The present invention relates generally to materials handling, and more particularly to pharmaceutical prescription handling.
In mail order, central fill and large retail pharmacies, as well as at nutraceutical or nutritional supplement packaging facilities, prescription drugs, nutraceuticals and nutritional supplements are dispensed in a high volume. For such services, it is known to use an automatic pill dispensing system to carry out the dispensing of the prescription drugs automatically at a rapid rate.
Some systems have the ability to dispense medications so that medications taken by the patient at the same time are packaged together. Such collections of medications may be packaged in plastic pouches, with each pouch representing an administration time for the patient (e.g., with breakfast, lunch or dinner, at bedtime, etc.). One automated system for dispensing pharmaceuticals into pouches is available from Parata Systems, LLC (Durham, North Carolina) under the trade name ATP®2. Such a machine, shown in
Other machines of this variety and canisters used therewith are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,258,248; 6,898,919; 7,228,988; and 7,637,078, all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in full.
Naturally, the pharmacies filling these orders wish to fill them as efficiently as possible, with little down time. One time-consuming task that can reduce efficiency is the replenishment of canisters. Thus, it may be desirable to provide an approach that reduces down time due to replenishment.
As a first aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to a canister for an automated pharmacy packaging machine. The canister comprises: a base; a rotary member positioned in the base; a sleeve mounted to the base having a cavity; a diverter mounted to the sleeve and extending into the cavity, the diverter having a leading edge; and a cover mounted to the sleeve. The diverter is oriented at an oblique angle relative to a longitudinal axis of the sleeve.
As a second aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to a kit for expanding the capacity of a canister for an automated pharmaceutical packaging machine, the kit comprising: a hollow sleeve having a plurality of side walls, wherein a slot is present in at least one of the side walls; and a plurality of diverters, each of the diverters being configured to mount to the sleeve via the slot such that a leading edge of the diverter is located within the sleeve.
As a third aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to an automated pharmaceutical packaging machine comprising: a framework; and a plurality of drawers mounted onto the framework via drawer slides, the drawers arranged in an array of rows and columns. Each of the drawers includes a plurality of canisters configured to dispense pharmaceuticals into a chute within the drawer. Drawers positioned in the same column have aligned chutes that form a path to a collection area for packaging. At least some of the drawers have a first height, and some of the other drawers have a second height that is substantially two times the first height.
The present invention is described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which certain embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments that are pictured and described herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. It will also be appreciated that the embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in any way and/or combination to provide many additional embodiments.
Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. In the figures, certain layers, components or features may be exaggerated for clarity. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms that are used in this disclosure have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The terminology used in the below description is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in this disclosure, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on,” “attached to,” “connected to,” “coupled with,” “contacting,” etc., another element, it can be directly on, attached to connected to, coupled with or contacting the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being, for example, “directly on,” “directly attached to,” “directly connected to,” “directly coupled with,” or “directly contacting” another element, there are no intervening elements present. It will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that references to a structure or feature that is disposed “adjacent” another feature may have portions that overlap or underlie the adjacent feature.
Spatially relative terms, such as “under”, “below”, “above”, “over”, “upper”, “lower”, “left”, “right” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is inverted, elements described as “under” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “over” the other elements or features. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the descriptors of relative spatial relationships used herein interpreted accordingly.
As used herein, phrases such as “between X and Y” and “between about X and Y” should be interpreted to include X and Y. As used herein, phrases such as “between about X and Y” mean “between about X and about Y.” As used herein, phrases such as “from about X to Y” mean “from about X to about Y.”
One potential solution to reducing the replenishment burden discussed above would be to increase the capacity of the canisters 16 within the drawers 12. Referring again to
One option for addressing this limitation without considerably re-designing the machine 10 would be to include one or more “double drawers” (designated at 190 in
As can be seen in
Referring now to
As can be seen in
The presence of the slot 130 can enable the insertion of a diverter into the sleeve 100 to facilitate dispensing of pills from the canister 116. It has been determined that, when the canister 116 is fully loaded with certain pills, the weight of the pills (combined with their shape and size) can on occasion impede the rotation of the crown and/or its ability to agitate and convey pills, to the extent that dispensing is negatively impacted. It has further been discovered that the inclusion of a diverter within the sleeve 100 can address these shortcomings and enable the canister 116 to operate smoothly and reliably, even with the increased volume of pills discussed above.
