WO1998032534A1

WO1998032534A1 - A method of handling substances and a container for such substances

Info

Publication number: WO1998032534A1
Application number: PCT/IB1998/000096
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nils Peter Adler
Original assignee: Unifill (International) Ag
Priority date: 1997-01-25
Filing date: 1998-01-23
Publication date: 1998-07-30
Also published as: ZA98620B; AU5337698A; GB9701548D0

Abstract

A blow-thermoformed container (1) has a peripheral weld fin (3) encircling and joining two symmetrical shells (4) defining between them a hollow interior (5), a lower zone (5b) of which is partly filled with a liquid (2). The interior (5) has an upper zone (5a) and a narrowed intermediate zone (5c). The weld fin (3) also has a narrowed intermediate zone (3c) between its upper and lower zoens (3a and 3b). The intermediate zone (1c) is weaker than each of the upper zone (1a) and the lower zone (1b), so that the upper zone (1a) may be manually folded down about the intermediate zone (1c). Across the upper zone (1a) may be formed a line of weakness (6) to facilitate severing of the top of the container (1) from the remainder of the container (1) to expose the top of the hollow interior (5).

Description

A METHOD OF HANDLING SPBSTANCES AND A CONTAINER FOR SOCH SUBSTANCES

This invention relates to a method of handling substances and to a container for such substances. In blood sampling, it is known to use a container consisting of two loose pieces assembled together after manufacture of the pieces by injection moulding of thermoplastics. One of the pieces is a vial closed at its bottom and open at its top. The other of the pieces is a closure device consisting of a ring, a cap, and a tether interconnecting the ring and the cap. The ring is a friction fit around the vial and is prevented from leaving the upper end of the vial by an external bead round the mouth of the vial. The cap includes a substantially cylindrical part which is a friction fit in the mouth of the vial.

After the vial and the closure device have been produced by injection-moulding, the closure device is mounted on the vial, the vial is partly filled with a blood-diluting liquid, and the vial is closed by the cap. The partly filled containers are supplied to hospitals. At the hospitals, nurses take blood samples out of patients' fingertips into glass capillary tubes. The nurse holds the container, opens the cap, drops into the vial the capillary tube containing the blood sample, and then closes the vial with the cap. Thereafter, she shakes the container for about 10 seconds and then re-opens the cap to enable a nozzle of a small handpump to be inserted into the vial to draw out the mixture of blood and blood-diluting liquid. The nurse has to use protective gloves, such as of silicone rubber, to avoid risk of skin contact with the mixture when the cap is opened and the mixture drawn out, especially since the shaking causes the mixture to coat the inside of the cap.

BE-A-849898 discloses apparatus for the dilution and filtration of a sample in the form of a very small volume of liquid, of the order of lcc, particularly for analysis. The apparatus is comprised of a container containing liquid, a cylindrical tube and a nozzle. The container is of flexible plastics and comprises a main body zone of generally tubular form which shrinks at its upper extremity in a hollow cylindrical neck closed at its upper extremity by a top detachable according to a peripheral line of weakness. The lower extremity of the main body region is flattened and closed by heat-or ultrasonic-welding. The tube is of flexible plastics and is engaged by friction in the nozzle which terminates in a cannula. To ensure firm fixing of the tube in the nozzle, the latter has a constriction zone constituted by an annular thickening of its wall. The nozzle is moulded of plastics which may be somewhat harder than that of the container and contains a filtering device consisting of a pile of disc filters crimped by the tube in the nozzle. A method of use for blood sampling is as follows.

The top is twisted off the container to provide an open mouth, albeit very narrow, and a capillary tube containing a blood sample is introduced into the container through the open mouth, and then the open end of the plastics tube is frictionally engaged on the neck of the container. The plastics tube is then folded upon itself and the apparatus shaken in such manner as to homogenise the dispersion of the sample in the diluent without wetting the filtering device, so that, after almost inverting the apparatus and squeezing the container body, correct filtration takes place.

