A METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING TABLET STRIP AND A TABLET

STRIP

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to packaging industry. Particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing medicine tablet strips and a medicine tablet strip thereof.

BACKGROND

Medicine Tablet Strips including tablet strips and blister strips 5 as illustrated in Figure 1 generally comprises a forming foil 3, tablets 2 and lidding foil 1. The information about the tablets is generally mentioned or printed on the lidding foil in case of both tablet strips and blister strips/pack. However, medical strips are very difficult to read -even for people with good eyesight! This is often because of very small font size, possibly due to the need to accommodate regulatory information on the very limited tablet strip surface area, usually limited to only one face of the tablet strip.

The legibility problem accentuates further in case of patients who are aged, with impaired vision, the autistic, or those with cognitive issues. Further, blind people face unique challenges as the tablet strips do not have any printed material in braille.

Similarly, removing of even a single tablet sometimes causes deletion of information as well as crumpling of the strip which further reduces legibility and even availability of information such as packing date, use by date, etc. Poor legibility also makes it easier for spurious goods to escape unnoticed.

Other challenges faced in the current tablet strips are that patient specific information such as dosage, doctors name, patients name, day and date when a tablet is to be taken, cannot be added to the tablet strip, as adequate blank space isn’t available to do so in a simple manner

Important alerts and warnings, required to educate and protect the user against false rumors such as ‘wonder cures’ against epidemics and pandemics, cannot be added to the tablet strips once they have left the factory. Some tablet strips are packed in secondary packaging boxes which have additional printed information. Sometimes the box includes information printed on a separate leaflet, but both are often not given to the patient when only single strips are bought.

Some tablet strips come with pre-printed ‘day of the week’ against each tablet, row, etc. depending on the number of tablets in a strip. However, the patient may not start the course on a Monday, which means that the strip is torn not from the edge, but from somewhere in between, which is difficult to do and likely to damage the strip. The patient may also inadvertently remove the first tablet close to the edge, marked for Monday, but removed on some other day of the week, and then be confused because of the pre-printed ‘day’ stamp and consume the wrong dose.

By using stickers for day and date, the patient finds it easier to schedule and consume the dose, as both day and date are together, providing a simple dual authentication system

Patient specific information such as dosage, doctor name, patients name, stickers for day and date, time when tablets are to be taken, for e.g., early morning, with breakfast, lunch, tea or dinner, can be easily added on the blank label or blank side of the label. QR codes and manufacturers details can be added on the label sheets to provide up to date information to the patient. Company and regulator email ids and help band line numbers can be printed so that patients can raise queries or complaints.

With increase in use of gadgets to measure and record various parameters and events such as time of meal, time medication taken, blood pressure, sugar levels, pulse rate, oxygen levels, etc., the labels could have printed formats for patients or care takers to note data at the time the medicines are being consumed or as instructed by the doctor or during clinical trials. The data sheet may then be scanned and transferred to a database. This data could be used for research, clinical trials or any other use.

Lastly, tablet and capsule strips pose a threat to health of children who try and consume them. Many countries have now mandated that tablet and capsule strips be made in a manner that makes it difficult for children to access such tablets and capsules, but which should be simple enough for patients or caretakers to access them.

General manufacturing process of tablet strips involves a forming foil (lower foil) on which a pre -printed Lidding Foil (upper foil) is positioned, in between which the tablets or capsules are placed, sealed, and then cut at defined intervals either manually, or automatically. A similar process is used to manufacture blister strips, where the Lidding Foil seals the plastic or aluminum sheet with pockets in which the tablets or capsules are placed.

Usually, the aluminum foil used as lidding foil has a heat activated laminate on one side, which acts as an adhesive when heat sealed with a similarly laminated surface of the forming foil sheet or sometimes directly with the forming sheet surface when a heat activated laminate is not needed.

The Lidding foil material is usually of Aluminum foil or could be of other material such as Opaque Laminating Base (OLB) paper, or other material. The OLB paper provides better print quality as compared to Aluminum foil, but like Aluminum foil, provides single sided printing only. Other material may also be used as lidding foil. The printing on Lidding Foil is well established and accepted world over. The process is usually carried out before the Lidding foil is sealed with the Forming Foil with the tablets in between. The manufacturer is required to include mandatory regulatory information in the limited printing area available on the strip, resulting in use of smaller font, which in turn leads to reduced legibility

Therefore, there is need of means to solve the legibility problem and availability of printing space on tablet strips.

