Enrobed core medicament

Abstract

A medicine tablet is described as a new article of manufacture. The tablet is enrobed in a gelatin coating formed by application of respective layers of elastic gelatin film to opposite sides of the tablet. The applied gelatin layers conform tightly to the tablet surface, bond securely to the tablet, and are sealed together in essentially edge-to-edge manner at a seal line which extends around the tablet at a desired place on the tablet. The gelatin layers can be colored differently from the tablet and differently from each other. A range of formulations are described for film which can be peelable from a tablet or other product core, and for films which bond to the core. A presently preferred formulation for producing tablets having a bonded tamper-evident coating comprises a water-based gelatin preparation having about 45% gelatin and about 9% plasticizer (glycerin and / or sorbitol) by weight Method and apparatus for producing such new products are also described. Product cores can be dispensed on a self-timed basis into essentially simultaneous contact with two enrobing films which are supported on locally recessed coacting rotary dies. The cores contact the films adjacent a nip between the dies at places on the films which overlie die recesses which are oversize relative to the cores.. The films deform around each core and are sealed by the dies to each other before the dies coact to cut the enrobed cores from the films. A core feeding mechanism can include an alignment device which causes the cores to have a desired orientation as they are handled by the dies.

Description

[0001] This invention pertains to film-enrobed unitary-core products such as medicine tablets, to films and film compositions for making such products, and to methods and equipment for manufacturing such products. More specifically, within a presently preferred area of that field, the invention pertains to medicines and the like comprising cores of one-piece tablet nature in various geometrical forms which are enrobed in preferably digestible or erodable films applied to the cores separately from formation of the cores; the invention also pertains to gelatin-based and other films for enrobing such cores, to methods for enrobing such cores with such films, and to equipment for performing such methods to produce such products.

[0002] The pharmaceutical, vitamin and related industries have long used various ways to present their products to users in swallowable oral dosage forms, other than purely as liquids, so that persons using such products can use them conveniently and comfortably....

Examples

Embodiment Construction

[0048] In broad terms, this invention concerns the coating of tablets, other solid dosage forms, and a variety of solids by enrobement with films of gelatin or other sealable polymers by an enrobement process which uses coacting die techniques in which the tablets or other articles to be enrobed are introduced individually between two sealable films positioned between opposing matching dies configured to cause the films to stretch and deform around each introduced article so that the films move into contact with each other, are sealed to each other and, as sealed, are severed from the film webs to provide individual film-enrobed end products. The particular product which formed the focus of the development of this invention is a tablet of caplet configuration enrobed between applied gelatin films which adhere to the solid tablet core of the product to produce a non-peelable, tamper-evident and potentially tamper-resistant gelatin coated caplet-type medicine tablet. It was found, in ...

[0001] This invention pertains to film-enrobed unitary-core products such as medicine tablets, to films and film compositions for making such products, and to methods and equipment for manufacturing such products. More specifically, within a presently preferred area of that field, the invention pertains to medicines and the like comprising cores of one-piece tablet nature in various geometrical forms which are enrobed in preferably digestible or erodable films applied to the cores separately from formation of the cores; the invention also pertains to gelatin-based and other films for enrobing such cores, to methods for enrobing such cores with such films, and to equipment for performing such methods to produce such products.

[0002] The pharmaceutical, vitamin and related industries have long used various ways to present their products to users in swallowable oral dosage forms, other than purely as liquids, so that persons using such products can use them conveniently and comfortably....

Examples

Embodiment Construction

[0048] In broad terms, this invention concerns the coating of tablets, other solid dosage forms, and a variety of solids by enrobement with films of gelatin or other sealable polymers by an enrobement process which uses coacting die techniques in which the tablets or other articles to be enrobed are introduced individually between two sealable films positioned between opposing matching dies configured to cause the films to stretch and deform around each introduced article so that the films move into contact with each other, are sealed to each other and, as sealed, are severed from the film webs to provide individual film-enrobed end products. The particular product which formed the focus of the development of this invention is a tablet of caplet configuration enrobed between applied gelatin films which adhere to the solid tablet core of the product to produce a non-peelable, tamper-evident and potentially tamper-resistant gelatin coated caplet-type medicine tablet. It was found, in ...

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