There is a risk that the plastics tube will not be liquid-tightly engaged on the neck of the container or, even if it is so engaged, that the folding-over of the tube will produce a leakage path between the neck and the tube.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of handling substances, comprising providing a closed container containing a first substance, opening said closed container to provide an open mouth thereof, inserting the second substance through said open mouth into said first substance, bringing together manually in a substantially liquid-tight manner opposite wall portions above the first and second substances in said container, and subsequently manually releasing the substantially liquid- tight seal between said opposite wall portions, characterized in that said bringing together comprises bringing together opposite wall portions of said container above the first and second substances in said container, and in that said releasing comprises releasing the substantially liquid-tight seal between said opposite wall portions to allow access to the first and second substances in the container.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a container comprising an upper zone, a lower zone and an intermediate zone, said intermediate zone being of flexible material, whereby opposite wall portions of said intermediate zone may be manually brought together, characterised in that said container consists of one piece. Owing to the present invention, risk of leakage between an opened container and a fitment thereon can be avoided.

Also, it is also possible to avoid risk of contact between a user's hand and a surface part which was an internal surface part of the container prior to opening. It is further possible to simplify the manufacture of the closed container.

The invention is applicable to a wide variety of fields, but particularly to analytical fields, for example biological or chemical analysis.

The opposite wall portions may be manually brought together by squeezing them between the thumb and a finger of a hand, or by bending over downwards the upper zone of the container.

The container may be made by blow-moulding or vacuum- moulding, but is preferably made by welding together two sheets at container outlines and then blow-thermoforming of the two sheets.

The first substance may be a liquid, for example a blood-diluting liquid, whilst the second substance may comprise a substance to be mixed therewith, for example blood in a sampling tube.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawing, in which Figures 1 to 6 illustrate diagrammatically various stages in a method of sampling blood, Figures 1, 2, 3 and 6 showing a front elevation of a container employed in the method, and Figures 4 and 5 showing a side elevation of the container.

In a heat-welding and blow-thermoforming system, two strips of flexible thermoplastics (which may be a single web centrally folded) are heat-welded together around container outlines except for respective inlets of the containers. Those wall portions of the two strips bounded by the outlines are then pneumatically thermoformed in moulds which define the shapes of the containers. The individual hollow interiors so formed between the two strips are then partly filled with blood-diluting liquid 2 and the liquid inlets then heat- welded to seal the liquid 2 into the hollow interiors. Then the individual, one-piece containers 1 are cut out and supplied to hospitals. As illustrated in Figure 1, each container has a peripheral weld fin 3 encircling and joining two symmetrical shells 4 defining between them the hollow interior 5 a lower zone 5b of which is partly filled with the liquid 2. The interior 5 has an upper zone 5a, with a narrowed intermediate zone 5c between the upper and lower zones 5a and 5b. The zone 5c is of a minimum internal cross- sectional area significantly less than the maximum internal cross-sectional areas of the respective zones 5a and 5b. The weld fin 3 also has a narrowed intermediate zone 3c between its upper and lower zones 3a and 3b; thus, the intermediate zone lc of the container 1 is weaker than each of the upper zone la and the lower zone lb of the container, so that the upper zone la of the container may be manually folded down about the intermediate zone lc. Across the upper zone la of the container at about the level of the maximum internal cross-sectional area of the upper zone 5a may be formed a severing indication constituted by a line of weakness 6, to facilitate severing of the top of the container 1 from the remainder of the container 1 to expose the top of the hollow interior 5. At the hospital, a nurse, having taken blood out of a patient's fingertip into a glass capillary tube 7, twists off the top of the container along the line 6 to expose a relatively wide, open mouth 8 (see Figure 2) and then drops the tube 7 down through the mouth 8 into the liquid 2, as shown in Figure 3. She then bends the upper zone la of the container downwards about the intermediate zone lc, while holding the lower zone lb upright, to bring the container into the condition shown in Figure 4, thereby to cause the opposite wall portions of the shells 4 at the intermediate zone lc to be pressed together in a liquid- tight manner. The nurse then shakes the container as illustrated in Figure 5, for about ten seconds. Then the nurse returns the upper zone la back into its upright condition and inserts a nozzle 9 of a handpump 10 down through the mouth 8 into the bottom of the hollow interior 5 and draws out the blood-containing mixture 2 ' .