SUMMARY

In an aspect, my invention provides a method for manufacturing tablet strip comprising steps of: permanently attaching at least label sheet either before or during the sealing process of tablet strip packaging on at least one of the predefined edges of lidding foil of the tablet strip to provide a tablet strip having at least one permanently attached label thereby increasing the printing space on the tablet strip.

According to an embodiment of my invention, the step of permanently pasting at least one label sheet includes step of applying a band of permanent glue on a roll of lidding foil at a predetermined distance intermittently in cross-direction of machine or continuously in machine direction while unrolling the lidding foil, pressing the label sheet over the lidding foil along the glued band so that the label roll is permanently attached at the band of permanent glue thereby forming a roll having lidding foil with label before the sealing process of the tablet strip.

According to another embodiment of my invention, the step of permanently pasting at least one label sheet comprises step of applying a band of permanent glue over roll of lidding foil at a predetermined distance intermittently in cross-direction of machine or continuously in machine direction while unrolling the lidding foil, pressing the label sheet over the lidding foil at the glued band so that the label roll is permanently attached along the band of permanent glue and sealing the lidding foil having label sheet over the forming foil with tablets to form a sheet of tablets and then cutting the sheet of tablets at predetermined distance to obtain the tablet strips having at least one permanently attached label.

According to my invention, the step of permanently pasting at least one label sheet comprises a step of applying a band of non-permanent glue over an inner side of the label roll intermittently or continuously before pasting the label over the lidding foil roll such that the band of non-permanent glue is formed on the inside of a free end of the label of the tablet strip for sticking on the lidding foil.

In one embodiment of my invention, width of label sheet is equal or less than the width of the strip when glue is applied continuously. According to my invention, the label sheet can be folded to equal to or less than the width of the strip when label has a width more than the width of the strip.

In another embodiment of my invention, the label sheet having a width less than the width of the tablet strip is pasted continuously on one edge of the lidding foil and then a cover sheet is permanently glued to the same face of the lidding foil on the opposite edge of the lidding foil and free end of the cover sheet has a band of non-permanent glue to stick on to the attached label sheet for providing a child resistant tablet strip. According to my invention, the predetermined distance for applying glue intermittently is equal to length or width of the tablet strip.

According to my invention, the roll of label includes one or more layers of labels glued intermittently or continuously permanently and non-permanently at a predetermined distance to form a roll having more than one label.

According to my invention, the label sheet is blank or pre -printed on one or both sides. In my invention, one or more labels can be printed in braille for the benefit of the blind. In another aspect, my invention provides a tablet strip comprising at least one label permanently attached at one of the edges of the tablet strip for increasing printing space of the tablet strip. The label may have a non-permanent glue at opposite end of the permanently attached end of the tablet strip. The size of the label may be equal to or less than the size of the tablet strip.

In an embodiment of my tablet strip invention, a cover sheet may be permanently attached at an edge of the tablet strip opposite to the edge of permanently attached label and the cover sheet has non-permanent glue at its free end to stick on to the label to form a child resistant tablet strip.

Advantage of my invention is that it provides extra printing space by providing a label attached permanently at one of the edges of the tablet strip. It also provides a child resistant feature by allowing addition of the cover over the label. The additional space may allow the manufacturer to print the information of the tablets in readable font as well as an empty space for the users to write information of doses or other suitable information.

Brief description of drawings

Figure 1 shows a currently available tablet strip before my invention;

Figure 2A -2B shows a tablet strip according to my invention;

Figures 3A-3C show a tablet strip having child resistant cover according another embodiment of my invention;

Figures 4A-4E show forming of a lidding roll with attached label according to my invention; and

Figures 5 - 6 show system for sealing tablets.

Description

My invention as disclosed herein below solves the problems of limited printing space on tablet strips and also ensures original legibility of the printed material, even after tablets have been removed from the strip by the patient.

Referring Figure 2 A illustrates a tablet strip 10 according to one aspect of my invention. As illustrated, the tablet strip comprises two labels 14 are permanently attached to a lidding foil 15 of the tablet strip 10. According to my invention as illustrated in Figure 2B, the free ends of the label has a non-permanent glue band inside surface for non-permanently attaching with one over other, which allows peeled-open to read and/or to remove tablets. The labels 14 may be preprinted or having one blank label. The preprinted label may include information in braille for blind people.

