BLISTER PACKAGE STIFFENING

RIGIDIFICATION D'EMBALLAGE-COQUE

English Abstract

A coplanar panel (6) for stiffening a blister sheet (20) provides a
rectilinear array of rectangular windows (21) for
the reception of respective blisters, rows of horizontal and parallel
continuous strips (8) separating the longer sides of the blisters,
and transverse lines of interrupted strips (9) which serve to separate the
shorter sides of respective blisters. The interruptions provide
gaps (10) for accommodating a pair of parallel ducts (22) formed on the
blister sheet and which permit air to pass between
neighboring blisters when one of them is manually depressed. The panel is held
in place on the blister sheet by an adhesive layer
which secures the coplanar lands of the blister sheet to the contiguous
surfaces of the panel. A peel-off cover slip normally covers
the adhesive layer and cuts (10) extending through the thickness of the panel
but not the cover slip, serve to frame the portions of
the panel which are not required when the panel is to be used. These portions
remain adhering to the cover slip when it is peeled
off the panel.

French Abstract

L'invention porte sur un panneau coplanaire (6) pour rigidifier une feuille d'emballage-coque (20), lequel panneau procure un groupement rectiligne de fenêtres rectangulaires (21) pour la réception d'emballages-coques respectifs, des rangées de bandes continues horizontales et parallèles (8) séparant les longueurs des emballages-coques, et des lignes transversales de bandes interrompues (9) qui servent à séparer les largeurs d'emballages-coques respectifs. Les interruptions constituent des espaces (10) pour recevoir une paire de conduits parallèles (22) formés sur la feuille d'emballage-coque, et qui permettent à de l'air de passer entre des emballages-coques voisins lorsque l'un d'entre eux est enfoncé manuellement. Le panneau est maintenu en place sur la feuille d'emballage-coque par une couche adhésive qui fixe les zones coplanaires de la feuille d'emballage-coque aux surfaces contiguës du panneau. Une feuille de revêtement détachable couvre normalement la couche adhésive, et des entailles (10) s'étendant à travers l'épaisseur du panneau, mais non à travers la feuille de revêtement, servent à encadrer les parties du panneau qui ne sont pas nécessaires lorsque le panneau doit être utilisé. Ces parties restent adhérentes à la feuille de revêtement lorsqu'elle est séparée du panneau.

Claims

7
The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege
is
claimed are defined as follows:
1. A windowed planar stiffening panel adhered to contiguous coplanar lands
on
one face of a blister sheet, the blister sheet having blisters that protrude
through
respective windows of the panel and at least one duct interconnecting adjacent
blisters,
and the panel being formed with cuts extending through its thickness which
define (a)
individual windows for receiving respective blisters of the blister sheet, and
(b) an
opening between opposing ends of adjacent windows for receiving the at least
one duct
interconnecting adjacent blisters.
2. The panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein the windows are arranged in
perpendicular columns and rows to provide a rectilinear array of windows.
3. The panel as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, made from card, board or
plastic.
4. The panel as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the windows
are
rectangular and the openings are formed between the shorter sides of the
windows.
5. The panel as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the openings
between
opposing ends of adjacent windows have a width greater than their length.
6. The panel as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the blister
sheet has
two ducts interconnecting adjacent blisters which extend in parallel to one
another.

Description

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1
BLISTER PACKAGE STIFFENING
Field of the invention
THIS INVENTION relates to enhancing the stiffness of a blister package and is
more specifically concerned with stiffening a blister package having sealed
blisters
between which air can pass by way of ducts extending between them.
State of the art
Patients required to take prescribed medication doses at pre-determined times
of the
day are often provided with a blister package containing the doses. The
package is
constructed from a transparent blister sheet having blisters which
individually contain
the medication which the patient is required to take at a particular time on a
particular
day. The medication doses are held in the blisters by a frangible backing
sheet, such
as a thin metal foil. The blisters are transparent and have a relatively
flexible front
face so that finger pressure applied to the front face of a selected blister
presses the
doses inside it downwardly and against the backing sheet with sufficient force
to
cause the backing sheet to rupture. Such rupturing allows the doses to be
released
from the blister so that they can be collected for subsequent administration
to the
patient.
Elderly patients and those having relatively weak fingers sometimes have
difficulty
in exerting enough thrust on the front face of the blister to push the
medication doses
within it against the backing sheet to rupture it. This problem is partially
caused by
compression of a cushion of air held inside the blister resisting the downward
movement of the front face of the blister. To overcome this difficulty we have
created
a new form of blister sheet which has pairs of parallel, narrow ducts
communicating
at their pairs of ends with respective blisters. An increase in air pressure
inside one of
the blisters is then dissipated by air flowing through the duct or ducts into
one or

