Patent ID: 6149029
Filing Date: 2000-11-21
Classification: A61J,B65D

Abstract:
Medicine ejecting apparatus, comprising a housing having a chamber (13), which is delimited by a first housing part (11) and a second housing part (12), and means for ejecting a medicine and operable inside the chamber, the housing parts (11, 12) being suitable for receiving and retaining in the chamber a medicine strip (82) of the type having one or more parallel rows of blisters (83, 84) containing a medicine and having a constant, equal pitch, the second housing part (12) having at least one medicine ejection opening (14, 15) opposite bottoms of the blisters (83, 84) of a retained strip (82), the ejecting means comprising an ejection member (51, 52, 53) which is suitable for being pressed against a blister (83, 84) to thereby press a medicine out of the blister (83, 84) towards the associated ejection opening (14, 15) through the bottom of the blister (83, 84), characterized in that the second housing part (12) is suitable for retaining the medicine strip (82), the housing parts (11, 12) can be displaced with respect to one another parallel to the rows of blisters (83, 84), the first housing part (11) has at least one first toothed track (21), the second housing part (12) has at least one second toothed track (31), a carrier (16) is arranged in the chamber (13), which carrier can be moved parallel to the toothed tracks (21, 31) between a first position at first ends of the toothed tracks (21, 31) and a second position at second ends of the toothed tracks (21, 31), the carrier (16) has an ejection member (51, 52, 53) opposite each row of blisters (83, 84), which member is suitable for pressing medicines out of successive blisters (83, 84) of the row when the carrier is moved from the first position to the second position in a pressing-out direction, the carrier (16) has a first resilient hook member (41) and a second resilient hook member (48) which are suitable for engaging on the first and second toothed tracks (21, 31), respectively, teeth of the first and second toothed tracks (21, 31) and/or the ends (42, 49) of the hook members (41, 48) are of a height which increases gradually in the pressing-out direction (113), the pitch of the toothed tracks (21, 31) is equal to the pitch of the rows of blisters (83) divided by the number of rows, and the ejection members (51, 52) are arranged on the carrier (16) staggered by a distance of the tooth pitch, viewed in the pressing-out direction (113).