According to my invention, the label sheet can be folded to equal to or less than the width of the strip when label has a width more than the width of the strip.

Referring Figures 3A-3C illustrates a child resistant blister strip 20 wherein figure 3A is a side view, Figure 3B is an exploded view of attachment of the label and cover over the lidding foil of the strip and Figure 3C illustrates the child resistant blister strip according to my invention. As illustrated, the blister strip comprises tablets 22 in the forming foil 23 heat sealed with lidding foil 21. The lidding foil has two bands of permanent glue 21 A, 21B at opposite edges. A label 24 is attached permanently to one band of glue 21 A and a cover 28 is attached permanently to the opposite band of the glue 2 IB on the lidding foil 21 that is opposite to the glue band 21 A where the label 24 is attached permanently to the lidding foil. The label 24 has a band of non-permanent glue 24A at free end and is smaller than the length of the strip 20 for allowing permanently attachment of the cover 28 to the lidding foil 21. The non-permanent glue 24A attaches the label 24 to the lidding foil 21 of the strip 20 thereby provides more printing space to the manufacturer as well as to the user. The cover 28 has a band of non-permanent glue 26A at free end that attaches with the label non-permanently which acts as a child resistant feature. The cover sheet may provide further printing space to the manufacturer to add information about the tablet packed inside the blister strip.

My invention also provides a method for manufacturing tablet strips whereby one or more label sheets and even a child resistant cover sheet is added to the lidding foil sheet either before or during the sealing process of the tablet strip, increasing in manifold the printing space for tablet strip which can be utilized by the manufacturer to add more and readable information about tablet as well as providing blank space for user to write about the dose to be taken as illustrated in Figure 2 “one tablet after lunch”.

Importantly, the additional leaves or sheets are added to the tablet strip surface before the tablet strips are cut into individual strips.

Referring Figures 4A-4E shows attachment of the label with or without cover over the lidding foil sheet according to my invention.

As shown in Figure 4A, lidding foil sheet 31 is unwound from a roll of lidding foil 31 A, first label sheet 34 is unwound from a label roll 34A and second label roll or a cover sheet 35 is unrolled from a roll of label sheet or cover sheet 35B. The sheets 34 and 35 are aligned with each other, and then aligned to the lidding foil and then attached by passing through a pressure and sealing means 40 according to my invention to form

a combined roll 39 of the lidding foil 31 having label sheet 34 attached intermittently or continuously or the lidding foil having label sheet 34 and cover sheet attached continuously. According to my invention, width of the label rolls 34A & 35A may be equal or different.

The pressure and sealing means 40 applies bands of glue at predefined distance and fixed intervals intermittently or continuously on predetermined sides over the sheet and/or lidding foils and presses against each other to attach and form a lidding sheet to be wound or to be used for directly tablet sealing process. There are various such type of machines pressure and sealing means are known that can be used to apply a band of the glue continuously or intermittently at predefined distance and these machines can be aligned to form a lidding foil sheet roll as per my invention for manufacturing the tablet strip according to my invention.

For example, Figure 4B illustrates a pressure and sealing means 40A comprising roller arrangement 37 A for applying in a cross-machine direction permanent glue bands intermittently over the lidding foil at a predetermined distance and non-permanent glue bands on the label and pressing rollers 38 A for forming a lidding strip with one or more labels. Figure 4C shows output of a lidding roll with one or more labels having labels pasted intermittently with permanent glue and non-permanent glue. As per my invention, the distance D is substantially equal to the length of the tablet strip and comprises a permanent glue band 31 and non-permanent glue band 34 at edges within the distance D. The intermittent application of glue to the label sheet is suitable only when the cover sheet is not required to be added as a child resistant feature to the strip.

Figure 4D in another example illustrates a pressure and sealing means 40b comprising roller arrangement 47B for applying permanent glue band continuously lengthwise over the lidding foil in a machine direction and non-permanent glue band on at least one label continuously opposite to the side of the permanent glue in machine direction and pressing rollers 48B for forming a lidding strip with one or more labels. Figure 4E shows output of a lidding roll with one or labels having labels pasted continuously with permanent glue and non-permanent glue at respective edges. As per my invention, the distance D is substantially equal to the length of the tablet strip and comprises a permanent glue band 41 A and non -permanent glue band 44 at edges within the distance D.

