ES2611677T3 - Procedure for marking a vial, vial so marked - Google Patents

Abstract

Procedure for marking a vial of transparent polymeric material, in particular for pharmaceutical and / or cosmetic purposes, comprising a foot (12), a body (14), and a head (16), said foot being in the form of a tab with two faces, one of these faces receiving a label (32), a marking (30) made in mirror is placed on the face of the foot (12) that receives the label, prior to the placement of said label, and because it is superimposed the label on said face, covering said marking, once this has been made, as well as said marking is legible by law only by transparency on the face opposite to the one receiving the label.

Description

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DESCRIPTION

Procedure for marking a vial, vial as! marked.

The present invention relates to a method of marking a low capacity single dose vial.

The invention also relates to the vial as! marked.

A reduced volume vial is understood as a container intended to contain volumes of the order of 0.1 to 5.0 ml.

These vials are, therefore, of unique use. The reduced volume allows not to waste the active product. In fact, some products degrade in contact with the air and can be contaminated after opening or in use.

Likewise, the use of single-dose vials allows a sterile product to be available, effective for each application on the same patient or for treatments of different patients without transmitting anything and guaranteeing the efficacy of the active substance.

In addition, the manipulation is simple since each vial allows to supply the product that is contained in small quantities, precisely, due to an adapted form of said vials comprising a generally conical shaped neck and a very small diameter hole.

The opening is obtained by extracting a shutter, generally welded, very easily, thanks to a rotation of said shutter with respect to the body of the container. This shutter is thus very resistant to accidental tearing and can be easily removed.

It should also be noted that these containers, due to their small volume, retain the liquid in the container body when it is fluid and even more so when the fluid is viscous.

The user must exert a slight pressure on the body of the vial to release the product and adjust exactly the moment of said release.

The applications are numerous, for example for:

- eye drops

- products in rinologla,

- physiological serum,

- antiseptics,

- asthma treatment products,

- Cosmetic products.

These vials are manufactured in line and in very high numbers, and are generally presented in batches of juxtaposed vials and joined together in a removable way by their sides.

Due to the small volume of said vials, it is also understood that this generates limitations.

The first is the grip of the container with the fingers, which is difficult, especially for adult fingers and even more when these fingers are thick.

Likewise, it has been conceived to attach to the body of the vial a tongue in the foot to dimensionally increase the size of the single dose container without thereby increasing the useful volume.

In addition to greatly improving grip and handling, this tab offers another advantage relative to marking.

In fact, the body of the container is generally of more or less curved shapes, which makes it difficult to fix a label.

The tongue as! added can be added by welding during the manufacture of the vial or be made in one piece with the vial by flattening the faces in order to constitute a flat tongue, arranged in the extension of the body of the vial, on the foot.

Thus, the vials can receive a label added by gluing, for example.

This label can therefore carry a logo, a brand, or a product identification.

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However, there remains a problem, that of marking, during manufacturing on the production chain, of information related to the production itself, that is, the lot number, the date of manufacture, the expiration date, to name just these information.

However, this information must be marked on the movement of the containers.

There are several methods of marking, see for example documents DE102004046536 A1, EP 2 020 386 A1, WO 2007/107825 A2 and WO 2007/003891 A1, but the simplest and most widespread is ink marking by means of a printhead . The marking is placed on the tongue, on the opposite side from the one on the label.

Thus, in the provisions of the prior art, there is a vial that is equipped with an extension in the form of a tongue of which one side bears a label and the other side has a directly legible marking, printed on the right.

This arrangement suffers from a drawback, that of subjecting the marking to external aggressions such as contact with liquids, in particular humidity, temperature variations, mechanical friction, for example the friction of the fingers and therefore to the risks of at least partial erasure of marking.

However, it is advisable to guarantee the perennity of the marking since without the information, the contents of the vial cannot be used. The problem is even more important when the vials contain liquids of long expiration date, leaving even more opportunities to lead to a degradation of said marking.

The present invention relates to a marking procedure that allows to alleviate the problems caused by the products of the prior art and ensures a reading of the marked information, as well as the necessary perenniality.

The invention is resolved according to claim 1 and according to claim 4.

The invention is now described in more detail according to a particular, non-limiting, embodiment in relation to the explanatory drawings, in which the different figures represent:

- figure 1: a perspective view of a set of vials according to the invention,

- Figure 2A: perspective view of a vial according to the present invention, after marking and before labeling, on the marked side,

- Figure 2B: perspective view of a vial according to the present invention, after marking, before the label is placed, on the opposite side of the marking,

- Figure 3A: perspective view of a vial according to the present invention, after marking and after label placement, on the marked side,

- Figure 3B: perspective view of a vial according to the present invention, after marking, after label placement, on the opposite side of the marking.

In Figure 1, vials 10 according to the present invention, generally made by extrusion-blowing, filling in displacement and subsequent filling, in sterile environment when the product needs it, have been represented. The procedure and the device are known, therefore the description is no longer exemplified.

The vials are generally presented in a band, as in Figure 1, which comprises several vials.

As shown in Figures 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B, each vial comprises a foot 12, a body 14 and a head 16.

