Automated equipment and process for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter

Abstract

The invention discloses an automated device and process for gluing a surgical catheter tube mouth, comprising: an extruder, an installation platform, and a catheter winding module, a catheter flipping module, a joint feeding module, a catheter gluing module, a joint installation module, and a detection module located on the installation platform; the catheter winding module is used to roll and form the catheter produced by the extruder; the catheter flipping module is used to flip the wound and formed catheter, and control the tube mouth of the catheter to be in a vertical state upward; the catheter gluing module dispenses glue on the outer wall of the tube mouth of the catheter with the tube mouth in a vertical state upward; the detection module is used to detect the uniform distribution of glue on the outer wall of the tube mouth; the joint feeding module is used to transport the joint to the joint installation module, and the joint installation module installs the joint to the outer wall of the tube mouth of the catheter and fixes it with glue on the outer wall of the tube mouth; the invention forms a uniform glue coating layer on the catheter under the action of gravity, thereby ensuring that the thickness of the glue coverage is consistent, and effectively improving the adhesion and the uniformity of the glue coating.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of glue coating, and in particular to automated equipment and technology for glue dispensing at a surgical catheter tube opening. Background Art

[0002] In surgical medicine, catheters are commonly used as instruments and are widely used in surgical procedures such as infusion and drainage. The connection quality between the catheter and the connector directly affects the surgical effect and the functionality of the catheter. During the connection process, it is necessary to ensure the tight adhesion between the connector and the catheter by applying glue to the outer wall of the catheter tube mouth to ensure the stability and sealing of the joint. However, in the prior art, there are still some problems in the catheter tube mouth gluing process, which affects the connection quality between the connector and the catheter.

[0003] First, during manual or semi-automatic operation, due to the flexibility and transparency of the catheter, the uniformity of the glue dispensing operation is difficult to control, resulting in uneven glue coating and possible problems of excessive or insufficient glue distribution. This will not only affect the fixing effect of the joint, but may also cause the catheter to leak or fall off during use, endangering the health and safety of the patient. In addition, the manual glue dispensing process is inefficient, difficult to adapt to the needs of large-scale production, and easily affected by human factors, resulting in unstable quality.

[0004] In addition, when gluing the catheter, the catheter is usually placed horizontally. Due to the corrugated setting of the catheter mouth, the glue will gather at the bottom of the horizontal position of the mouth due to gravity along the corrugation of the mouth, resulting in uneven glue coating on the outer wall of the catheter and inconsistent glue thickness, which will affect the firmness and sealing of the catheter and joint installation. In order to improve the uniformity of catheter gluing and the quality of connection, the application of automated equipment has become a trend. This type of equipment can achieve precise control of the gluing process of the catheter mouth through mechanical control and parameter adjustment, avoiding errors in manual operation.

[0005] Therefore, an automated device and process for dispensing glue at the tube mouth of a surgical catheter is required, which can detect the uniformity of glue coating and adjust the dispensing parameters in real time to solve problems such as uneven glue coating and unstable connection, and ensure the bonding quality between the catheter and the joint. Summary of the invention

[0006] The invention overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art and provides an automated device and process for dispensing glue on a surgical catheter tube opening.

[0007] To achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is: an automated device for dispensing glue at the tube mouth of a surgical catheter, comprising: an extruder, a mounting platform, and a catheter winding module, a catheter flipping module, a joint feeding module, a catheter gluing module, a joint installation module, and a detection module located on the mounting platform;

[0008] The catheter winding module is used to roll and shape the catheter produced by the extruder;

[0009] The catheter flipping module is used to flip the wound catheter and control the catheter to be in a vertical position with the tube opening facing upwards;

[0010] The catheter glue coating module dispenses glue on the outer wall of the catheter orifice with the orifice pointing upward and in a vertical state;

[0011] The detection module is used to detect whether the glue on the outer wall of the pipe mouth is evenly distributed;

[0012] The joint feeding module is used to transport the joint to the joint installation module, and the joint installation module installs the joint to the outer wall of the conduit pipe mouth and fixes it with glue on the outer wall of the pipe mouth.

