US Fed News
Alexandria, Va.
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 9 -- Allan Draisey of Felpham, Great Britain, Richard Martin Rencourt of Horndean, Great Britain, and Ryan Grimes of Southampton, Great Britain, have developed a process and apparatus for forming capsules.
According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Capsules, for example for the delivery of pharmaceuticals, are produced from at least three films of a water-soluble polymeric material, by deforming two of the films to form a multiplicity of recesses, and filling the recesses with a flowable filling material.
A film is used to cover the recesses in at least one of the films, and is welded to it by dielectric welding. The films with filled recesses are then brought together and welded together by dielectric welding to form filled capsules, which are cut or punched out of the welded film. The polymeric material may be gelatin, or a water-soluble cellulose derivative such as hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, and may also contain a plasticiser."
The inventors were issued U.S. Patent No. 6,923,980 on Aug. 2.
The patent has been assigned to Stanelco Fibre Optics Ltd., Fareham.
The original application was filed on March 15, 2001, and is available at:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=1664&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&s1=ISYMD-20050802&p=34&OS=ISD/08/02/2005&RS=ISD/08/02/2005.
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August 10, 2005