag-specific error. To make this visually apparent in the blister bag, includes in FIG. 2 shown embodiment of the device according to the invention a marking device 70, by means of which the blister bag recognized as defective is optically marked by means of at least one marking means 71, 72, for example by the bag is marked with a visually salient color.

If the same or similar errors are detected in the blister bag or blisters following the first defective blister bag, the operation of the device is stopped in response to the determined deviations in order to keep the number of defective blister bags low. After how many deviations and which deviations exactly a stop of the device is initiated, depends on parameters that can be specified to the control device or the evaluation device.

In the case that the desired characteristics are derived from the order data, these also include "features" with regard to the drug composition contained in a blister bag. For example, the target features include information about how many portions of medication comprises a drug compilation. In such a case, the optical detection device, optionally with an additional detection means 42, can determine how many portions of medicament are arranged in a blister bag, and this number is compared with the corresponding desired characteristic. If it is determined that there is a difference in the number of portions of medication, this blister pack is marked as defective. As already stated, the blister bag can be optically marked for this, but it is Also (additionally) possible to mark the order data as faulty or to provide this order data for re-processing, so that it is ensured that after all order data has been processed and the order data has been processed in their first compilation an error may have occurred.

After the strand 50 has passed through the optical detection device, this is on a roller 62, which is driven by a motor 61, magazined. In alternative embodiments, the strand may also be stored in an orderly folded manner, for example.

Claims (8)

1. A device for (1) for packaging individual medicament portions, comprising
   a plurality of storage and dispensing stations (2) for dispensing individual medicament portions,
   at least one guiding and collection device (7, 17) for receiving the medicament portions dispensed by the storage and dispensing stations (2) and forwarding these medicament portions to
   a packaging station (3), connected to a control device (80), which from provided packaging material (34) forms a string (50) of connected blister bags (51) and during forming of the blister bags introduces the dispensed medicament portions into the blister bags,
   a station (20), connected to the control device (80), for applying data (52) predetermined by the control device (80) to the packaging material (34) in a predetermined order,
   an optical recording device (40), connected to the control device (80),
   a storage station (60) in which the string (50) of blister bags (51) is stored in order,
   wherein the optical recording device (40) is arranged between the packaging station (3) and the storage station (60), characterised in that
   the station for applying data is a labelling or printing station arranged before the packaging station (3) and the optical recording device (40) is suitable for optically recording the data (52) of the individual blister bags of the string applied by the labelling or printing station,
   and also characterised by an evaluation device (90), connected to the control device (80), which is suitable for comparing the data (52) of an individual blister bag recorded by the optical recording device (40) with nominal features.
2. The device (1) for packaging individual medicament portions according to claim 1, characterised in that between the optical recording device (40) and the storage station (60) the device comprises a marking device (70), connected to the control device (80), with which individual blister bags can be marked.
3. A method of operating the device for packaging individual medicament portions according to any one of claims 1 - 2 wherein
   the control device (80) is provided with order data, wherein the order data relate to medicament compositions each with at least one medicament portion,
   medicament compositions are dispensed by the storage and dispensing stations (2) based on the order data,
   the medicament compositions are supplied to the packaging station (3),
   the labelling or printing station (20) applies data (52) to the packaging material (34) at predetermined areas of application,
   the packaging station (3) forms a string (50) of connected blister bags (51) from the provided packaging material (34) with the applied data, wherein data are assigned to each blister bag, and the dispensed medicament compositions are inserted into the blister bags during the forming of the blister bags,
   the string (50) is supplied to an optical recording device (40) and the data of a blister bag are optically recorded,
   the recorded data of a blister bag are compared with nominal features and if a deviation between the recorded data and the nominal features is determined a reaction assigned to the deviation is triggered and
   the string of blister bags is stored.
4. The method of operating the device for packaging individual medicament portions according to claim 3, characterised in that the nominal features are derived from the order data.
5. The method of operating the device for packaging individual medicament portions according to claim 3 or 4, characterised in that in the event of determining a systematic deviation between nominal features and recorded data the operation of the device is stopped.
6. The method of operating the device for packaging individual medicament portions according to claim 3 or 4, characterised in that in the event of determining a bag-related deviation between nominal features and recorded data a blister bag is identified as being faulty.
7. The method of operating the device for packaging individual medicament portions according to any one of claims 3 - 6, characterised in that in the event of determining a deviation between nominal features and recorded data the order data assigned to a blister bag is identified as being incorrect.
8. The method of operating the device for packaging individual medicament portions according to any one of claims 3 - 7, characterised in that in the event of determining a deviation between nominal features and recorded data, the order data are envisaged for renewed processing.

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