[0013] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the catheter glue coating module comprises: a mounting sleeve, a nozzle located inside the mounting sleeve, a control unit for controlling glue dispensing parameters, and a detection unit for detecting glue coating uniformity; the diameter of the mounting sleeve is larger than the diameter of the outer wall of the catheter, and the nozzle is arranged in a ring shape;

[0014] A deformation member is arranged in the installation sleeve, and the deformation member drives the conduit to deform into a tapered conduit shape;

[0015] The control unit controls the glue coating temperature, glue amount and feeding speed;

[0016] The detection unit cooperates with the deformable member to detect uniform glue coating.

[0017] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the glue discharging parameters include: glue temperature, glue amount, and feed speed.

[0018] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the deformable member includes: a connecting tube, and an airbag located at the end of the connecting tube; the connecting tube is installed at the center position of the mounting sleeve, and both ends of the connecting tube are open, one end is sealed and connected to the airbag, and the other end is connected to an external air pump.

[0019] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the connecting tube is inserted 2-2.5 cm at the position of the central axis of the catheter.

[0020] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the connecting tube is a black rubber tube, and the airbag is made of silicone.

[0021] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the angle between the tapered conduit-shaped contraction wall and its central axis is 0-10°.

[0022] An automated process for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter, using any of the automated equipment for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter as described above, comprises the following steps:

[0023] Step S1, controlling the wound conduit opening to be vertically upward, and fixing the position of the conduit;

[0024] Step S2, transporting the fixed catheter to the glue dispensing position, and driving the inside of the catheter to deform outwards to form a gradually shrinking shape;

[0025] Step S3, controlling the dispensing parameters, including the glue temperature, glue amount, and feeding speed, and performing surrounding dispensing on the outer wall of the nozzle, so that the glue slides vertically and is coated on the outer wall of the nozzle;

[0026] Step S4, real-time detection of uniformity of glue coating;

[0027] Step S5: After the glue is evenly coated, the joint is installed at the pipe opening at the glue coating position to complete the installation of the interface and the conduit.

[0028] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in step S3, controlling the dispensing parameters includes the following steps:

[0029] Step S31, real-time monitoring of the temperature in the dispensing environment, and pre-processing of the monitored data;

[0030] Step S32, transmitting the pre-processed data to the control unit;

[0031] Step S33: Based on the collected environmental data, the control unit dynamically adjusts the glue temperature to maintain the viscosity of the glue to ensure that the glue can flow evenly;

[0032] Step S34: Calculate the dispensing parameters based on the dynamic adjustment of the glue temperature and the parameter data of the catheter.

[0033] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in step S33, the glue temperature is dynamically adjusted, specifically, it is necessary to combine the temperature of the external environment and obtain the value according to the Arrhenius equation ,in, represents the target viscosity, Indicates the viscosity of the glue under ideal flow conditions. represents constants related to the chemical properties of glue, represents the gas constant (taken as 8.314 J / (mol·K)), Indicates the target temperature;

[0034] Transforming the equation, we get , preliminarily adjust the temperature of the glue according to the target temperature, , Indicates the adjusted glue temperature, Indicates the current ambient temperature. Indicates the adjustment coefficient, between 0 and 1.

[0035] The present invention solves the defects existing in the background technology and has the following beneficial effects:

[0036] The present invention provides an automated device and process for dispensing glue on the tube mouth of a surgical catheter. The tube mouth of the catheter is vertically upward, and a deformable part is used to drive the catheter to be a tapered tube. When dispensing glue on the tube mouth, the glue gradually flows from top to bottom due to gravity, which helps the glue to evenly cover each area without accumulation or excessive distribution, thereby improving the uniformity of coating.