According to my invention, the label rolls may be pasted together to form more than one label by following similar process as described with the Figures 4B and 4D before attaching label to the lidding foil to form a roll of lidding foil with more than one label and/cover by intermittent or continuous pasting process.

According to my invention, the label rolls and cover rolls may be added to the lidding roll in single or separate operations by following the steps as described in Figures 4D. The label rolls may be added to each other and then to the lidding sheet, or separately to the lidding sheet.

My invention allows to use presently available tablet sealing and cutting machines with minor changes such as thickness of lidding roll which increases due to addition of one or more labels with or without cover sheet and cutting process of the tablet strips or blister strips. A person skilled in the art can easily carry out these required changes in the machines. Referring Figures 5 and 6 shows vertical and horizontal tablet sealing machines respectively wherein rolls of forming foil sheets 53, 63 are unwound and tablets are filled in pockets (not shown) in the forming roll by known way. Then, the lidding sheet unrolled from the roll 59 with one or more labels with or without cover, seals the forming foil sheet having tablets in pockets in known way and then the tablet filled sheets are cut in the predefined tablets strips or blister strips 50,60 by known way. The tablet strips obtained by this process have labels with legible printed matter and blister strips with labels and covers. The cover sheet on the blister strip acts as a child resistant feature.

The systems shown in Figures 4 can be aligned with the tablet sealing process as shown in Figure 5 and 6 to use the forming foil sheet with one or more labels with or without cover sheet directly instead of winding over the roll.

According to my invention, one sheet can be attached to the other or to either foil by cold seal adhesive or heat seal adhesive. Heat Seal Adhesive may be used only if the properties of foils are not affected due to the degree of heat used, resulting in any loss in sealing quality during the tablet sealing process. For e.g., if the lidding foil has a Heat Sensitive Lacquer (HSL) laminate, and hot sealing method is used to attach the label or cover sheet, the HSL laminate could react to the heat, resulting in improper sealing of the tablets later. Alternatively, if the degree of heat applied is less than what affects the HSL laminate, then using a heat-sealing process to attach the label sheets will not affect the tablet sealing process using HSL laminate later.

As per my invention, the width of band of permanent and non-permanent glue can be preferably between 1mm to 5mm, but could be varied where required

The term ‘glue’ used here refers to various forms of glue, adhesives or a laminate, applied at predetermined points on the surface of various sheets being attached. One or more sheets could be pre-laminated also. The adhesive may be added to the label and cover sheets using cold seal or heat seal methods. However, whenever the lidding foil and forming foil require the heat seal process, the label or cover sheet should be attached to the foil only using the cold seal process.

Also, the term ‘band’ covers application of adhesive in a continuous strip, continuous line, dotted line, or even just one or two dots especially in the case of non-permanent glue used to close the loose ends of the label sheets

In the examples described here, the label sheets are shown to be covered by the cover sheet. However, the label sheet may also be applied on top of the cover sheet. Patients would then be able to read the information without removing the cover sheet, and the cover sheet would need to be peeled back only to access the tablets. Furthermore, the cover sheet could be perforated, and only the section covering the tablet to be removed could be removed when needed.

According to my invention the label sheets may be printed on one or both sides in legible and reasonably large fonts. The label sheets provide additional printing space for information, in the form of print, braille, embossed images, raised print deposition, or in the form of removable and re-attachable stickers to be provided to the patient or caretaker

Both, the label sheets and cover sheet are permanently glued to the lidding foil at one end and may have non-permanent adhesive at the other end, so that they may be peeled open when required. The label sheets may be shorter than the length or width (as the case may be) so that they can be tucked under the cover sheet, stuck to the other end of the lidding foil but on the same face of the lidding foil.

Where more than one label sheet is used, they could be of different dimensions. For e.g. the upper label sheet may have non-permanent adhesive on its lose end, using which the user can seal the upper label sheet as well as the label sheet below it.

Instead of a band of non-permanent adhesive at one of edges, the cover sheet could even have its entire underside i.e. the side facing the lidding sheet applied with non permanent adhesive.

According to my invention, tablet strips can be packed in single track or in multi-tracks that is having more than one tablet strip being packed and sealed side by side.

