Device for selectively dispensing solid products from a blister strip retained in the device

Abstract

Device for safeguarding a blister strip and enabling a tablet or the like to be dispensed from a respective housing on the blister strip, which is retained and protected within the device. This latter is formed from a single sheet of cardboard folded about the blister strip, the blisters of which extend through holes provided in a part of the sheet, in the other part of which there being provided breakable knurlings defining removable discs which are aligned with said holes to enable said discs to break with consequent detachment of said discs and expulsion of said tablets when the individual blisters of the blister strip are pressed with the finger of one hand.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a device able to retain and protect a blister strip having a plurality of separate seats containing solid products, the device being such as to enable the solid product enclosed in each housing of the blister strip to be selectively expelled when the blister of a housing is pressed with the finger of one hand. [0003] 2. Discussion of the Background [0004] Many solid products (for example pharmaceutical products in the form of pills, tablets, capsules, sugar-coated pills and the like) are known to be often packaged in blister strips consisting of an easily breakable air-impermeable sheet of aluminium (or other material) thermobonded to a sheet of transparent plastic material shaped to form cavities or projections which, together with the aluminium sheet, define housings in which said tablets or the like are positioned and protected. At these housings the blister strip presents blister...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] The main object of the present invention is provide a device for housing and protecting a blister strip and for enabling an individual tablet to be dispensed only when the user wishes, and without the danger of causing simultaneous expulsion of other tablets or of damaging the aluminium sheet or the like defining the housing, the device being of extremely low cost and housable in the interior of each box housing blister strips, or be formed in one piece with the cardboard forming the box housing the blister strip.

Problems solved by technology

The boxes—which often contain illustrative leaflets, obligatory if the products to be dispensed are pharmaceutical products—are rather bulky and the user often retains only the blister strip and disposes of the box.

It follows that as the aluminium sheet of the blister strip can be involuntarily broken at undesired points, either when used to expel a single tablet or the like, or while simply retained in a box or handbag, there is the drawback that one or more tablets or the like can be accidentally expelled from their respective housings on the blister strip, or that the aluminium sheet under a tablet can simply be partially broken, hence leaving the tablet exposed to the outside environment.

In seeking to limit these drawbacks, the thickness of the aluminium sheet can be increased (so increasing costs and the difficulty encountered in expelling the tablet from the blister strip), or rigid devices of moulded plastic or metal construction can be used in the form of a box in which to contain the blister strip, this box presenting opposing holes such that the blisters of the blister strip project from a series of holes provided in a wall of the box, to enable each individual tablet to be expelled through a hole provided in the opposing wall of the box; this presents serious drawbacks, one of which is its cost, another being that the person who acquires and wishes to use a blister strip must remember to also purchase or carry the box for containing the blister strip, a further drawback being that there is no protection against involuntary expulsion of a tablet each time one or more blisters are involuntarily squeezed.

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