Workpiece carrier for transporting and/or storing components of drug delivery devices

Abstract

The present invention relates to a workpiece carrier for transporting and/or storing components of a drug delivery device, comprising: an array of accommodating recesses extending in a first lateral plane (x, y) and being adapted to receive at least one component of the drug delivery device, at least one stack forming structure adapted to mate with a corresponding stack forming structure of another workpiece carrier for mutually aligning workpiece carriers when stacked on one another, wherein the center of the at least one stack forming structure is arranged laterally offset with respect to the center of the array of accommodating recesses in at least one lateral direction, and wherein the stack forming structure comprises a surrounding edge comprising at least in sections a corrugated or undulated structure.

Claims

1. A workpiece carrier for transporting or storing components of a drug delivery device, comprising: an array of accommodating recesses extending in a first lateral plane (x, y) and being adapted to receive at least one component of the drug delivery device, at least one stack forming structure formed to mate with a corresponding stack forming structure of another workpiece carrier for mutually aligning workpiece carriers when stacked on one another, wherein the center of the at least one stack forming structure is arranged laterally offset with respect to the center of the array of accommodating recesses in at least one lateral direction (x, y) lying in the first lateral plane, and wherein the at least one stacking forming structure comprises a surrounding edge comprising at least in sections a corrugated or undulated structure; and wherein the at least one stacking forming structure comprises at least one outwardly extending projection having an inward directed ledge at a lower end formed to abut against a flange portion of another workpiece carrier stacked beneath in a first orientation.

2. The workpiece carrier according to claim 1, wherein the at least one stacking forming structure is adapted to enable stacking of workpiece carriers in at least two mutually different orientations.

3. The workpiece carrier according to claim 1, wherein the lateral offset of between the at least one stacking forming structure and the array of accommodating recesses substantially equals half the distance of adjacently arranged accommodating recesses.

4. The workpiece carrier according to claim 1, wherein the at least one stacking forming structure and the array of accommodating recesses are arranged laterally offset in both transverse directions (x, y).

5. The workpiece carrier according to claim 1, wherein each of the accommodating recesses comprises a tapered pocket hole forming a protrusion at a bottom side of the workpiece carrier.

6. The workpiece carrier according to claim 5, wherein the array of accommodating recesses is formed to receive an array of corresponding protrusions of another workpiece carrier stacked thereon in the first orientation.

7. The workpiece carrier according to claim 5, wherein the array of accommodating recesses comprises support surfaces arranged between adjacently located accommodating recesses and being adapted to serve as a support for corresponding protrusions of another workpiece carrier stacked thereon in a second orientation.

8. The workpiece carrier according to claim 6, wherein the first and second orientations are transferable into each other by a rotation of the workpiece carrier by 180 in the lateral plane (x, y).

9. The workpiece carrier according to claim 1, wherein the surrounding edge at an upper end at least in sections comprises an outward extending flange portion.

10. The workpiece carrier according to claim 9, wherein the flange portion entirely surrounds the surrounding edge and comprises at least two gripping recesses.

11. The workpiece carrier according to claim 1, comprising at least one sub-assembly of a drug delivery device, wherein the sub-assembly comprises a housing component of the drug delivery device accommodating a cartridge sealed by a movable piston and containing a medicament to be dispensed by the drug delivery device.

12. A workpiece carrier assembly comprising at least a first and a second workpiece carrier according to claim 1, wherein first and second workpiece carriers are stackable on one another in at least two different orientations with different stack height.

13. A method for at least one of transporting or storing numerous sub-assemblies for drug delivery devices by making use of at least two workpiece carriers according to claim 1, wherein empty workpiece carriers are stacked on one another in a first configuration in which the workpiece carriers are substantially oriented the same way and wherein workpiece carriers equipped with numerous sub-assemblies of the drug delivery device are stacked on one another in a second configuration by rotating every second workpiece carrier of a stack by substantially 180 with its surface normal as axis of rotation.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) In the following, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described by making reference to the Figures in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a cross section in the z-x-plane of a workpiece carrier in a first orientation and

(3) FIG. 2 shows the workpiece carrier according to FIG. 1 in a rotated, second orientation,

(4) FIG. 3 is schematically illustrative of a top view of the workpiece carrier,

(5) FIG. 4 shows an enlarged cross-section of two workpiece carriers stacked on one another in a first configuration,

(6) FIG. 5 is illustrative of two workpiece carriers stacked on one another in a second configuration receiving a first sub-assembly of a drug delivery device and

(7) FIG. 6 shows another stack of two workpiece carriers supporting a second sub-assembly of the drug delivery device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) The workpiece carrier 10 as illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3 comprises an array 12 of regularly row- and column-wise arranged accommodating recesses 14 which extend downwardly and form respective downward pointing protrusion 20 at the bottom side of the respective workpiece carrier 10. The array of accommodating recesses 14 extends in a lateral plane (x, y) as illustrated in FIG. 3. Between adjacently located accommodating recesses 14 a support surface 22 extends comprising a flattened shape. The support surface 20 is of substantially circular shape while the recesses 14 comprise a substantially hollow cylindrical structure, preferably at least slightly conically converging or tapering towards their lower free end 24.

