Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02632278 2008-05-23
CHILD RESISTANT BLISTER PACKAGING
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present application relates to packaging and, more particularly, to
a blister pack for dispensing items such as pills, capsules andlor tablets,
that requires
the user to perform a series of steps to access a pill within the card, thus
preventing a
child, but not an adult, access to items present within the blister pack.
BACKGROUND OF THE ART
Child resistant packaging for pills, such as tablets and capsules, is well
known for preventing uncontrolled consumption of pills by children. For
example,
blister packs having reinforced push-through type backing foil have been used
in an
attempt to prevent children from accessing pills within the blister pack.
Often,
however, such blister packs are difficult for adults, particularly elderly
adults, to
open.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide child resistant packaging
that renders access to pills difficult for children yet facile for adults.
SUMMARY
In accordance with one general aspect, there is provided a child
resistant card for dispensing pills, e.g., capsules and/or tablets, that
renders access to
the pills difficult for a child but not for an adult. The child resistant
blister card
enables the user to access the item disposed within the card after perforining
a series
of steps.
According to one aspect, there is provided a child resistant blister card
assembly comprising: a blister card having a blister cavity for holding one
item to be
dispensed, and a foil sealing the item in the blister cavity; a protective
envelope in
which the blister card is retained captive, the protective envelope having a
front panel
and a back panel, the blister card being received between the front panel and
the back
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panel with the blister cavity of the blister card projecting outwardly through
a blister
hole defined in the front panel; a front weakened area defined in the front
panel and
the blister card adjacent to the blister cavity; a tear tab defined in the
back panel and
underlying the first weakened area and the blister cavity, when in place, the
tear tab
providing resistance to prevent the item from being pushed through the foil of
the
blister card, the tear tab being held in a non-accessible position to prevent
a person
from grasping and pulling on the tear tab, wherein the tear tab is released
from said
non-accessible position thereof by applying a sufficient pressure on the front
weakened area to depress the front weakened area and cause detachment of a
portion
of the tear tab from the back panel, thereby providing a grasp by which the
tear tab
can then be peeled back to expose the foil.
According to a further aspect, there is provided a child resistant blister
card assembly comprising: a blister card including a container sheet defining
at least
one blister container for receiving an item to be dispensed, and a backing
foil sealing
the item in the blister container; a back panel at least partly covering said
backing
foil, the back panel having a closure held in a closed position in which the
closure
prevents the item from being push through the backing foil; and a releaser
provided
on a front face of said blister card and being adapted to transfer a pressure
to said
closure so as to release the closure from said closed position thereof,
thereby
allowing subsequent displacement of the closure from the closed position to an
open
position in which the backing foil is exposed such as to allow the item to be
pushed
through the backing foil.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a child resistant blister package shown
in an unassembled state and including a blister card adapted to be captively
received
between hingedly interconnected front and back paperboard panels.
Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the assembled child resistant blister
package shown in Fig. 1, the section being taken transversely through a
central blister
cavity or pocket; and
Figs. 3a to 3c illustrate the series of steps required to dispense a pill
contained in the blister package.
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DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Figs. I and 2 illustrate a child resistant blister package 10 comprising
a push-through blister card 12 and a protective envelope 14 configured to
captively
receive the blister card 12. In the illustrated example, the blister package
12 is
intended to be used to dispense a single item I, such as a pill, a capsule
and/or a
tablet, for which the dosage is, for instance, once a month. While a single-
product
blister package is shown, it is understood that the present application also
encompasses multiple-item blister packages.
The blister card 12 is of conventional construction and comprises a
container sheet 16 having a centrally disposed raised cavity also referred to
as a
blister container 18 formed therein and projecting from a front face thereof.
A
backing foil 20 is heat sealed or otherwise secured to the container sheet 16
to seal
the item I in the blister container 18. The container sheet 16 is made of a
material
having sufficient flexibility for allowing the blister container 18 to be
easily manually
depressed. For instance, the container sheet can be made out of clear plastic
materials, such as transparent polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene or
polypropylene. This
is not intended to constitute an exhaustive list. The backing foi120 can be
provided in
the form of a laminate of thin metal foil such as aluminum foil. Other
suitable
materials are contemplated as well. The structure of the backing foil 20 is
such that
manual depression of the blister container 18 downwardly against the itein I
is
sufficient to push the item I through the backing foil 20. Such foils are
known as
push-through foils.
The protective envelope 14 can be formed of a single sheet of solid
paperboard material die-cut in the desired configuration. As shown in Fig. 1,
the
envelope 14 comprises a front paperboard panel 22 and a back paperboard panel
24
integrally interconnected along a fold line or live hinge 26. The blister card
12 is
sandwiched between the front and back panels 22 and 24 of the protective
envelope
14. A central opening 28 is defined in the front panel 22. The blister
container 18
protrudes through the central opening 28. Likewise, openings 30 are defined in
the
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corner regions of the front panel 22 for receiving corresponding projections
31
formed in the container sheet 16 of the blister card 12. The projections 31 in
the
openings 30 provide added stability to the package 10 once fully assembled.
