GB2258207A

GB2258207A - Production of blister packs

Info

Publication number: GB2258207A
Application number: GB9215799A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ekkehard Kleinschmidt
Original assignee: Adolf Illig Maschinenbau GmbH and Co KG
Current assignee: Adolf Illig Maschinenbau GmbH and Co KG
Priority date: 1991-07-31
Filing date: 1992-07-24
Publication date: 1993-02-03
Anticipated expiration: 2012-07-24
Also published as: DE4125335C2; DE4125335A1; FR2679868A1; FR2679868B3; GB2258207B; GB9215799D0

Description

PRODUCTION OF BLISTER PACKS The present invention relates to apparatus for

and a method of producing blister packs in which a blister hood is retained between two sheet elements, such as two cardboard sheets or two parts of a cardboard sheet, which are sealed together, and to blister packs 5 produced by such apparatus or method.

Blister packs of this kind have a significant advantage over blister packs consisting of a blister hood and a cardboard sheet sealed thereto. On opening of the blister pack, a clean separation takes place between the blister hood and the cardboard sheet without cardboard remnants remaining at a sealing rim of the hood. Such cardboard remnants impede or prevent recycling of the constituent material, usually plastics material, of the hood, such recycling being increasingly desired.

In a device known from DE-PS 26 13 155, blister packs are produced by bending a cardboard carrier. which is provided with an aperture, through 180' and laying the blister hood therebetween. It is disadvantageous in this device that the insertion ot the blister hood must be undertaken manually and that automatic feed by an automatic moulding machine is not possible. The manipulation of the cardboard carrier, filling of the blister hood. further transport and folding-over of the cardboard carrier are susceptible to faults. Sealing of the blister hood between two separate cardboard carriers is not possible with this known device.

There is thus a need for apparatus which can be connected linearly with an automatic moulding machine for the production of the blister hoods. It should preferably be possible to produce blister packs with two separate cardboard carriers as well as with one cardboard carrier folded over.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for producing blister packs in which a blister hood is held between two sheet elements which are sealed together and can be connected in the manner of a hinge at one side, the apparatus comprising a circulating pallet belt, a transfer station for the blister hoods, a sheet element deposit station, a filling path, a second sheet element deposit station or an element-bending station and a sealing station, the apparatus being able to be linearly interlinked with a moulding machine which moulds the blister hoods and transfers them into the belt pallets in the transfer station, wherein transposing means is provided for the blister hoods, which takes these out of the first deposit station and -transfers them into the pallet preceding in direction of transport before sheet elements are laid into the pallets in this deposit station.

Preferably, the transposing means comprises a pivotable lever and an arm provided with suction entraining means and arranged to be rotatable at the lever. The lever together with the arm and the suction entraining means can be constructed to be displaceable upwardly and downwardly. The transposing means may also comprise means for holding the blister hoods, which are entrained by sucti.on, in a constant attitude during pivotation of the lever.

Due to the installation of transposing means for the blister hoods, a linear coupling of the apparatus with an automatic moulding machine for the production of the blister hoods is possible. When two separate sheet elements are used, a second deposit station is provided in front of the sealing station. When a folded sheet element is used, a bending station is arranged in place of a second deposit station.

According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided plant comprising a moulding machine for moulding blister hoods and apparatus according to the first aspect of the invention arranged directly downstream of the machine.

According to yet another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of producing blister packs in which a blister hood is held between two sheet elements sealed together, the method comprising the steps of transferring blister hoods in succession to carrier members on an endless belt, depositing a sheet element on each carrier member, removing each blister hood from the respective carrier member and transferring it to a pr.eceding carrier member with an already- deposited sheet element, the depositing of sheet elements being carried out on carrier members from which blister hoods have been removed, filling each blister hood, closing each filled blister hood by folding over a portion of the associated sheet element or depositing a further sheet element, and sealing together the sheet elements or element portions.

The invention also embraces a blister pack produced by the apparatus, plant or method according to the respective aspects of the invention.

An embodiment of the apparatus and example of the method of the invention will now be more particularly described with refe"rence to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic longitudinal elevation of apparatus embodying the invention; Fig. 2 is a detail view showing transposing equipment of the apparatus; Fig. 3 is a detail view of a cardboard-bending station of the apparatus; is a sectional view of a blister pack produced by the apparatus and with two separate cardboard carriers; and Fig. 5 is a sectional view of a blister pack produced by the apparatus and with a folded cardboard carrier.

Referring now to the drawings there is shown apparatus comprising an intermittently moved pallet belt 2, which circulates in a frame and is provided with carrier members in the form of pallets 3, and different operating stations arranged along a work run of the belt. Blister hoods 5 produced in an upstream moulding machine 1 are transferred into the pallets 3 in the transfer station 4. In direction of transport, signified by an arrow, there then follows a cardboard carrier deposit station 6 with a cardboard carrier magazine 7 and a pivotable arm 8 with suckers 9. The magazine holds cardboard carriers 10 or 33, which are held by vacuum and transferred from the magazine 7 into the pallet 3 after a pivotal movement (denoted by a chain-dotted line in Fig. 1).

