Patent ID: 7328557

Claim:
An apparatus for loading small objects into respective blisters of a foil web, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of substantially identical fill plates each having an array of receptacles corresponding to the blisters of an area of the foil; transport means for conveying the fill plates one after another in a transport direction at an upper level along a horizontal upper conveyor stretch from a fill station remote from the web to a transfer station close to the web; means separate from the transporting means for lowering the plates to a lower level of a horizontal lower conveyor stretch below the upper stretch; means separate from the transporting means for returning the plates along the lower stretch in an opposite return direction from the transfer station to the fill station; means separate from the transporting means for raising the plates in the transfer station to the upper level; filling means at the fill station for filling the receptacles of the plates at the upper level in the fill station with the small objects; and transfer means at the transfer station for taking the small objects out of the receptacles of the plates at the upper level in the transfer station and putting the objects into the blisters of the web.