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US 7,030,338 B2Granted
Pharmaceutical laser drilling system
AssigneePfizer Inc.
InventorsMark S. Carruthers, Christopher D. Craig, Douglas L. Millard, David D. Newbold, Kenny R. Spence, Avinash G. Thombre
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A laser drilling system forms an opening in the coating of a pharmaceutical dosage form and includes an orienting assembly to correctly orient dosage forms, a debris removal assembly to reduce buildup of and reduce exposure to drilling debris and a quality control assembly to verify that the opening formed conforms to predetermined specifications.
Claims4
A pharmaceutical laser drilling system for creating an opening in a coating on a dosage form having a first side and a second side, said system comprising:
- (a) a laser drilling station;
- (b) a laser capable of producing a laser beam, said laser beam being conducted through a laser beam delivery assembly capable of focusing said laser beam at said laser drilling station;
- (c) a first link conveyor comprising a plurality of first links, each of said first links being capable of receiving a dosage form;
- (d) a second link conveyor comprising a plurality of second links, each of said second links being capable of receiving said dosage form, said second link conveyor being operatively interconnected with said first link conveyor to receive said dosage form from said first link conveyor and capable of transporting said dosage form to said laser drilling station;
- (e) a first color sensor located adjacent said first link conveyor and capable of sensing the color of at least one of said first side and said second side of said dosage form and of generating a signal representative of the color;
- and
- (f) a rejection station located along said first link conveyor capable of ejecting said dosage form in response to said signal generated by said first color sensor.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.