Source: https://patents.justia.com/patent/10064786
Timestamp: 2020-07-11 14:32:18
Document Index: 384983027

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 56', 'art 58', 'art 52', 'art 60', 'art 56', 'art 58', 'art 56', 'art 58', 'art 4', 'art 10', 'art 12', 'art 14', 'art 10', 'art 12', 'art 10', 'art 12', 'art 14', 'art 4', 'art 14', 'art 104', 'arts 4', 'arts 4', 'arts 4', 'art 102', 'arts 104', 'arts 104', 'art 104', 'arts 104', 'art 102', 'art 108', 'application No. 3851389', 'application No. 2014']

US Patent for Container-holding tray Patent (Patent # 10,064,786 issued September 4, 2018) - Justia Patents Search
Justia Patents With Recess Or Groove For ArticleUS Patent for Container-holding tray Patent (Patent # 10,064,786)
Oct 17, 2013 - DAIKYO SEIKO, LTD.
As a method of the sterilization, a high-pressure steam sterilization is widely adopted, the method being configured such that the medical container of a sterilization object is sterilized by being exposed to a high temperature and high pressure steam atmosphere for a predetermined time (121° C., 20 minutes or the like). In addition, in the high pressure steam sterilization, for the purpose of sterilizing or carrying a great number of medical containers at the same time, a container-holding tray capable of holding a plurality of medical containers in an alignment state is utilized.
The above-mentioned tray mounts the medical containers (hereinafter, may be merely referred to as “container”) thereon in accordance with the depressions of the floor, thereby there is an advantage that the plurality of the containers can be aligned in an appropriate position and direction (faced upward, faced downward) simply and quickly. However, it has a problem to be solved as shown below.
The container-holding tray according to the present invention is configured such that the holding target thereof is a bottomed cylindrical medical container. The “medical container” includes an instrument (syringe barrel and the like) into which a liquid medicine or a specimen may be injected, other than the so-called container (vial and the like).
The “cylindrical shape” means a shape that has an inner space formed therein, the inner space directing from one end part to another end part. For example, a circular cylindrical shape; an angular cylindrical shape such as a rectangular cylindrical shape; and other shapes (approximately circular cylindrical and the like) equivalent to these shapes are included.
The “cylindrical shape” includes, however, not only a shape having a constant outer diameter and a constant inner diameter from one end part to another end part such as a circular cylindrical shape, an angular cylindrical shape, but also a different diameter cylindrical shape having different parts in the outer diameter and the inner diameter.
For example, as a form of a vial, a medical container 50 shown in FIG. 8 is included, the medical container 50 having a shape that is constituted of a barrel part 56 of a large diameter positioned on the bottom side, a neck part 58 of a small diameter positioned on the side of the opening part 52, and a shoulder part 60 connecting the barrel part 56 and the neck part 58 and having a diameter narrowed from the barrel part 56 toward the neck part 58. The above-mentioned shape is also included in the “cylindrical shape”. Further, as the vial, there is one having a form that a lip forming the opening part is directly combined with the shoulder part, and the neck part is substantially absent or the neck part is extremely short. Naturally, the above-mentioned shape is also included in the “cylindrical shape”.
The “bottomed” shape means a shape that has a bottom part configured to close one end part of the cylindrical structure like the vial. The “bottom part” described here is, however, not needed to have a shape that is perfectly closed, and not needed to be positioned on the lower side of the container when it is used. For example, a syringe barrel is configured such that one end part (tip part) of the cylindrical structure is closed, and it has the “bottom part” on the tip part side, and a through hole is formed in the “bottom part”, thus a state that is perfectly closed is not attained. The above-mentioned shape is also included in the “bottomed” shape.