[0037] The present invention can adapt to the viscosity changes under different environmental conditions by dynamically adjusting the glue temperature according to the external ambient temperature, ensuring that the glue maintains ideal fluidity during the coating process, thereby achieving better fluidity and uniform coating, avoiding defects such as uneven coating and bubbles, and controlling the amount of glue to avoid overflowing glue and insufficient coating, achieving precise adjustment to ensure stable output of glue, further improving the accuracy of glue coating, and improving the uniformity of glue coating.

[0038] The present invention drives the catheter to be in a tapered tubular shape through a deformation piece. Under the action of gravity, the glue can flow evenly along the outer wall of the catheter to form a uniform coating, thereby ensuring that the thickness of the glue coverage is consistent, effectively improving the adhesion and the uniformity of the glue coating. At the same time, the tapered tubular structure makes the coating area of ​​the glue on the outer wall of the pipe mouth relatively large, which not only increases the contact area between the glue and the pipe wall, but also improves the bonding strength, increases the bonding area between the catheter and the joint, ensures that the joint is firmly fixed to the pipe mouth, and reduces interface failure caused by stress during use.

[0039] The present invention uses the connecting tube and the air bag as the background to provide a good visual contrast with the transparent glue and the catheter, effectively shielding the light of the background environment and reducing the interference of external light sources, so that during the glue coating process, the distribution of the glue on the outer wall of the catheter can be observed more clearly, thereby improving the detection accuracy of the glue coating uniformity and facilitating the rapid identification of the uniformity of the glue coating. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0040] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art are briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments recorded in the present invention. For those of ordinary skill in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work.

[0041] Figure 1 It is a schematic front view of the structure of an automated device for dispensing glue at the tube mouth of a surgical catheter according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0042] Figure 2 is a structural schematic diagram of a catheter glue coating module of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0043] Figure 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a deformation member of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0044] In the figure: 1. extruder; 2. mounting platform; 3. airbag; 4. catheter winding module; 5. catheter flipping module; 6. joint feeding module; 7. catheter gluing module; 8. joint installation module; 9. mounting sleeve; 10. nozzle; 11. connecting pipe. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0045] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0046] In the following description, many specific details are set forth to facilitate a full understanding of the present invention, but the present invention may also be implemented in other ways different from those described herein. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0047] In the description of the present application, it should be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", etc., indicating the orientation or positional relationship, are based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present application and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as limiting the scope of protection of the present application. In addition, the terms "first", "second", etc. are only used for descriptive purposes, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Therefore, features defined as "first", "second", etc. may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. In the description of the invention, unless otherwise specified, "multiple" means two or more.

[0048] In the description of this application, it should be noted that, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, the terms "installed", "connected", and "connected" should be understood in a broad sense, for example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection; it can be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; it can be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and it can be the internal communication of two components. For ordinary technicians in this field, the specific meanings of the above terms in this application can be understood by specific circumstances.

[0049] The invention aims at connecting a transparent PVC hose and a joint through a transparent PVC special glue, and detecting the uniformity of coating the transparent PVC special glue on the transparent PVC hose.

[0050] like Figure 1 As shown, an automated device for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter comprises: an extruder 1 and a mounting platform 2, and a catheter winding module 4, a catheter flipping module 5, a joint feeding module 6, a catheter gluing module 7, a joint installation module 8, and a detection module located on the mounting platform 2;

[0051] The catheter winding module 4 is used to roll and shape the catheter produced by the extruder 1;

[0052] The catheter flip module 5 is used to flip the wound catheter and control the catheter to be in a vertical state with the tube opening facing upward;

[0053] The catheter glue coating module 7 dispenses glue on the outer wall of the catheter orifice with the orifice upward in a vertical state;

[0054] The detection module is used to detect the uniform distribution of glue on the outer wall of the pipe mouth;

[0055] The joint feeding module 6 is used to transport the joint to the joint installation module 8, and the joint installation module 8 installs the joint to the outer wall of the conduit pipe mouth and fixes it with glue on the outer wall of the pipe mouth.

