Viscous-material filling method

摘要

A method and apparatus are disclosed for transferring and filling a viscous material from a container into a syringe while preventing the ingress of gas into the viscous material during the process of filling the syringe with the viscous material, but without requiring a housing for holding both the container and the syringe in an air-tight manner. The method includes inserting a plunger into the container that holds the viscous material and inserting a first plug, which permits gas flow in one direction, into the syringe. Then, the container is coupled to the syringe, a rod is inserted into the syringe such that the rod engages with the first plug, and the plunger is pushed within the container, thereby extruding the viscous material from the container. As a result, the extruded viscous material is transferred into the syringe and the syringe is filled with the viscous material.

主权项

1. A method of transferring and filling a viscous material from a container into a syringe,
wherein the container comprises: a container housing; a container inner chamber defined within the container housing for holding the viscous material; and a first opening and a second opening defined within the container housing and in fluid communication with the container inner chamber, and the syringe comprises: a syringe housing; a syringe inner chamber defined within the syringe housing for being filled with and transferring the viscous material from the container; and a third opening and a fourth opening defined within the syringe housing and in fluid communication with the syringe inner chamber, the method comprising: inserting a plunger into the container through the first opening while the viscous material is retained in the container, thereby providing a container set to be held in position; inserting a first plug into the syringe while being in slidable contact with the syringe, whereby a syringe set preparation step provides a syringe set, the first plug inserted within the syringe separating the syringe inner chamber into a first sub-chamber closer to the third opening and a second sub-chamber closer to the fourth opening, the first plug further permitting gas flow in a direction from the first sub-chamber to the second sub-chamber, restricting a flow of viscous material in the same direction, and preventing a flow of gas and viscous material in the reverse direction, the syringe set being retained in position such that the third opening of the syringe is detachably connected in a substantially air-tight manner with the second opening of the container; a rod insertion step that inserts a rod into the syringe so that the rod engages with the first plug in the syringe, thereby applying a force to the first plug in a direction that reduces the volume of the first sub-chamber; an extrusion and filling step that pushes the plunger into the container towards the second opening, thereby extruding the viscous material from the container through the second opening, and thereby transferring the viscous material from the container into the first sub-chamber of the syringe, and an assisting step that assists the movement of the rod that follows movement of the first plug within the syringe as the amount of viscous material filling the first sub-chamber increases, by applying a force to the rod in a direction that increases the volume of the first sub-chamber.