Alternatively, corner domes or projections 31 could be substituted by
stability ridges
according to the layout and configuration of the package. It is noted that
such
additional stability is not always required and as such the stability features
are
considered optional. The back pane124 overlies the backing foil 20 of the
blister card
12 and provides the required strength to prevent the item I contained in the
blister
container 18 from being dispensed in a single step by solely manually
depressing the
blister container 18 so as to push the item I through the backing foi120.
While the protective envelope 14 has been described as being made of
paperboard, it is understood that it could made of any other suitable material
offering
enough strength to prevent the item I from being pushed directly by hand
through the
backing foil 20 when the back panel 24 is in place behind the blister card 12.
Also,
additional serially interconnected foldable panels (not shown) similar to the
front and
back panels 22 and 24 could integrally extend from one of the front and back
panels
22 and 24 to allow the package 10 to fold into a wallet-like configuration,
thereby
providing a nice and clean packaging aspect to the product. Information on the
item
contained in the blister card 12 as well as graphic representations could be
printed on
the outer foldable sections of the envelope 14 to further provide an appealing
package.
The assembly of the blister package 10 can be done by first
positioning the blister card 12 on the inner face of the front paperboard
panel 22 and
then adhesively securing the blister card 12 to the front pane122. The
adhesive can be
solely applied along one side of the blister card 12. Not all of the surface
of the blister
card 12 needs to be bonded to the front paperboard panel 22. The bonding
between
the blister card 12 and the front panel 22 of the envelope 14 is mainly done
for
maintaining the relative disposition of the blister card 12 and the front
paperboard
panel 22 during the assembly process and is thus not considered critical to
the
integrity of the package. Then, the front and back paperboard panels 22 and 24
are
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closed on the blister card 12 and adhesively secured together, for instance,
by
applying an adhesive on the inwardly facing surfaces of the front and back
panels 22
and 24 within a margin area outwardly of the periphery of the blister card 12
(see Fig.
2).
A weakened area 32 is provided in the front panel 22 and the blister
card 12 just above the blister container 18 and the corresponding central hole
28. The
weakened area 32 can be provided by a semi-circular or half-moon score line 34
die
cut in the front panel 22 and the blister card 12. The semi-circular score
line 34 is
sized to form a thumb pressing region (see Fig. 3a) which can be easily
depressed
with a thumb in order to release a pull zipper or tear tab 36 formed in the
back panel
24 of the protective envelope 14. The tear tab 36 is otherwise not accessible;
it is
confined within the back panel 24. In order to be able to grasp the tear tab
36, the
weakened area 32 must be depressed by manually pressing thereon so as to cause
a
portion of the tear tab 36 to come out of the plane of the back panel 24,
thereby
providing a tab portion by which the user can subsequently grasp the tear tab
34 in
order to ripped it off from the back panel 24, thereby exposing the backing
foil 20.
The tear tab 36 extends over the blister container 28 and the front
weakened area 32. The score line defining the outline of the tear tab 36 is
spaced
inwardly from the contour of the back panel 24. This prevents someone from
picking
up one end of the tear tab 36 to pull it off before the front weakened area 32
is
depressed. The half-moon score line 34 is in registry with the upper end
portion of
the tear tab 36 and disposed slightly inwardly of the tear tab score line. In
this way,
the pressure applied on the weakened area 32 is directly transmitted to the
upper end
portion of the tear tab 36 through the blister pack 12 until the tear tab
upper end
portion detaches from the remaining portion of the back pane124.
Figs. 3a to 3c show the procedure to dispense the item I from the
blister package 10. Three steps are required to access the item I. First, as
shown in
Fig. 3a, the user must depress the front weakened area 32 by pushing thereori
with
one of his/her fingers, typically the thumb. In doing so, the upper end
portion of the
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tear tab 36 is released from the remaining portion of the back panel 24 of the
protective envelope 14. The first step is required to gain access to the tear
tab 36
which is otherwise held in a non-accessible position. Thereafter, as shown in.
Fig. 3b,
the user can grasp the upper portion of the tear tab 36 to pull it away so as
to expose
the portion of the backing foil 20 covering the blister container 18. The user
can then
press with his/her thumb on the blister container 18 to push the item I
through the
uncovered region of foi120.
The above procedure thus requires a series of steps to be performed in
order to access the item I. These steps are relatively easy for an adult to
accomplish
but sufficiently difficult to discourage a young child.
The above description is meant to be exemplary only, and one skilled
in the art will recognize that changes may be made to the embodiments
described
without departing from the scope of the invention disclosed. For instance, it
is
understood that the front weakened area could be disposed on the sides or
below the
blister container. The weakened area 32 is one possible way of releasing the
tear tab
36. Other suitable pressure transferring structures could also be used as
releasers to
cause a portion of the tear tab to become detached from the back panel 24.
According
to a non-illustrated embodiment, the front panel 22 could be omitted and the
front
weakened area 32 could only beformed in the blister card 12. In this case the
blister
card 12 would be adhesively secured to the back panel 24. The adhesive would
be
placed at strategic places in order not to interfere with the release of the
tear tab 36,
i.e. the tear tab would be adhesive free. The tear tab 36 could be replaced by
other
forms of closures adapted to be opened after having first performed an
"unlocking"
step. Other modifications can be made without departing from scope of the ir-
vention
as defined in the following claims.
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