[0056] During the use of the automated equipment for gluing the tube mouth of the catheter, the polymer particles are heated to a molten state by the extruder 1, and extruded into a catheter of a specific diameter and length by a mold, and the catheter produced by the extruder 1 is rolled and formed so that it can be conveniently transported and stored in subsequent processes, and the rolled and formed catheter is flipped so that its tube mouth faces upward, which is convenient for the subsequent gluing process, wherein the catheter flipping module 5 uses a mechanical arm device to flip the catheter from a horizontal position to a vertically upward state, and the tube mouth of the catheter is vertically upward;

[0057] It is sent to the position of the catheter gluing module 7 through the conveyor belt on the installation platform 2. The catheter gluing module 7 dispenses glue on the outer wall of the catheter nozzle with the nozzle facing upward in a vertical state, and ensures that the glue is evenly distributed on the outer wall of the nozzle. Because the nozzle of the catheter is in a vertical upward state, under the action of gravity, the glue can flow downward along the catheter to achieve uniform coating of the outer wall of the catheter. The detection component detects the uniformity of the distribution of the glue on the outer wall of the nozzle in real time, and transfers the joint to the joint installation module 8 through the manipulator device in the joint feeding module 6 to prepare for subsequent installation operations. Specifically, the joint feeding module 6 is equipped with a conveyor belt, which can send the produced joint to the joint installation module 8 at an appropriate speed, install the joint to the outer wall of the catheter nozzle, and fix it with the glue on the outer wall of the nozzle.

[0058] The detection module detects the uniform distribution of glue on the outer wall of the pipe orifice. The following methods can be used:

[0059] Specifically, the operator observes the coated catheter mouth to check whether the color, gloss and thickness of the glue coating are uniform. Visual inspection is usually performed in the initial production stage or when problems are found to ensure that the production process meets standards; the operator gently touches the glue-coated surface with his hand to determine whether it is smooth and feel the thickness of the glue. Through tactile perception, the operator can quickly determine whether the coating is uniform; in large-scale production, the operator can regularly take a certain number of catheter samples for more detailed inspections to ensure overall production quality.

[0060] One of the preferred embodiments uses a high-resolution camera to monitor the glue coating in real time, and uses an image processing algorithm to analyze the uniformity and thickness of the glue, specifically:

[0061] A high-resolution camera is used to capture high-resolution images of the glue-coated area of ​​the catheter in real time. Through the image I(x, y, t) collected by the camera in real time, where x and y represent the coordinates of the image pixels and t is the time, a two-dimensional image sequence of the glue-coated area can be obtained, and the image is pre-processed to enhance the image quality and reduce noise and unnecessary interference;

[0062] Detect the edge of the glue coating, determine the glue coating range and thickness, and use the Canny algorithm for calculation. Specifically, calculate the gradient G(x,y) of the image through the Sobel operator, determine the change direction and intensity of each pixel, eliminate non-edge points, retain the local maximum value on the edge, use high and low double thresholds to detect the edge, eliminate noise and pseudo edges, and obtain the binary image I(x,y) through edge detection, where the white area represents the boundary of the glue and the black area is the background;

[0063] The glue coating area is segmented based on the edge detection result, and the glue coating area A is extracted using a threshold-based segmentation algorithm;

[0064] The thickness is detected by combining the grayscale changes of the image, where the larger the grayscale value, the thicker the glue; the smaller the grayscale value, the thinner the glue;

[0065] The expected thickness range of the glue is set to [T1, T2], and whether there is a defect is determined by calculating whether the thickness exceeds this range.

[0066] like Figure 2 As shown, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the catheter glue coating module 7 includes: a mounting sleeve 9, a nozzle 10 located inside the mounting sleeve 9, a control unit for controlling glue dispensing parameters, and a detection unit for detecting glue coating uniformity; the diameter of the mounting sleeve 9 is larger than the diameter of the outer wall of the catheter, and the nozzle 10 is arranged in an annular shape;

[0067] A deformation member is arranged in the installation sleeve 9, and the deformation member drives the conduit to deform into a tapered conduit shape;

[0068] The control unit controls the glue coating temperature, glue amount and feed speed;

[0069] The detection unit cooperates with the deformed parts to detect whether the glue coating is uniform.

