Abstract:
A child resistant card for dispensing pills, e.g., capsules and/or tablets, that renders access to the pills difficult for a child but not for an adult. The child resistant blister card enables the user to access the item disposed within the card after performing a series of steps. The blister card is received in a protective envelope. A weakened area in the front panel of the envelope can be depressed to release a tear tab in the back panel. Once released, the tear tab can be ripped from the back panel to expose the backing foil of the blister card.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    The present application relates to packaging and, more particularly, to a blister pack for dispensing items such as pills, capsules and/or tablets, that requires the user to perform a series of steps to access a pill within the card, thus preventing a child, but not an adult, access to items present within the blister pack. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE ART 
       [0002]    Child resistant packaging for pills, such as tablets and capsules, is well known for preventing uncontrolled consumption of pills by children. For example, blister packs having reinforced push-through type backing foil have been used in an attempt to prevent children from accessing pills within the blister pack. Often, however, such blister packs are difficult for adults, particularly elderly adults, to open. 
         [0003]    Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide child resistant packaging that renders access to pills difficult for children yet facile for adults. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0004]    In accordance with one general aspect, there is provided a child resistant card for dispensing pills, e.g., capsules and/or tablets, that renders access to the pills difficult for a child but not for an adult. The child resistant blister card enables the user to access the item disposed within the card after performing a series of steps. 
         [0005]    According to one aspect, there is provided a child resistant blister card assembly comprising: a blister card having a blister cavity for holding one item to be dispensed, and a foil sealing the item in the blister cavity; a protective envelope in which the blister card is retained captive, the protective envelope having a front panel and a back panel, the blister card being received between the front panel and the back panel with the blister cavity of the blister card projecting outwardly through a blister hole defined in the front panel; a front weakened area defined in the front panel and the blister card adjacent to the blister cavity; a tear tab defined in the back panel and underlying the first weakened area and the blister cavity, when in place, the tear tab providing resistance to prevent the item from being pushed through the foil of the blister card, the tear tab being held in a non-accessible position to prevent a person from grasping and pulling on the tear tab, wherein the tear tab is released from said non-accessible position thereof by applying a sufficient pressure on the front weakened area to depress the front weakened area and cause detachment of a portion of the tear tab from the back panel, thereby providing a grasp by which the tear tab can then be peeled back to expose the foil. 
         [0006]    According to a further aspect, there is provided a child resistant blister card assembly comprising: a blister card including a container sheet defining at least one blister container for receiving an item to be dispensed, and a backing foil sealing the item in the blister container; a back panel at least partly covering said backing foil, the back panel having a closure held in a closed position in which the closure prevents the item from being push through the backing foil; and a releaser provided on a front face of said blister card and being adapted to transfer a pressure to said closure so as to release the closure from said closed position thereof, thereby allowing subsequent displacement of the closure from the closed position to an open position in which the backing foil is exposed such as to allow the item to be pushed through the backing foil. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a child resistant blister package shown in an unassembled state and including a blister card adapted to be captively received between hingedly interconnected front and back paperboard panels. 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional view of the assembled child resistant blister package shown in  FIG. 1 , the section being taken transversely through a central blister cavity or pocket; and 
           [0009]      FIGS. 3   a  to  3   c  illustrate the series of steps required to dispense a pill contained in the blister package. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0010]      FIGS. 1 and 2  illustrate a child resistant blister package  10  comprising a push-through blister card  12  and a protective envelope  14  configured to captively receive the blister card  12 . In the illustrated example, the blister package  12  is intended to be used to dispense a single item I, such as a pill, a capsule and/or a tablet, for which the dosage is, for instance, once a month. While a single-product blister package is shown, it is understood that the present application also encompasses multiple-item blister packages. 
         [0011]    The blister card  12  is of conventional construction and comprises a container sheet  16  having a centrally disposed raised cavity also referred to as a blister container  18  formed therein and projecting from a front face thereof. A backing foil  20  is heat sealed or otherwise secured to the container sheet  16  to seal the item I in the blister container  18 . The container sheet  16  is made of a material having sufficient flexibility for allowing the blister container  18  to be easily manually depressed. For instance, the container sheet can be made out of clear plastic materials, such as transparent polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene or polypropylene. This is not intended to constitute an exhaustive list. The backing foil  20  can be provided in the form of a laminate of thin metal foil such as aluminum foil. Other suitable materials are contemplated as well. The structure of the backing foil  20  is such that manual depression of the blister container  18  downwardly against the item I is sufficient to push the item I through the backing foil  20 . Such foils are known as push-through foils. 
         [0012]    The protective envelope  14  can be formed of a single sheet of solid paperboard material die-cut in the desired configuration. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the envelope  14  comprises a front paperboard panel  22  and a back paperboard panel  24  integrally interconnected along a fold line or live hinge  26 . The blister card  12  is sandwiched between the front and back panels  22  and  24  of the protective envelope  14 . A central opening  28  is defined in the front panel  22 . The blister container  18  protrudes through the central opening  28 . Likewise, openings  30  are defined in the corner regions of the front panel  22  for receiving corresponding projections  31  formed in the container sheet  16  of the blister card  12 . The projections  31  in the openings  30  provide added stability to the package  10  once fully assembled. Alternatively, corner domes or projections  31  could be substituted by stability ridges according to the layout and configuration of the package. It is noted that such additional stability is not always required and as such the stability features are considered optional. The back panel  24  overlies the backing foil  20  of the blister card  12  and provides the required strength to prevent the item I contained in the blister container  18  from being dispensed in a single step by solely manually depressing the blister container  18  so as to push the item I through the backing foil  20 . 
