Method for transporting a blister strip of ophthalmic lenses into an autoclave magazine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11851291-B2
Application number	US-202117173461-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2021
Priority date	Feb 13, 2020
Publication date	Dec 26, 2023
Grant date	Dec 26, 2023

Abstract

A method for transporting a blister strip of ophthalmic lenses: only one single blister strip is provided at a start location and one magazine compartment of two magazine compartments contains n blister strips while the other magazine compartment contains n+1 blister strips, the single buster strip is picked up at the start location by one of the gripper units of a first gripper and is transported into that magazine compartment containing the n blister strips, by moving the first gripper to that magazine compartment containing the n blister strips and releasing the single blister strip from the first gripper into that magazine compartment, or by moving the first gripper to a hand-over station and releasing the single blister strip from the first gripper into the hand-over station, transporting the single blister strip from the hand-over station into that magazine compartment containing the n blister strips using a second gripper.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Method for transporting a blister strip ( 1 ) of ophthalmic lenses, in particular contact lenses or intraocular lenses, into an autoclave magazine ( 2 ), the method comprising the steps of:
providing a first gripper ( 3 ) for gripping blister strips, the first gripper ( 3 ) comprising two gripper units ( 31 , 32 ), each of the two gripper units ( 31 , 32 ) being configured to separately grip one individual blister strip ( 1 ),
providing an autoclave magazine ( 2 ) comprising two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ), each of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) being configured to contain individual blister strips ( 1 ) in a manner stacked one above the other,
at a start location ( 4 ) providing at least one blister strip ( 1 ),
picking up the at least one blister strip ( 1 ) provided at the start location ( 4 ) using the first gripper ( 3 ),
moving the first gripper ( 3 ) together with the at least one blister strip ( 1 ) picked up at the start location ( 4 ) to a destination location, and
releasing the at least one blister strip ( 1 ) from the first gripper ( 3 ) at the destination location,
wherein n is a positive integer including zero and indicates the number of blister strips actually contained in at least one of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) of the autoclave magazine ( 2 ),
wherein either the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) both contain n blister strips or one magazine compartment ( 21 , 22 ) contains n blister strips while the other magazine compartment ( 22 , 21 ) contains n+1 blister strips,
wherein the at least one blister strip ( 1 ) is picked up at the start location ( 4 ) by the gripper units ( 31 , 32 ) of the first gripper ( 3 ) and is transported to the magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ), either directly by moving the first gripper ( 3 ) to the magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) as destination location, or indirectly by providing a hand-over station ( 5 ) and a second gripper ( 6 ) for gripping blister strips ( 1 ) and moving the first gripper ( 3 ) to the hand-over station ( 5 ) as the destination location and releasing the at least one blister strip ( 1 ) from the first gripper ( 3 ) into the hand-over station ( 5 ) and by subsequently transporting the at least one blister strip ( 1 ) from the hand-over station ( 5 ) to the magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) using the second gripper ( 6 ),
wherein in case only one single blister strip ( 1 ) is provided at the start location ( 4 ) and one magazine compartment of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) contains n blister strips while the other magazine compartment contains n+1 blister strips,

the single blister ( 1 ) strip is picked up at the start location ( 4 ) by one of the gripper units ( 31 , 32 ) of the first gripper ( 3 ) and is transported into that magazine compartment ( 21 , 22 ) containing the n blister strips, either directly by moving the first gripper ( 3 ) to that magazine compartment containing the n blister strips and releasing the single blister strip ( 1 ) from the first gripper ( 3 ) into that magazine compartment, or indirectly by moving the first gripper ( 3 ) to the hand-over station ( 5 ) and releasing the single blister strip ( 1 ) from the first gripper ( 3 ) into the hand-over station ( 5 ) and subsequently transporting the single blister strip ( 1 ) from the hand-over station ( 5 ) into that magazine compartment containing the n blister strips using the second gripper ( 6 ).