[0070] When the catheter glue coating module 7 is used to dispense glue on the catheter with the nozzle pointing upward and in a vertical state, the installation sleeve 9 is driven to be sleeved on the outer wall of the catheter, and the installation sleeve 9 and the central axis of the catheter are aligned to ensure the uniformity of coating, and the deformable member moves to the inner wall of the nozzle of the catheter, driving the catheter to deform into a tapered catheter shape, and the control unit controls the glue dispensing parameters, and the nozzle 10 controls the glue dispensing amount through the electromagnetic valve to dispense glue on the outer wall of the nozzle. The nozzle is in a vertical state upward, and under the action of gravity, the glue can flow evenly along the outer wall of the catheter. The tube is deformed into a tapered conduit shape, and the glue is gradually coated on the outer wall of the conduit as it gradually flows from top to bottom under the action of gravity, which helps the glue to evenly cover each area without accumulation or excessive distribution, so as to form a uniform coating, thereby ensuring a consistent thickness of glue coverage, effectively improving adhesion and uniformity of glue coating, and the tapered tubular structure makes the glue coating area on the outer wall of the tube mouth relatively large, which not only increases the contact area between the glue and the tube wall, but also improves the bonding strength, and increases the bonding area between the conduit and the joint.

[0071] In the present invention, the glue discharging parameters include: glue temperature, glue amount, and feed speed.

[0072] like Figure 3 As shown, in the present invention, the deformable member includes: a connecting tube 11, and an airbag 3 located at the end of the connecting tube 11; the connecting tube 11 is installed at the center position of the mounting sleeve 9, and both ends of the connecting tube 11 are open, one end is sealed and connected to the airbag 3, and the other end is connected to an external air pump.

[0073] The connecting tube 11 is a black rubber tube, and the airbag 3 is specifically made of silicone. During the use of the deformable part, the connecting tube 11 moves into the tube mouth of the catheter as the installation sleeve 9 moves, and the airbag 3 also enters the catheter. The air pump delivers gas to the connecting tube 11, so that the airbag 3 expands, and drives the catheter to gradually deform into a tapered structure from the inside of the catheter, thereby preventing the glue from flowing downward too fast, resulting in a thinner glue coating thickness at the tube mouth of the catheter, which affects the sealing effect of the subsequent installation with the joint.

[0074] Using the connecting tube 11 and the airbag 3 as the background provides a good visual contrast with the transparent glue and the catheter, effectively shielding the light of the background environment and reducing the interference of external light sources, so that during the gluing process, the distribution of glue on the outer wall of the catheter can be observed more clearly, thereby improving the detection accuracy of the uniformity of the glue coating and facilitating the rapid identification of the uniformity of the glue coating.

[0075] The angle between the tapered conduit-shaped contraction wall and its central axis is 0-10°.

[0076] Among them, the inner diameter of the pipe mouth at the vertically upward position is relatively small, and the inner diameter of the catheter of the tapered structure tends to gradually increase from the pipe mouth downward.

[0077] A flow control valve is provided between the air pump and the airbag 3 to precisely adjust the gas flow entering the airbag 3. By controlling the gas flow, a rapid response to the air pressure is achieved, thereby maintaining the stable state of the airbag 3.

[0078] Specifically, as the gas flows in, the gas content increases, causing the internal air pressure of the airbag 3 to increase, so that the catheter expands to form a larger angle, and the expansion angle of the catheter is monitored in real time by a laser rangefinder, and the actual angle is compared with the preset target angle. When the target angle is reached, the flow control valve is closed to maintain the expansion angle of the catheter. After the catheter expands to the target angle, glue is applied to the tube mouth of the catheter. Because the inner diameter of the catheter with a tapered structure tends to gradually increase from the tube mouth to the bottom, the glue is prevented from flowing downward too fast, resulting in a thinner thickness of glue coating at the tube mouth of the catheter, affecting the subsequent sealing effect of the joint installation.