         [0013]    While the protective envelope  14  has been described as being made of paperboard, it is understood that it could made of any other suitable material offering enough strength to prevent the item I from being pushed directly by hand through the backing foil  20  when the back panel  24  is in place behind the blister card  12 . Also, additional serially interconnected foldable panels (not shown) similar to the front and back panels  22  and  24  could integrally extend from one of the front and back panels  22  and  24  to allow the package  10  to fold into a wallet-like configuration, thereby providing a nice and clean packaging aspect to the product. Information on the item contained in the blister card  12  as well as graphic representations could be printed on the outer foldable sections of the envelope  14  to further provide an appealing package. 
         [0014]    The assembly of the blister package  10  can be done by first positioning the blister card  12  on the inner face of the front paperboard panel  22  and then adhesively securing the blister card  12  to the front panel  22 . The adhesive can be solely applied along one side of the blister card  12 . Not all of the surface of the blister card  12  needs to be bonded to the front paperboard panel  22 . The bonding between the blister card  12  and the front panel  22  of the envelope  14  is mainly done for maintaining the relative disposition of the blister card  12  and the front paperboard panel  22  during the assembly process and is thus not considered critical to the integrity of the package. Then, the front and back paperboard panels  22  and  24  are closed on the blister card  12  and adhesively secured together, for instance, by applying an adhesive on the inwardly facing surfaces of the front and back panels  22  and  24  within a margin area outwardly of the periphery of the blister card  12  (see  FIG. 2 ). 
         [0015]    A weakened area  32  is provided in the front panel  22  and the blister card  12  just above the blister container  18  and the corresponding central hole  28 . The weakened area  32  can be provided by a semi-circular or half-moon score line  34  die cut in the front panel  22  and the blister card  12 . The semi-circular score line  34  is sized to form a thumb pressing region (see  FIG. 3   a ) which can be easily depressed with a thumb in order to release a pull zipper or tear tab  36  formed in the back panel  24  of the protective envelope  14 . The tear tab  36  is otherwise not accessible; it is confined within the back panel  24 . In order to be able to grasp the tear tab  36 , the weakened area  32  must be depressed by manually pressing thereon so as to cause a portion of the tear tab  36  to come out of the plane of the back panel  24 , thereby providing a tab portion by which the user can subsequently grasp the tear tab  34  in order to ripped it off from the back panel  24 , thereby exposing the backing foil  20 . 
         [0016]    The tear tab  36  extends over the blister container  28  and the front weakened area  32 . The score line defining the outline of the tear tab  36  is spaced inwardly from the contour of the back panel  24 . This prevents someone from picking up one end of the tear tab  36  to pull it off before the front weakened area  32  is depressed. The half-moon score line  34  is in registry with the upper end portion of the tear tab  36  and disposed slightly inwardly of the tear tab score line. In this way, the pressure applied on the weakened area  32  is directly transmitted to the upper end portion of the tear tab  36  through the blister pack  12  until the tear tab upper end portion detaches from the remaining portion of the back panel  24 . 
         [0017]      FIGS. 3   a  to  3   c  show the procedure to dispense the item I from the blister package  10 . Three steps are required to access the item I. First, as shown in  FIG. 3   a , the user must depress the front weakened area  32  by pushing thereon with one of his/her fingers, typically the thumb. In doing so, the upper end portion of the tear tab  36  is released from the remaining portion of the back panel  24  of the protective envelope  14 . The first step is required to gain access to the tear tab  36  which is otherwise held in a non-accessible position. Thereafter, as shown in  FIG. 3   b , the user can grasp the upper portion of the tear tab  36  to pull it away so as to expose the portion of the backing foil  20  covering the blister container  18 . The user can then press with his/her thumb on the blister container  18  to push the item I through the uncovered region of foil  20 . 
         [0018]    The above procedure thus requires a series of steps to be performed in order to access the item I. These steps are relatively easy for an adult to accomplish but sufficiently difficult to discourage a young child. 
         [0019]    The above description is meant to be exemplary only, and one skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made to the embodiments described without departing from the scope of the invention disclosed. For instance, it is understood that the front weakened area could be disposed on the sides or below the blister container. The weakened area  32  is one possible way of releasing the tear tab  36 . Other suitable pressure transferring structures could also be used as releasers to cause a portion of the tear tab to become detached from the back panel  24 . According to a non-illustrated embodiment, the front panel  22  could be omitted and the front weakened area  32  could only be formed in the blister card  12 . In this case the blister card  12  would be adhesively secured to the back panel  24 . The adhesive would be placed at strategic places in order not to interfere with the release of the tear tab  36 , i.e. the tear tab would be adhesive free. The tear tab  36  could be replaced by other forms of closures adapted to be opened after having first performed an “unlocking” step. Other modifications can be made without departing from scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.