Claims for Patent: 9,731,087

Summary for Patent: 9,731,087

Title:	Dose counter for inhaler having a bore and shaft arrangement
Abstract:	A dose counter for an inhaler, the dose counter having a display tape arranged to be incrementally driven from a tape stock bobbin onto an incremental tape take-up drive shaft, the bobbin having an internal bore supported by and for rotation about a support shaft, at least one of the bore and support shaft having a protrusion which is resiliently biased into frictional engagement with the other of the bore and support shaft with longitudinally extending mutual frictional interaction.
Inventor(s):	Walsh; Declan (County Kilkenny, IE), Fenlon; Derek (County Wexford, IE), Kaar; Simon (County Cork, IE), Hazenberg; Jan Geert (County Kilkenny, IE), Buck; Daniel (County Waterford, IE), Clancy; Paul (Waterford City, IE), Uschold; Robert Charles (Leominster, MA), Karg; Jeffrey A. (Hopkinton, MA)
Assignee:	IVAX PHARMACEUTICALS IRELAND (IE) TEVA PHARMACEUTICALS IRELAND (IE) NORTON (WATERFORD) LIMITED (IE)
Application Number:	14/699,578
Patent Claims:	1. A dose counter for an inhaler, the dose counter having a display tape arranged to be incrementally driven from a tape stock bobbin onto an incremental tape take-up drive shaft, the bobbin having an internal bore supported by and for rotation about a support shaft, at least one of the bore and support shaft having a protrusion, and the other of the bore and support shaft having alternating convex and concave surfaces located around a periphery thereof, the protrusion being resiliently biased into frictional engagement with the alternating convex and concave surfaces with longitudinally extending mutual frictional interaction. 2. A dose counter as claimed in claim 1 in which the support shaft is forked and resilient for resiliently biasing the support shaft and bore into frictional engagement. 3. A dose counter as claimed in claim 2 in which the support shaft has two forks, each having a radially extending protrusion having a friction edge extending therealong parallel to a longitudinal axis of the support shaft for frictionally engaging the bore of the support shaft with longitudinally extending frictional interaction. 4. An inhaler as claimed in claim 1 which has a medicament canister mounted thereto. 5. An inhaler as claimed in claim 4 in which the canister comprises a pressurised metered dose canister having a reciprocally movable stem extending therefrom and movable into a main canister body thereof for releasing a metered dose of medicament under pressure. 6. An inhaler as claimed in claim 5 in which the canister is operable by pressing by hand on the main canister body. 7. A dry powder medicament inhaler comprising a body, the dose counter of claim 1 located within the body for accurately counting dose actuations of the dry powder medicament inhaler, and a medicament store containing an active drug positioned within the body. 8. A breath actuated inhaler comprising a body, the dose counter of claim 1 located within the body for accurately counting dose actuations of the breath actuated inhaler, and a medicament store containing an active drug positioned within the body. 9. A metered-dose medicament inhaler comprising a body, the dose counter of claim 1 located within the body for accurately counting dose actuations of the metered-dose medicament inhaler, and a pressurized canister containing a mixture of active drug and propellant positioned within the body.