While the diverter 140 can enable smooth operation of the canister with certain pills, other pills may benefit from a different diverter due to the size, shape, and or other characteristics of the pills.
It is also contemplated that the sleeve 100 and diverters 140, 150, 160, 170 may be provided to a pharmacy as a kit 180 (see
Use of the sleeve 100 between the base 21 and the cover 23 can expand the capacity of the canister 116 dramatically. In one embodiment, inclusion of the sleeve 100 provides the canister with 915 cc of volume, compared to 330 cc for the canister 16 that lacks a sleeve 100. Thus, the sleeve 100 can increase capacity almost three-fold. Of course, the increased capacity has a direct positive impact on reducing replenishment events, which in turn reduces machine down-time.
Typically, the sleeve 100 and diverters 140, 150, 160, 170 are formed of a polymeric material, such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS). In some embodiments, a food grade polymer is employed.
Another aspect of the use of a “double drawer” 190 in the machine 10 is the additional weight of the canisters 116 that must be supported by the drawer. For example, sixteen fully-loaded canisters 16 in a conventional drawer 12 may weigh between about 16 and 48 pounds. However, sixteen fully loaded canisters 116 in a double drawer may weigh between about 65 and 85 pounds, or even more. As such, modification of the hardware supporting the double drawers may be required or desirable.
Referring now to
In prior machines, drawer slides for single drawers were mounted to the uprights 214, which were adequate to support the typical weight of a single drawer. However, with the increased weight of the double drawers, in some instances the uprights 214 may not be sufficient to support the additional weight.
Notably, the brace 220 has a thickness that is essentially the same as the thickness of the uprights 214. As such, the brace 220 provides mounting locations for drawer slides at “width” locations in the machine that are similar to those for single drawers. As a result, both single and double drawers may be employed in the same machine, and even in the same column of drawers in the drawer bank, while relying on the same basic design and footprint of prior machines. The braces 220 may also be used to retrofit an existing machine with one or more double drawers.
Also, given that a double drawer is twice as tall as a single drawer, accommodation may be required to prevent pills dropping through the chute 24 from an upper drawer from being diverted out of the chute 24 as they pass a lower double drawer 190. Referring to
The chute extender 240 also includes optional angled front and rear deflectors 250, 252 between the side walls 242 at the front and rear of the chute extender 240 to mimic similar deflectors located between the walls 26 of the drawer 12. These deflectors 250, 252 encourage pills on a forward or rearward path to deflect toward the center of the chute 24.
Those of skill in this art will appreciate that the machine and components discussed herein may take different forms. The sleeve 120 may be taller or shorter, may have a different footprint, may have a different cross-section, or the like. The sleeve 120 may also be employed with a different singulating device within the canister. The sleeve 120 may also be employed in some embodiments without any of the diverters 140, 150, 160, 170, or may employ diverters/deflectors of a different form. For example,
In addition, the machine 10 may omit the brace 220, or the brace 220 may take a different form or be attached to the framework in a different manner. Similarly, the chute extender 240 may be omitted in some embodiments, and/or the walls 24 of the drawer 12 may be manufactured in a taller form.
Further, although the concepts discussed herein are directed to the pouch packaging machine 10, those of skill in this art will appreciate that other types of pharmaceutical packaging machines, such as blister pack packaging machines, may also benefit from such concepts.
The foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting thereof. Although exemplary embodiments of this invention have been described, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined in the claims. The invention is defined by the following claims, with equivalents of the claims to be included therein.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/669,586, filed Feb. 11, 2022, which claims priority from and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/155,814, filed Mar. 3, 2021, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in full.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63155814 | Mar 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17669586 | Feb 2022 | US |
Child | 18795514 | US |