(9) The accommodating recesses 14, and their corresponding protrusion 20 extending from the bottom side of the workpiece carrier 10 comprise a flattened or rounded free end 24. As further illustrated in FIG. 1, the surrounding edge 16 serving as a stack forming structure comprises a left side wall section 34 and a right side wall section 32, both of corrugated or undulated structure 18, 19. The surrounding edge 16 is further vertically displaced from the array 12 of accommodating recesses 14.

(10) As illustrated in FIG. 1, the left side edge 34 of the surrounding edge 16 is spaced apart from the centre of a first adjacently located accommodating recess 14 by a first distance 6 whereas the right side edge 32 is spaced apart from the centre of a corresponding outermost accommodating recess 14 by a distance 8. The difference in the two distances 6, 8 substantially equals half the distance between adjacently disposed recesses 14 in lateral direction (x). Even though not illustrated, the same applies for the other lateral direction (y). Hence, the array 12 of accommodating recesses 14 is laterally offset with respect to the surrounding edge 16, which becomes apparent by a comparison of FIGS. 1 and 2.

(11) The workpiece carrier 10 according to FIG. 2 is rotated by 180 with respect to the z-axis with the centre of the surrounding edge 16 as axis of rotation. Consequently, as illustrated by the vertical dotted line, surrounding edges 16 of the workpiece carriers 10 of FIGS. 1 and 2 are aligned with each other, whereas the lateral positions of the accommodating recesses 14 of the workpiece carrier 10 according to FIG. 1 substantially overlap with support surfaces 22 of the workpiece carrier according to FIG. 2.

(12) Accordingly, if workpiece carriers 10 are stacked on one another in their first configuration, in which the workpiece carriers 10 are oriented in the same way, downward pointing protrusions 20 at a bottom side of an upper workpiece carrier 10 will engage with the accommodating recesses 14 of a lower workpiece carrier 10 stacked underneath as shown for example in FIG. 4.

(13) Since the accommodating recesses 14 comprise a downward extending tapered pocket hole, mutual engagement of protrusions 20 and recesses 14 is preferably delimited in order to facilitate disassembling of a stack of workpiece carriers. For this purpose, the workpiece carrier 10 comprises an outward extending flange portion 30 at an upper end section of its surrounding edge 16. Additionally, the edge 16 comprises at least one outwardly extending projection 26 having an inward directed ledge 38 at its lower end.

(14) In a stacked configuration as shown in FIG. 4, the lower and inward directed ledge 38 extending inwardly from an outwardly extending projection 26 of the upper workpiece carrier 10 buts against the outwardly extending flange portion 30 of the lower workpiece carrier 10 in vertical direction. In this way, nested arrangement of upper and lower workpiece carriers 10, 10 can be confined. The projection 26 with its laterally extending ledge 38 is provided at opposite side edges 32, 34 of the carrier. They further correspond with the projections 26 disposed at side edges interconnecting left and right side edges 32 and 34.

(15) The horizontally extending ledge 38 disposed at the lower end of the projection 26 extends into a substantially vertically and downward extending side edge portion 29, which in turn extends to the outermost protrusion 20 via a bevelled side face portion 28.

(16) By way of the bevelled side face 28, a mutual stacking and aligning of a multiplicity of workpiece carriers in the lateral plane (x, y) can be simplified. However, in alternative embodiment the slanted side face portion 28 can also be replaced by another substantially horizontally extending side wall portion, being not further illustrated here.

(17) Turning the upper workpiece carrier 10 by 180, such that the corrugated or undulated side wall 32 of the upper workpiece carrier 10 faces towards the opposite side wall section 34 of a lower workpiece carrier 10, another, second nested configuration as illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6 can be attained. As illustrated there, the lower free end sections 24 of downward pointing protrusions 20 of accommodating recesses 14 of the upper workpiece 10 but against corresponding support surfaces 22 of the lower workpiece carrier 10.

(18) This way, the effective volume of the recesses 14 is enlarged in an upward direction by the interstices 46 formed between the downward directed protrusions 20 of the upper workpiece 10. As further illustrated in FIG. 5, the accommodating recess 14 of the lower workpiece carrier 10 and the corresponding interstices at the bottom of the upper workpiece carrier 10 form a combined receptacle for a sub-assembly 42 of the drug delivery device.

(19) In FIG. 6, a corresponding nested and stacked arrangement of a lower and an upper workpiece carrier 10, 10 is illustrated. Here, the accommodating recesses 14 are partially populated with a cartridge holder sub-assembly 44 of the drug delivery device further comprising the cartridge being filled with the medicament.

(20) The undulations 18, 19 of the surrounding edge 16 are best illustrated in FIG. 3. The undulations 18, 19 are designed such, that an outwardly protruding undulating portion 18 always matches with an undulating recess 19 irrespective on the mutual orientation of workpiece carriers in the lateral plane (x, y). By way of the undulations, empty workpiece carriers can be stacked on one another in a well-defined way.

(21) It is to be noted, that for reasons of simplicity FIG. 3 only reflects an outer portion of the array 12 of accommodating recesses 14, that be evenly distributed over the entire plane (x, y) of the array 12. In FIG. 3 also the outward extending flange 30 is shown being interrupted by four gripping recesses 40 that allow to selectively grip one of a plurality of workpiece carriers disposed next to each other even when their outer flanges 30 are in direct contact with each other.