Fig. 4 A transposing device 11 for the blister hoods 5 is arranged directly after the deposit station 6. The device 11 consists of a lever 12, which is pivotable at a rotational centre 30 by way of a crank drive, preferably by a motor, and an arm 13 with suckers 14 of adjustable height for entraining blister hoods by suction. The arm 13 is mounted in the lever to be rotatable and the device includes equipment, for example two chain wheels 28 and 29 with a roller chain 26, to ensure that entrained blister hoods 5 maintain a horizontal position during transposition. The lever 12, which mounted in a guide member 32, is arranged together with this to be displaceable in height on rods 31, so that an upper setting with suckers 4 moved out of the depression of the blister hood 5 is possible. Pivotation of the lever 12 and transporting of the pallets 3 by the belt takes place in this raised setting.

is The transposing device 11 is adjoined by a filling station 15 extending over a path, in which items 16 to be packed are laid into blister hoods 5 either manually or by appropriate feed equipment.

There then follows a station 17, which is constructed either as a second cardboard carrier deposit station with a magazine 22 for cardboard carriers 34 and corresponding transfer equipment 23 (Fig. 1) or as a bending station (Fig. 3) for bending previously deposited carriers 33. In the latter case, an obliquely displaceable presser foot takes over retention of each cardboard carrier 33 while it is bent over by way of a bending device 24, which is pivotable or displaceable vertically and horizontally, in co-operation with the presser foot into the setting indicated in chain-dotted lines in Fig. 3.

According to the construction of this station 17, blister packs 19 are produced with blister hoods disposed between two separate cardboard carriers 10 and 34 (Fig. 4) between a single folded-over cardboard carrier 33 (Fig. 5).

Sealing of the two cardboard carriers or carrier portions all round then takes place in a downstream sealing station 18. The finished blister packs 19. are transferred by a transfer device 27 to a transport belt 20.

The apparatus operates as follows, beginning with the starting of the apparatus, for example after re-equipment. A first pallet 3 is charged with blister hoods 5 in the transfer station 4. The pallet is transported on by the belt through one transport step (distance A) and the next second - pallet 3 is charged. When the first pallet 3 is disposed one transport step in front of the cardboard transfer station 6, the appropriate cardboard carrier 10 or 33 is laid into the pallet 3 actually in the station 6, that is to say a pallet preceding the first (filled) pallet in the- transport direction. After the next transport step "A", the blister hoods 5 are taken out of the first pallet - which is now in the station 6 - by the transposing device 11 and transferred into the aforesaid preceding pallet 3, thus into that loaded with a cardboard carrier 10 or 33. The cardboard carriers 10 and 30 have, for this purpose, apertures 21 through which the blister hoods 5 project and are supported by their flanges. The insertion of the next cardboard carrier 10 or 30 into the first (now empty) pallet 3 in the station 4 can now take place. The filling, application of the upper cardboard carrier 34 or folding of the cardboard carrier 33, sealing and transporting on take place in the subsequent stations.

1

Claims

1. Apparatus for producing blister packs in which a blister hood is held between two sheet elements sealed together, the apparatus comprising an endless belt with carrier members and a plurality of work stations which are arranged along the path of the belt and comprise transfer means for transferring blister hoods from a moulding machine to the carrier members, deposit means to deposit a sheet element on each carrier member, transposing means to remove each blister hood from the respective carrier member and to transfer it to a preceding carrier member with an already-deposited sheet element,the deposit means being operable to deposit a sheet element on each carrier member from which a blister hood has been removed, filling means to fill each blister hood, closing means to close each filled blister hood by folding over a portion of the associated sheet element or depositing a further sheet element, and sealing means to seal together the sheet elements or element portions.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the transposing means comprising a pivotable lever and an arm which is rotatably mounted on the lever and provided with suction entraining means for entraining blister hoods by suction.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the lever together with the arm and suction entraining means is displaceable upwardly and downwardly.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 or claim 3, the transposing means comprising means to cause each entrained blister hood to remain in the same attitude during pivotation of the lever.

5. Apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

6. Plant comprising a moulding machine for moulding blister hoods and apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims arranged directly downstream of the machine.

7. A method of producing blister packs in which a blister hood is held between two sheet elements sealed together, the method comprising the steps of transferring blister hoods in succession to carrier members on an endless belt, depositing a sheet element on each carrier member, removing each blister hood from the respective carrier member and transferring it to a preceding carrier member with an already- deposited sheet element, the depositing of sheet elements being carried out on carrier members from which blister hoods have been removed, filling each blister hood, closing each filled blister hood by folding over a portion of the associated sheet element or depositing a further sheet element, and sealing together the sheet elements or element portions.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the or each sheet element is cardboard.

9 - 9. A method as claimed in claim 7 and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

10. A blister pack produced by apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 or by plant as claimed in claim 6.

11. A blister pack produced by a method as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 9.