The container and method described with reference to the drawing have the advantage that there is no risk of the nurse's hand coming into contact with an internal surface of the container 1 which has come into contact with the blood- containing mixture 2', so that the nurse does not need to wear gloves. Moreover, since the container 1 is manufactured as one piece, no assembly of container pieces is required, while risk of leakage between such container pieces is avoided. Moreover, a lower weight of thermoplastics can be used to manufacture each container 1 compared with the known container assembled from two pieces manufactured by injection-moulding. Furthermore, the feature that the mouth 8 is relatively wide makes it easier to drop the tube 7 into the container without the tube coming into contact with any external surface of the container.

Although not so shown, the bottom of the lower zone 5b may be of downwardly narrowing, conical shape externally, to facilitate standing the container in a storage, transport, or treatment device or even in an automatic shaker in which the upper zone la is mechanically retained bent-over during shaking.

Claims

1. A method of handling substances, comprising providing a closed container (1) containing a first substance (2) , opening said closed container (1) to provide an open mouth (8) thereof, inserting a second substance (7) through said open mouth (8) into said first substance (2) , bringing together manually in a substantially liquid-tight manner opposite wall portions above the first and second substances

(2,7) in said container (1), and subsequently manually releasing the substantially liquid-tight seal between said opposite wall portions, characterized in that said bringing together comprises bringing together opposite wall portions of said container (1) above the first and second substances

(2,7) in said container (1), and in that said releasing comprises releasing the substantially liquid-tight seal between said opposite wall portions to allow access to the first and second substances (2,7) in the container (1).

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said opposite wall portions are manually brought together as aforesaid by squeezing them between the thumb and a finger of a hand.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said opposite wall portions are manually brought together as aforesaid, by bending over downwards an upper zone (la) of the container

(1) , which upper zone (la) includes said open mouth (8) .

4. A method according to any preceding claim and further comprising, after said releasing, drawing the first and second substances (2,7) upwardly through said open mouth (8) .

5. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said bringing together comprises bringing together opposite wall portions of said container (1) above the first and second substances (2,7) in the container (1) and below said open mouth (8) .

6. A container comprising an upper zone (la), a lower zone (lb) and an intermediate zone (lc) , said intermediate zone (lc) being of flexible material, whereby opposite wall portions of said intermediate zone (lc) may be manually brought together, characterised in that said container (1) consists of one piece.

7. A container according to claim 6, and made by welding together two sheets at a container outline and then blow- thermoforming of the two sheets.

8. A container according to claim 6 or 7, and containing a blood-diluting liquid (2) .

9. A container according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein said intermediate zone (lc) is of a minimum internal cross-sectional area significantly less than each of the maximum internal cross-sectional areas of the respective upper zone (la) and lower zone (lb) .

10. A container according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein said intermediate zone (lc) is weaker than is said upper zone (la) and than is said lower zone (lb) .

11. A container according to claim 10, wherein said intermediate zone (lc) is externally narrower than is said upper zone (la) and than is said lower zone (lb) .

12. A container according to any one of claims 6 to 11, and further comprising a severing indication (6) extending transversely of said upper zone (la) .

13. A container according to claim 12, wherein said severing indication (6) is at about a level of a maximum internal cross-sectional area of said upper zone (la) .

14. A container according to any one of claims 6 to 13, wherein said lower zone comprises a bottom which externally is of substantially conical shape narrowing downwardly.