The foot 12 forms a tongue and generally results from a hot coating of the walls of the container in order to make a surface, in this case flat, rectangular, of a thickness substantially equal to twice the thickness of the wall of the container, or of a smaller thickness depending on the initial volume used and the surface generated from this volume.

These vials 10 are joined to form a band 18, in this case they are joined at their sides, by means of joining means 20.

These joining means 20 are suitable for making the joint removable, by breaking the joint at the level of the joining means, thus allowing one of the end vials to be removed, the others remaining joined.

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The body 14, of reduced volume, is hollow to receive the product 22, in the form of liquid, gel or solution for example.

The volume is preferably adapted to the general shape of the container and it is found that the geometry of the body is slightly flattened, in the embodiment shown.

The head 16 is made in one piece after filling and results from a hot deformation of the head of the container.

This head 16 comprises a neck 24, a plug 26 and a weakening point 28 between the two to ensure easy removal of said head and to access the product. This weakening point 28 is broken, often by rotation of the cap 26 with respect to the neck 24. The neck is then opened on the right side of the weakening point and allows the product to escape by pouring from the vial and generally by pressure on the body. , since the liquid may be retained by capillarity in said body due to the reduced volume and the small diameter of the outlet orifice.

During this operation, vial 10 is seized by the user by his foot 12.

On this foot 12, as shown in Figure 2A, a marking 30 of the type corresponding to the expiration date, the manufacturing date and the lot number is ensured.

This marking is done on the obverse side, for example, by a commercial inkjet printhead, the ink being preferably an ink in an aqueous medium.

The marking is assured, therefore, in displacement on the pallet constituted by the foot of the vial.

It should be noted that the marking that is made on the obverse face is a mirror marking, that is, with characters such as would be represented in a mirror from a normal writing.

It should be noted that the material used is generally polypropylene or polyethylene, which both have the property of being transparent or at least translucent.

On this obverse side, the user will have difficulty reading the marking or at least immediately determine the content of the information registered.

On the contrary, in Figure 2B, it is found that the obverse face of the tongue constituted by the foot 12, makes the marking appear transparent and is directly legible, writing of the right, which allows the information to be immediately understood.

In Figure 3A, the vial 10 with its marking 30 has been shown, but the obverse face has received a label 32 that conceals the marking and covers it, thus ensuring! its protection against mechanical aggressions or moisture or contact with liquids such as water, and exposures to UV radiation that can degrade the marking ink.

These labels are generally also made of polymer materials such as polyethylene, so that these labels are very mechanically resistant, resistant to moisture, and the glue that allows adhesion on the foot of the bottle is very adhesive. These labels are, therefore, preferably made of a material comprising a high adhesive polymer.

One of the advantages of the present invention is also noted, which refers to the possible falsifications, since if a third party removes the foot tag for a new conditioning or falsification of the printed information, the marking will be damaged to a large extent by the removal of said tag.

The tag is also of interest to reinforce readability.

Indeed, the bottom of the labels is generally opaque, white, so that the marking 30, generally black, is even more readable.

The label has some mentions that are also useful, but the marking is done in a printing machine with adapted inks and a possibility of heat or UV polymerization, which makes these prints very resistant, both to wear and, in general , to any degradation by moisture or friction.

Therefore, the content of the labels' writings does not pose the same problem as the labeling on the bottle and the degradation is not a problem, at least under the normal use conditions of these generally pharmaceutical or cosmetic products.

The method of marking a vial comprising a foot 12, a body 14 and a head 16, said tongue-shaped foot with two faces, one of these faces receiving a label 32, is characterized in that a label 30 is deposited on the face of the foot 12 that receives the label, prior to the placement of said label and why the label is deposited on said face, covering said marking, once it has been made.

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Said writing in the procedure according to the invention consists more particularly in placing the mirror marking on the face bearing the label.

Claims (4)

1. Method of marking a vial of transparent polymeric material, in particular for pharmaceutical and / or cosmetic purposes, comprising a foot (12), a body (14), and a head (16), said foot being in the form of 5 tongue with two faces, one of these faces receiving a label (32), a marking (30) placed in a mirror is placed on the face of the foot (12) that receives the label, prior to the placement of said label, and by that the label is superimposed on said face, covering said marking, once this is done, as! as said marking is readable by law only by transparency on the opposite side of the one receiving the label. 10 2. Method of marking a vial according to claim 1, characterized in that the marking (30) is performed by ink impression. 3. Method of marking a vial according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the label is made of a material comprising a polymer of strong adhesiveness. fifteen 4. Vial made of transparent polymeric material, in particular for pharmaceutical and / or cosmetic purposes, comprising a foot (12), a body (14) and a head (16), said foot having a tongue shape with two faces, characterized in that one of these faces receives a label (32), said bottle comprising one of the faces of the foot (12) in the form of a tongue, a mirror marking (30), in which said label is superimposed, said said being 20 legible marking of the right only by transparency on the opposite side to the one receiving the label. 5. A vial made of transparent polymeric material according to claim 4, characterized in that the volume is comprised between 0.1 and 5 milliliters.