A standardized blister pack, for instance for marketing pills, capsules, and like small objects, is made by forming a thermoplastic base foil with an array of upwardly open pockets or blisters. The objects are then loaded into the pockets, either one per pocket or a predetermined number per pocket, and a top foil is bonded to the top face of the base foil between the pockets thereof, hermetically sealing in the objects. The laminated-together foils are then cut into individual packages normally each with a plurality of the pockets, and these packages are then labeled and packed for distribution. Such machines are known from German patent documents 42 08 818. They may even be set up as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,225,597 or French 2,754,239 for putting different pills into the pockets or blisters.
A method is also known method for individually filling blister packs having pockets with small objects from a selection of at least two different small object types, in which method in one filling machine the small objects are provided in a number of supply cassettes equal to the number of small object types and are conveyed from the supply cassettes to a picking station allocated to the respective supply cassette. Here as described in WO 2001/074666 or US 2008/109007 the blister pack is supplied to the filling machine, and the small objects are transferred individually from the dispensing position by feeders such as known from US 2005/0217208 into the pockets of the blister.
For most efficient use of a complex thermoshaping machine very large numbers of identical blister packs need to be produced. However, there is also the need to be able to produce single, individually filled blister pack in order to be able to provide customers, especially patients, blister pack in which individual daily, weekly, or monthly blister pack are provided with the appropriate rations in order to prevent medication errors, especially when a plurality of medications must be taken on varying schedules.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds