US2900100A - Mixing containers - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 18, 1959 J. DEBAT ET AL MIXING CONTAINERS Filed Dec. 23, 1957 United States Patent MIXING CONTAINERS Jacques Debat, Saint-Cloud, Seine-et-Oise, and Andr Polgar, Paris, France; said Dehat assignor to Societe Anonyme des Laboratoires du Dr. Debat, Paris, France, a French company Application December 23, 1957, Serial No. 704,369 3 Claims: 01. 215-'6) When it is desired to use dispersions, solutions, mixtures, etc., which are liable to be subjected to deterioration with time, it is the usual custom to prepare them as and when they are required.

In this connection, containers have already been proposed having two compartments which are isolated from each other and which are only put into communication at the moment of use. More particularly it has been proposed to place in the interior of a closed container, containing for example a liquid, a smaller receptacle carried by the stopper of the first and which can be perforated or broken with a needle or a striker in order to empty its contents into the said liquid without having to remove the stopper of the large container. This arrangement leads to complications of construction which makes these double receptacles relatively expensive, and in certain cases brings the risk of introducing broken glass or other foreign non-sterile material into the final product.

The present invention has for its object an improvement in receptacles with multiple compartments with a view, in particular, to simplify the operation which is intended to put them into communication and, when so required, to cause the forcible projection of the contents of one compartment into another by the very fact of this communication, which gives rise toa turbulence favourable to the formation of the mixture.

A special feature of a receptacle constructed in accordance with the invention is that it has a compartment which is isolated from the neighbouring compartment by a partition which can be removed by the effect of pressure and which can be opened from the exterior, so that by keeping this compartment under vacuum, it is only necessary to open it at the moment of use for the atmospheric pressure to cause at the same time the separation of the partition and a projection of the contents of this compartment into the adjacent compartment.

In accordance with one of the forms of embodiment of the invention, the compartment having a separable partition is a receptacle provided with a neck of small diameter intended to be engaged in the stopper of a larger receptacle, for example a flask, so that this neck passes through to the exterior; the separable partition can be made integral with the remainder of the small receptacle, but is attached to it by a weakened portion which is the first to break away, or it may be separate from the small receptacle and be fixed thereto so as to be capable of separation by the effect of pressure; in this latter case, the separable partition may be for example a stopper or eventually a cap, a capsule or a plate fixed by an adhesive or in any like manner in order to close an orifice of the receptacle. More particularly, the small receptacle may be an ampoule, the neck of which is closed by sealing.

The invention is of particular advantage in the preparation as required of solutions of medicinal substances such as antibiotics or other bactericidal or bacteriostatic products, for putting ferments into contact with fermentable liquids, etc. An additional advantage is that the substances contained respectively in the ampoule and in the 2,900,100, Patented Aug. 18, 1959 ice in addition are protected from oxygen and from the humidity of the air.

Thus, the invention is especially useful for the preparation of sterile solutions of para-amino salicylic acid (PAS) in apyrogenic water.

Up to the present time, these solutions were prepared in advance and kept in bottles under vacuum after having been sterilised. Both during the sterilisation and during the preservation of these solutions of PAS, the solution was exposed to the risk of decomposition, with the conversion of a part of the PAS to meta-amino-phenol.

By virtue of the invention on the contrary, the apy-rogenic water and the crystallised PAS can be sterilised without any contact, and in this way the formation of aminophenol is avoided, since this formation does not take place in the solid phase.

As far as the bottle is concerned, the procedure is the same as up to the present time. It is filled with apyrogenie water and is then put under vacuum.

The ampoule is mounted by passing the neck through the stopper of the bottle so that its point passes out to the exterior, and so that the closure member which seals its base is immersed in the water in the bottle. This ampoule is sealed-up after having been put under vacuum, which may be higher than the vacuum which remains in the bottle.

In order to form the solution, the point of the ampoule is broken, and the latter is thus brought instantaneously up to atmospheric pressure. This pressure acts on the powder and on the closure plug, which are projected into the solvent.