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more neighboring blisters which are preferably designed to expand slightly to
absorb
the additional air. This new form of blister sheet is described and claimed in
our co-
pending Australian patent-of-addition application No. 2009202203 filed on even
date herewith.
It is customary practice to stiffen and protect a blister package loaded with
medication doses. This may be achieved by covering the exposed surface of the
package from which the blisters protrude, with a stiff panel made of plastics,
card or
some other material which will enhance the stiffness of the package which may
also
protect it from subsequent damage. The panel may also be marked with legend to
io denote the times of day and the days of the week in which particular
blisters are to be
opened. Such marking cannot be easily carried out on the blister sheet itself.
In some situations, such as in nursing homes, it is preferable to trap a
loaded blister
package inside a stiff plastics folder so that it can be easily accessed by
authorized
personnel entrusted with the responsibility of administering the medication
doses to a
particular patient. However, if the patient is mobile it is usually more
convenient to
provide the patient with a light, cheap and easily-portable blister package
which only
has to be used once and is still strong enough to withstand normal day-to-day
handling by the patient.
Object of the invention
An object of this invention is to provide a stiffening panel for a blister
package.
The invention
In accordance with the present invention a planar stiffening panel for placing
against
lands on one face of a blister sheet from which blisters protrude, the panel
being
formed with cuts extending through its thickness and defining an array of
windows
for receiving respective blisters of the package, and openings communicating
at their
opposite ends with respective windows, each opening being provided by a gap
formed between adjacent ends of opposed fingers provided on the panel. The

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3
openings serve to provide channels in the blister package through which air
can pass
between the blisters at its opposite ends when one of the blisters is
depressed to eject
its contents through a backing sheet of the package.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a windowed
planar
stiffening panel adhered to contiguous coplanar lands on one face of a blister
sheet, the
blister sheet having blisters that protrude through respective windows of the
panel and
at least one duct interconnecting adjacent blisters, and the panel being
formed with cuts
extending through its thickness which define (a) individual windows for
receiving
respective blisters of the blister sheet, and (b) an opening between opposing
ends of
adjacent windows for receiving the at least one duct interconnecting adjacent
blisters.
Preferred features of the invention.
In the preferred arrangement of the panel the windows are arranged in
perpendicular
columns and rows to provide a rectilinear array of windows.
Suitably the face of the panel destined to lie flush against said one face of
the blister
package, is covered with an adhesive layer protected by a flexible cover slip
which can
be manually peeled off the panel prior to it being placed in its operating
position against
the blister package. The cuts extending through the panel do not pass through
the cover
slip so that when it is peeled off, portions of the panel remain adhering to
the cover slip
to expose the windows and openings in the panel.
The panel may be made from card or board or even plastics. Being planar it
allows
legend or other markings to be provided on its exposed face. As the panel can
now lie
flush against the sheet it can be firmly secured to it throughout its area.
Contact
between the panel and the sheet is thus uniform and not impaired in any way by
the
existence of the ducts extending between the blisters.
In the preferred arrangement the windows are rectangular and the openings are
formed
between the shorter sides of the blisters flanking the two sides of the strip.
Introduction to the drawings
The invention will now be described in more detail, by way of example, with
reference
to the accompany drawings, in which:-