The disclosure discloses the invention that provides a tablet strip having one or more labels attached to one end of the tablet strip permanently and another end may be free or have a non-permanent adhesive and may have a child resistant means. Further, the disclosure also provides a method for preparing said tablet strip. The Figures shown herewith are for providing exemplary embodiments and are not limiting the invention to the figures only.

My invention is in the strip having one or more labels with or without a cover attached permanently to the lidding foil of a strip or a blister strip and method in manufacturing the said tablet strip or blister strip. The method of manufacturing tablet strip or blister strip means the method of packing of tablets in the form of strip. The presently known tablet sealing and cutting machines may be modified to implement my method for manufacturing the tablet strip or a blister strip having label(s) and/or cover.

In my invention also, the Lidding foil material is not limited to Aluminum foil and can be other material such as Opaque Laminating Base (OLB) paper, or other material.

While a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described, it will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that certain modifications may be made without departing from the Scope of the present invention. All Such modifications are intended to come within the Scope of claims which follow:
CLAIMS

1. A method for manufacturing tablet strip comprising steps of:

permanently attaching at label sheet either before or during the sealing process of tablet strip packaging on at least one of the predefined edges of lidding foil of the tablet strip to provide a tablet strip having at least one permanently attached label thereby increasing the printing space of the tablet strip.

2. The method as claimed of claim 1, wherein the step of permanently pasting at least one label sheet comprises step of applying a band of permanent glue on a roll of lidding foil at a predetermined distance intermittently in cross-direction of machine or continuously in machine direction while unrolling the lidding foil, pressing the label sheet over the lidding foil along the glued band so that the label roll is permanently attached at the band of permanent glue thereby forming a roll having lidding foil with label before the sealing process of the tablet strip.

3. The method as claimed of claim 1, wherein the step of permanently pasting at least one label sheet comprises step of applying a band of permanent glue over roll of lidding foil at a predetermined distance intermittently in cross-direction of machine or continuously in machine direction while unrolling the lidding foil, pressing the label sheet over the lidding foil at/on the glued band so that the label roll is permanently attached at/to the band of permanent glue and sealing the

lidding foil with attached label sheet over the forming foil with tablets to form a sheet of tablets and cutting the sheet of tablets at predetermined distance to obtain the tablet strips having at least one permanently attached label.

4. The method as claimed of claim 1 -3, wherein the step of permanently pasting at least one label sheet comprises a step of applying a band of non-permanent glue over an inner side of the roll of the label intermittently or continuously before pasting the label over the lidding foil roll such that the band of non-permanent glue is formed at the free end of the label of the tablet strip.

5. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein width of label is equal or less than the width of the strip when glue is applied continuously.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the label sheet can be folded to equal to or less than the width of the strip when label has a width more than the width of the strip.

7. The method according to anyone of claims 2 to 6, wherein the label sheet having a width less than the width of the tablet strip is pasted continuously on one edge of the lidding foil and then a cover sheet is permanently glued to the same face of the lidding foil on the opposite edge of the lidding foil and free end of the cover sheet has a band of non-permanent glue to stick on to the attached label sheet for providing a child resistant tablet strip.

8. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4 wherein the predetermined distance for applying glue intermittently is equal to length or width of a tablet strip.

9. The method according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the roll of label comprises one or more layer of labels glued intermittently or continuously permanently and non-permanently at a predetermined distance to form a roll having more than one label.

10. The method according to anyone of the preceding claims 1-9, wherein the label sheet is blank or pre -printed on one or both sides.

11. The method according to anyone of the preceding claims 1-10, wherein one or more labels are printed in braille for the benefit of the blind.

12. A table strip manufactured by the method according to one of the preceding claims 1-11.

13. A tablet strip comprising at least one label permanently attached at one of the edges of the tablet strip for providing printing space in manifolds based on the number of labels.

14. The tablet strip according to claim 13, wherein the label has a non -permanent glue at opposite end of the permanently attached end of the tablet strip.

15. The table strip according to claim 13-14 wherein size of the label is equal to or less than the size of the tablet strip.

16. The tablet strip according to any one of the claims 13-15, further comprises a cover sheet permanently attached at an edge of the tablet strip opposite to the edge of permanently attached label and the cover sheet has non-permanent glue at its free end to stick on to the label to form a child resistant tablet strip.