The description which follows below with reference to the accompanying drawings (which are given by way of example only and not in any sense by way of limitation) will make it quite clear how the invention may be carried into effect, the special features which are brought out, either in the drawings or in the text, being understood to form a part of the said invention.

The single figure is an axial cross-section of a bottle or flask carrying an ampoule constructed in accordance with the invention.

The bottle 1 containing a liquid up to the level 10 is closed by a plastic stopper 2, in which is inserted the neck 3 of an ampoule 4, the latter being closed at its base by a separable partition shown in the form of a cap 5. The length and the amount of penetration of the neck of the ampoule into the stopper 2 are preferably chosen so that the cap 5 is below the level 10 of the liquid. The ampoule contains at 6 a substance to be distributed in the liquid and a vacuum is created in it before sealing-up the point 7.

When the point 7 is broken, the air admitted into the ampoule ejects the substance 6 and the cap 5 into the liquid of the bottle.

The bottle can then be used directly, after having been turned upside down, for the injection of the solution formed, if the latter is a medicinal solution, by means of the introduction of a needle into the stopper 2 for extraction of the liquid, the ampoule then carrying out the function of an air-inlet tube. In this case of course, care is taken to push in the ampoule far enough so that the liquid does not have access to it when the bottle is turned upside-down.

In order that the neck of the ampoule may be pushed through the stopper 2 by the desirable amount, a groove 8 may be provided on the neck 3 of the ampoule, as shown in the drawings, in which groove is engaged the edge of the opening made in the stopper.

It will of course be understood that modifications may be made to the form of embodiment which has just been described, more particularly by the substitution of equivalent technical means, without thereby departing from the spirit or firorn the scope of the present invention.

In particular, the ampoule 4, instead of being closed by sealing at 7, maybe closed at the same place by a fluid-tight cap, which only requires piercing with a needle to cause the admission of air.

What we claim is:

l. The combination comprising a partially evacuated funnel-shaped rigid frangible ampoulehaving a substanceenclosing enlarged body portion, an air-pressure removable cap hermetically sealing said body portion, said body portion tapering to an elongated stem portion, a manually severable tapered tip on the end of said stern portion; and an air evacuated, hermetically sealed receiving container for supporting said ampoule with said stem projecting outside said receiving container and said body portion projecting inside said receiving container.

2. The combination comprising a partially evacuated funnel-shaped rigid frangible ampoule having an enlarged substance-enclosing body portion, said body portion tapering to an elongated stem portion, an aperture in said body portion, an air-pressure removable sealing cap for said aperture adapted to be pressure biased against the outer surface of said enlarged body portion around said aperture, a manually severable tapered tip on the end of said stern portion; and a resilient ring-shaped supporting member air-tightly surrounding said stem portion between said tapered tip and said body portion; and an air evacuated receiving container hermetically sealed at its opening by said supporting member, said ampoule being supported 4 by said supporting member with said stern projecting outside said receiving container and said body portion projecting inside said receiving container;

3. The combination comprising an air evacuated receiving container; an evacuated funnel-shaped rigid frangible ampoule in which a lower pressure exists than in said receiving container, said ampoule having an openended substance-enclosing enlarged body portion and an elongated stern portion, said stem portion tapering to a closed manually severable tapered tip; a ring-shaped support member around said ampoule stem portion intermediate said tapered tip and said body portion, said support member closing said receiving container in hermetically sealing relation and supporting said ampoule with said body portion inside said receiving container and said tapered tip outside said receiving container; and a sealing cap pressure-biased by the pressure in said receiving container to hermetically seal the open-ended body portion of said ampoule and adapted to be automatically removed from said body portion upon the ingress of atmospheric air upon severance of said manually severable tapered tip.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,644,821 Eckart Oct. ll, 1927 2,494,294 Greenburg Jan. 10, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 509,680 Belgium Mar. 31, 1952

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