Further, the “tapered shape” does not mean only the shape that is gradually thinned from the lower end side toward the upper end side of the container holding convex part as a truncated cone shape and truncated pyramid shape. Namely, the “tapered shape” includes all the shapes that have a large diameter part having a thick outer diameter on the lower end side and a small diameter part having a thin outer diameter on the upper end side. For example, as the container holding convex part 4 shown in FIG. 6, it is preferable that the container holding convex part includes the large diameter part 10 located on the lower end side, the small diameter part 12 located on the upper end side, and the step part 14 connecting the large diameter part 10 and the small diameter part 12, and having a diameter narrowed from the large diameter part 10 toward the small diameter part 12. As mentioned above, it is preferable that the step part 14 is formed in the container holding convex part 4, since the shoulder part of the medical container 50 can be brought into contact with and held by the step part 14 as shown in FIG. 7, and the medical containers 50 can be stably held. Also, the container holding convex part 104 of the container-holding tray 101 shown in FIG. 11 is formed in a shape that has the large diameter part, the small diameter part and the step part. Accordingly, the shoulder part of the medical container 50 can be brought into contact with and held by the step part and the medical containers 50 can be stably held.
The “lattice arrangement” means an arrangement configured such that basic patterns are repeated longitudinally and horizontally, the basic patterns being configured such that the container holding convex part is located in vertexes of a square or a rectangle. In the “lattice arrangement”, a plurality of the container holding convex parts are arranged so as to form lines and columns longitudinally and horizontally. On the other hand, the “zigzag arrangement” means an arrangement configured such that basic patterns are repeated alternately, the basic patterns being configured such that the container holding convex part is located in vertexes of an equilateral triangle or an isosceles triangle. It can be said that the zigzag arrangement is an arrangement configured such that the container holding convex parts are dislocated from each other by a half pitch on the basis of the lattice arrangement, the container holding convex parts belonging to the lines or columns neighboring to each other.
The container-holding tray 1 shown in FIG. 3 and the container-holding tray 101 shown in FIG. 10 are an example configured such that the container holding convex parts 4, 104 are arranged to be the lattice arrangement. More specifically, an arrangement in which basic patterns are repeated longitudinally and horizontally (a square arrangement) is employed, the basic patterns being configured such that the container holding convex parts 4, 104 are located in vertexes of a square. The container-holding tray 1 shown in FIG. 3 and the container-holding tray 101 shown in FIG. 10 are formed so as to have an approximately rectangular shape in planar view from above, and the lines and columns of the container holding convex parts 4, 104 are arranged along the long sides and short sides of the container-holding tray 1. However, as long as basic patterns configured such that the container holding parts are located in vertexes of a square or a rectangle are repeated, an arrangement in which the lines and columns of the container holding convex parts are not located along the sides of the tray (for example, an arrangement in which the lines and columns are located in an oblique direction to the sides of the tray, and so on) is included in the “lattice arrangement” described in the present invention.
The corner pockets 20 were formed in the four corner parts of the tray and the side pockets 22 were formed in 13×2 places along the long side and in 9×2 places along the short side of the tray.
On the bottom surface part 102 of the tray, 140 pieces of the container holding convex parts 104 were arranged. Each of the container holding convex parts 104 has an approximately different diameter cylindrical shape. More specifically, the different diameter cylindrical shape has a basic shape that is constituted of one cylindrical shape on the bottom surface side and another cylindrical shape on the top surface side, the one cylindrical shape being configured such that the outer diameter is 13.7 mm Ø and the height is 14.5 mm, and the another cylindrical shape being configured such that the outer diameter is 12.0 mm Ø and the height is 5.5 mm, and the basic shape being configured such that the edge parts of the top surface thereof are rounded (subjected to R-chamfering (R: 3.0 mm)). Namely, the height to the step part of the container holding convex part 104 was configured to be 14.5 mm. The arrangement pattern of the container holding convex parts 104 was configured to be a square arrangement of 14 lines, 10 columns and 24 mm pitch. In this structure, as shown in FIG. 11, gaps of approximately 2 mm were formed between the end of the opening 54 of the containers and the bottom surface part 102 of the tray when the medical containers 50 were held by the container housing part.