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In the drawings
FIGURE 1 shows in plan a rectangular stiff card providing a panel having one
side
covered by a pressure adhesive layer protected by a manually-removable
flexible
cover slip which can be peeled off to expose the adhesive layer, the card
being
formed with thin lines of severance provided by cuts which extend through the
thickness of the card but do not extend through the slip;
FIGURE 2 is a plan view of a stiffening panel as seen after the adhesive layer
has
been exposed by removal of the cover slip which takes with it adhering
portions of
the panel to expose the windows and openings;
FIGURE 3 shows an unloaded blister sheet having a rectilinear array of
blisters and
formed with pairs of parallel ducts which open at their ends into the cavities
of
respective blisters; and,
FIGURE 4 shows the combination of panel and blister sheet which is formed when
the panel is pressed down to adhere onto coplanar lands of the blister sheet
which
extends around and between the blisters.
Description of preferred embodiment
Figure 1 shows a rectangular stiff card 1 backed by a layer of a pressure-
sensitive
adhesive (not shown) which is covered by a protective cover slip (also not
shown).
The adhesive layer is pressure sensitive in the sense that when it is exposed
to air by
peeling off the slip, it will adhere to virtually any surface onto which it is
pressed
without being heated.
The card alone is cut by slits through its thickness along closed outlines 3
which
define separate portions 4 of the card which are not required. The remainder 5
of the
card 1 provides the stiffening panel 6 of the combination of blister sheet and
stiffening panel shown in figure 4. The stiffening panel has the shape
illustrated in

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figure 2. The portions 4 comprise closed bodies and remain adhering to the
protective
slip when it is peeled off the back of the card I.
The panel 6 is formed with a rectilinear array of windows 4 as shown in figure
4.
These windows are arranged in horizontal rows separated from one another by
thin
5
unbroken strips 8. the windows are also arranged in vertical columns separated
from
one another by interrupted strips 9. These provide two opposed and spaced
strip
portions or fingers between each pair of windows in each horizontal rows
extend
from the strips 9. The ends of the fingers are spaced from one another to
provide
between them a gap 10.
As shown in figures 1 and 2, one end-portion 11 of the panel is formed with a
large
window 11 for displaying personal details of a patient together with details
of the
medication doses which a doctor has prescribed and which are contained in the
cavities of blisters of a blister sheet 20 shown in figure 3 and which is to
be stiffened
by an adhering panel 6 as shown in figure 4.
The end portion 11 of the panel 6 is marked with a line 14 of small slits
shown in
figure 2 to facilitate its folding into two parts 15 and 16 which can be
folded
together beyond the end of the blister sheet to bring two holes 13 on each of
the parts
15 and 16 into registration with one another. Slits 17 extending between the
registering holes enable the panel with an adhering blister to be easily hung
and
removed from hooks (not shown).
The unloaded blister sheet is shown in figure 3. It has a rectilinear array of
rectangular blisters 21 positioned to match the positions of the windows of
the panel
and so shaped that each blister can protrude through a respective window of
the
panel. Each pair of blisters in a horizontal row have their cavities
interconnected by a
255 pair of parallel and relatively narrow ducts 22 as shown in figure 4.
These ducts are
conveniently of the design described and claimed in our above-mentioned
Australian

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copending patent-of-addition application. Likewise the blister sheet may also
be of
the design described and claimed in said patent-of-addition application.
After the cavities of the blister sheet have been loaded with doses of
medication and
sealed, the stiffening panel 6 with exposed adhesive layer is placed over the
face of
the blister sheet from which the blisters protrude, and pressed down so that
it adheres
to the coplanar lands of the blister sheet. The gaps 10 in the vertical strips
9 provide
channels through which the ducts 22 in the blister sheet can pass in an
unobstructed
manner and without spoiling the flush adherence of the stiffening panel 6 to
the
blister sheet 20.
The thickness of the stiffening panel and the cross-sectional shape of the
ducts 22
are such that the ducts do not extend above the upper surface of the
stiffening panel 6
and are therefore, at least to some extent, protected by the thickness of the
panel.
The result is a stiffened blister package which has the face of the stiffening
panel 6
flush with the coplanar surface of the blister 20 sheet and, as is apparent
from figure
4, the ducts 22 passing in an unobstructed and protected manner between the
blister
cavities with which they communicate.
RECTIFIED SHEET (RULE 91) ISA/AU

Representative Drawing