Supporting structure for concurrently supporting a plurality of containers for substances for pharmaceutical, medical or cosmetic applications, and transport structure comprising the same

Abstract

A supporting structure for concurrently supporting a plurality of containers for substances for pharmaceutical, medical or cosmetic applications, comprises a plurality of receptacles. The receptacles are arranged in a regular arrangement, are formed by circumferential side-walls, and an upper side of the supporting structure is formed as a plate-shaped carrier. The receptacles are polygonal in shape when viewed in a plan view. A side-wall is formed as a common partition wall between respective two directly adjacent receptacles of the plurality of receptacles. The receptacles can be directly adjacent to each other, which enables optimum packing density, especially with a hexagonal basic shape of the receptacles. Due to the shared partition wall, filigree, double-walled structures can be effectively avoided, which considerably simplifies production by injection molding from a plastic material. Thereby, also a very high inherent stiffness of the supporting structure can be achieved.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention[0001]The present invention in general relates to the treatment of containers for substances for pharmaceutical, medical or cosmetic applications, and in particular to a supporting structure for concurrently supporting a plurality of containers for substances for pharmaceutical, medical or cosmetic applications, such as vials, ampoules or cartridges.2. Description of the Related Art[0002]As containers for the storage and stocking of medical, pharmaceutical or cosmetic preparations with administration in liquid form, especially in pre-dosed quantities, medicine containers, such as vials, ampoules or cartridges, are used on a large scale. These generally have a cylindrical shape, can be made of plastics or glass and are available in large quantities at low cost. The containers are increasingly delivered to a pharmaceutical manufacturer or to a plant for further processing and are further processed in supporting structures in a predet...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent provides an improved way to support multiple containers for pharmaceutical, medical, or cosmetic purposes. This structure is easy to make and provides sturdy support for the containers. The containers can be easily inserted and removed from the structure. The patent also includes transport structures and a sterile packaging structure with this improved supporting system.

Problems solved by technology

However, the containers are held with relatively large clearance.

The distance between the cylindrical receptacles is relatively large, so that the packing density that can be achieved with the supporting structure is not optimal.

This requires very thin-walled, easily breakable and difficult-to-cool rib-like contours when manufacturing by plastic injection molding.

This in turn leads to a very complex and therefore also expensive tool during tool design.

In addition, such a design can also have a negative effect on the service life of the mold used for injection molding.

Since the filigree structures cannot be cooled during injection molding, or can only be cooled very laboriously, the design also has a negative effect on the cycle time of the manufacturing process, which leads to higher unit costs.

However, the production of the supporting structure by plastic injection molding is relatively complex.

U.S. Patent Application 2018 / 0208377 A1 discloses a further supporting structure in which the holders are formed by relatively thin separating and connecting webs, which makes the production of the supporting structure by plastic injection molding relatively complex.

For a sufficient stiffness of the carrier, however, it must be designed to be relatively stable, which results in higher weight and higher material costs.

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