Dry powder inhaler

An inhaler for providing individual doses of a pharmaceutical from blisters on a blister disk in a tray, comprising:

• a base plate;
• a tray retainer on the base plate, with the tray retainer having a tray holding section;
• an actuator on the base plate for opening blisters on the blister disk;
• with the tray retainer moveable from a closed position, wherein the tray holding section of the tray retainer secures the tray onto the base plate, to an open position, wherein the tray holding section is spaced apart from the base plate, to allow removal and replacement of the tray.

An inhaler for delivering individual doses of a dry powder pharmaceutical from blister containers on a blister disk, comprising:

• an inhaler housing having top and bottom surfaces;
• means for holding the blister disk on or in the inhaler housing, with the blister containers in an up facing position;
• means for incrementally advancing the blister containers on the blister disk to a blister opening position in the housing;
• means for opening up a top surface of the blister containers, at the blister opening position;
• and
• a blister hood over the blister opening position, for conducting powder drawn up and out of an open blister at the blister opening position, into a dispersion engine.

An inhaler for delivering individual doses of a dry powder pharmaceutical from blister containers on a blister disk, comprising:

• an inhaler housing;
• a blister opening position in the inhaler housing;
• a powder dispersion engine in the housing;
• a blister hood over the blister opening position;
• and
• a powder pathway connecting from the blister hood into the powder dispersion engine.

A method for operating a dry powder inhaler, comprising the steps of;

• installing a tray holding a blister disk onto or into the inhaler;
• pivoting an actuator in a first direction about a first axis to drive a dobber to pivot about a second axis, generally perpendicular to the first axis, causing the dobber to shear open a blister on the blister disk;
• conducting powder up and out of the open blister and into a dispersion engine, via air flow;
• dispersing the powder in the dispersion engine;
• and
• pivoting the actuator in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, to advance the blister disk in the tray.

A blister disk tray assembly, comprising:

• a bottom wall;
• a curved side wall joined to the bottom wall;
• a blister disk mounting hub on the bottom wall;
• a blister disk pivotably supported on the mounting hub;
• and
• a lockout ratchet on the bottom wall biased into a first position wherein the lockout ratchet engages the blister disk and prevents pivotal movement of the blister disk, and with the lockout ratchet temporarily displaceable into a second position disengaged from the blister disk, to allow the blister disk to pivot on the mounting hub.

An inhaler for providing individual doses of a pharmaceutical from blisters on a blister disk in a tray, comprising:

• a base having a base dose window;
• a tray retainer pivotably attached to the base plate, with the tray retainer having a retainer dose window;
• an actuator pivotably attached to the base, with the actuator having an actuator dose window;
• with the tray retainer moveable from a first position to an second position, and the actuator is moveable from a third position to a fourth position, and with the base dose window, the retainer dose window, and the actuator dose window aligned with each other when the tray retainer is in the first position, and the actuator is in third position or in the fourth position.