In the side wall part 108, the pockets 18 configured to have a concave curved surface complementary with a part of the peripheral surface of the medical containers 50 were formed. The side pockets 122 were formed in 15×2 places along the long side and in 11×2 places along the short side of the tray. Further, the corner pocket was not formed in the container-holding tray 101.
1. A container-holding tray holding a plurality of bottomed cylindrical medical containers side by side, comprising:
the container-holding tray; and
the plurality of bottomed cylindrical medical containers,
wherein the container-holding tray comprises: a bottom surface part; and container holding convex parts formed on the bottom surface part and holding the medical containers,
each of the bottomed cylindrical medical containers has a bottom portion at a bottom of a cylindrical body and an opening on top thereof surrounded by an edge portion,
each of the container holding convex parts has a tapered shape that is thick on a lower end side and is thin on an upper end side,
the plurality of the container holding convex parts are in a lattice arrangement on the bottom surface part, and simultaneously an inner space surrounded by four of the container holding convex parts neighboring to each other forms a container housing part that holds the bottomed cylindrical medical container,
the container housing part contacts and holds one of the plurality of bottomed cylindrical medical containers at contacting points located between the upper end side and the lower end side of the four of the container holding convex parts forming the container housing part and between a top and a bottom of the container, and
the container-holding tray having a plurality of container housing parts holds the plurality of bottomed cylindrical medical containers side by side with the opening of each of the bottomed cylindrical medical containers facing downward and prevents, with the container holding convex parts having the tapered shape, the edge portion surrounding the opening from contacting the bottom surface part of the container-holding tray.
2. The container-holding tray holding a plurality of bottomed cylindrical medical containers side by side according to claim 1,
wherein an upper end side of the container housing parts is larger than a barrel part of the bottomed cylindrical medical containers, and the lower end side of the container housing part is smaller than the barrel part of the bottomed cylindrical medical container,
the barrel part of the bottomed cylindrical medical container contacts the container holding convex parts that form the container housing part at the contacting points between the upper end side and the lower end side of the respective container holding convex parts.
3. The container-holding tray holding a plurality of bottomed cylindrical medical containers side by side according to claim 1,
wherein the tapered shape of the container holding convex parts is a shape gradually thinned from the lower end side toward the upper end side thereof so as to be in a truncated cone shape or a truncated pyramid shape.
4. The container-holding tray holding a plurality of bottomed cylindrical medical containers side by side according to claim 1,
wherein the bottomed cylindrical medical container comprises: a barrel part at a bottom side of the container; a neck part located at an upper side of the container and having a smaller diameter than a diameter of the barrel part; a shoulder part connecting the barrel part and the neck part of the container,
the bottomed cylindrical medical container contacts the container holding convex parts at the shoulder part of the container, and
a length of the container holding convex parts from the contacting point, at which the container holding convex parts contact the shoulder of the bottomed cylindrical medical container, to a bottom end of the respective container holding convex parts is longer than a total length of the shoulder part and the neck part of the container.
5. The container-holding tray holding a plurality of bottomed cylindrical medical containers side by side according to claim 1,
the container holding convex part comprises a large diameter part at the lower end side, a small diameter part having a smaller diameter than a diameter of the large diameter part at the upper end side, and a step part connecting the large diameter part and the small diameter part,
the container holding convex part and the bottomed cylindrical medical container contact at the step part of the container holding convex part and the shoulder of the container as the contacting points between the bottomed cylindrical medical container and the container holding convex part, and
a length of the container holding convex parts from the step part thereof to a bottom end of the respective container holding convex parts is longer than a total length of the shoulder part and the neck part of the bottomed cylindrical medical container.
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Patent Publication Number: 20150272827
Assignee: DAIKYO SEIKO, LTD. (Tochigi)
Inventor: Daisuke Tsukiji (Tochigi)
Application Number: 14/434,032
Current U.S. Class: With Recess Or Groove For Article (206/564)
International Classification: A61M 5/00 (20060101); A61J 1/16 (20060101); B65D 1/36 (20060101);