2. Method according to claim 1 ,
wherein each gripper unit of the two gripper units ( 31 , 32 ) of the first gripper ( 3 ) is either fixedly assigned to a respective magazine compartment position corresponding to the location where one magazine compartment of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) of the autoclave magazine ( 2 ) is arranged, with one gripper unit of the first gripper ( 3 ) being fixedly assigned to the magazine compartment position of one of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) and the other gripper unit of the first gripper ( 3 ) being fixedly assigned to the magazine compartment position of the other of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ),
or wherein each gripper unit of the two gripper units ( 31 , 32 ) of the first gripper ( 3 ) is fixedly assigned to a respective hand-over position out of two hand-over positions ( 51 , 52 ) in the hand-over station ( 5 ), with one hand-over position of the two hand-over positions ( 51 , 52 ) being fixedly assigned to the magazine compartment position of one of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) and the other hand-over position of the two hand-over positions ( 51 , 52 ) being fixedly assigned to the magazine compartment position of the other of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ),
and wherein in case only one single blister strip ( 1 ) is provided at the start location ( 4 ) and one magazine compartment of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) contains n blister strips while the other magazine compartment contains n+1 blister strips,

the single blister strip ( 1 ) is picked up at the start location ( 4 ) by that gripper unit which is fixedly assigned to the magazine compartment position corresponding to the location of the magazine compartment containing the n blister strips or to the hand-over position which is fixedly assigned to the magazine compartment position of the magazine compartment containing the n blister strips, and is transported into that magazine compartment containing the n blister strips, either directly by moving the first gripper ( 3 ) to the magazine compartment position corresponding to the location of the magazine compartment containing the n blister strips and releasing the single blister strip ( 1 ) from the first gripper into that magazine compartment, or indirectly by moving the first gripper ( 3 ) to the hand-over position fixedly assigned to the magazine compartment position of the magazine compartment containing the n blister strips and releasing the single blister strip ( 1 ) from the first gripper ( 3 ) into the hand-over station ( 5 ) at that hand-over position and by subsequently transporting the single blister strip ( 1 ) from that hand-over position in the hand-over station ( 5 ) into the magazine compartment containing the n blister strips using the second gripper ( 6 ).

3. Method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the start location ( 4 ) has two pick-up positions ( 41 , 42 ) where blister strips ( 1 ) can be provided, and wherein each gripper unit of the two gripper units ( 31 , 32 ) of the first gripper ( 3 ) is fixedly assigned to one of the two pick-up positions ( 41 , 42 ), with one gripper unit being fixedly assigned to one pick-up position of the two pick-up positions ( 41 , 42 ) and the other gripper unit being fixedly assigned to the other pick-up position of the two pick-up positions ( 41 , 42 ),
and wherein in case only one single blister strip ( 1 ) is provided at the start location ( 4 ) at one of the two pick-up positions ( 41 , 42 ) and one magazine compartment of the two magazine compartments ( 21 , 22 ) contains n blister strips while the other magazine compartment contains n+1 blister strips,

the single blister strip ( 1 ) is picked up at the said one of the two pick-up positions ( 41 , 42 ) by the gripper unit fixedly assigned to the said one of the two pick-up positions ( 41 , 42 ) and is transported into the magazine compartment containing the n blister strips either directly by moving the first gripper ( 3 ) to the magazine compartment containing the n blister strips as the destination location and releasing the single blister strip ( 1 ) from the first gripper ( 3 ) into that magazine compartment, or indirectly by moving the first gripper ( 3 ) to the hand-over station ( 5 ) and releasing the single blister strip ( 1 ) from the first gripper ( 3 ) into

Assignees

• Alcon Inc

Inventors

• Brinckmann Felix
• Schweizer Nils
• Wolfstädter Jens

Classifications

• B65G47/907 Primary

  with at least two picking-up heads · CPC title

• A45C11/005

  Contact lens cases (A45C11/046 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61F2/1691

  Packages or dispensers for intraocular lenses (for contact lenses A45C11/005) · CPC title

• B65B35/50 Primary

  Stacking one article, or group of articles, upon another before packaging · CPC title

• B65G57/04

  by suction or magnetic devices · CPC title