[0079] An automated process for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter, using any of the automated equipment for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter as described above, comprises the following steps:

[0080] Step S1, controlling the wound conduit opening to be vertically upward, and fixing the position of the conduit;

[0081] Step S2, transporting the fixed catheter to the glue dispensing position, and driving the inside of the catheter to deform outwards to form a gradually shrinking shape;

[0082] Step S3, controlling the dispensing parameters, dispensing around the outer wall of the pipe mouth, so that the glue slides vertically and is coated on the outer wall of the pipe mouth;

[0083] Step S4, real-time detection of uniformity of glue coating;

[0084] Step S5: After the glue is evenly coated, the joint is installed at the pipe opening at the glue coating position to complete the installation of the interface and the conduit.

[0085] Taking into account that the catheter is placed horizontally, due to the corrugated setting of the tube mouth of the catheter, during the dispensing process, due to the effect of gravity, the glue will gather at the bottom of the horizontal position of the tube mouth along the tube mouth corrugation, resulting in uneven glue coating on the outer wall of the catheter and inconsistent glue thickness, which will affect the firmness and sealing of the installation of the catheter and the joint. Therefore, by controlling the tube mouth of the wound catheter to be vertically upward, the glue can flow vertically downward in the subsequent dispensing process, so as to be evenly coated on the outer wall of the catheter, and the position of the catheter with the tube mouth vertically upward is fixed to avoid the movement of the catheter in the subsequent dispensing process, resulting in uneven dispensing.

[0086] The fixed catheter is transported to the glue dispensing position. Considering that after glue is dispensed at the pipe mouth of the catheter, due to the excessive amount of glue at the pipe mouth, the glue will flow downward quickly under the effect of its own gravity, which may result in less glue coating at the pipe mouth and a lower thickness of the glue layer, affecting the firmness and sealing of the subsequent installation of the catheter and the joint. Therefore, it is necessary to drive the inside of the catheter to deform outward to form a tapered structure, wherein the diameter of the pipe mouth of the catheter is smaller, so that the diameter of the catheter from top to bottom tends to gradually increase, thereby avoiding the glue flowing downward too quickly, resulting in a thinner thickness of the glue coating at the pipe mouth of the catheter, affecting the subsequent sealing effect of the joint installation.

[0087] When dispensing glue on the pipe mouth, the glue gradually flows from top to bottom under the action of gravity, which helps the glue to evenly cover each area without accumulation or excessive distribution, forming a uniform coating, thereby ensuring consistent thickness of glue coverage, effectively improving adhesion and uniformity of glue coating. At the same time, the tapered tubular structure makes the glue coating area on the outer wall of the pipe mouth relatively large, which not only increases the contact area between the glue and the pipe wall, but also improves the bonding strength, increases the bonding area between the catheter and the joint, ensures that the joint is firmly fixed to the pipe mouth, and reduces interface failure caused by stress during use.

[0088] During the dispensing process, considering that the viscosity of the glue is affected by the surrounding environment, at low temperatures, the viscosity of the glue will increase and become thicker, affecting the fluidity of the glue, resulting in uneven glue coating or clogging of the nozzle 10. At high temperatures, the viscosity of the glue decreases and the glue becomes thinner, which may cause it to flow too fast and fail to form a uniform coating, or even cause the glue to flow too much, making it difficult to control the amount of glue.

[0089] Therefore, it is necessary to control the temperature of the glue so that it can adapt to the viscosity changes under different environmental conditions and ensure that the glue maintains ideal fluidity during the coating process, thereby achieving better fluidity and uniform coating, and avoiding defects such as uneven coating and bubbles.

[0090] After dispensing, it is necessary to detect the uniformity of glue coating. Use a high-resolution camera to monitor the glue coating in real time, and use image processing algorithms to analyze the uniformity and thickness of the glue. Specifically:

[0091] A high-resolution camera is used to capture high-resolution images of the glue-coated area of ​​the catheter in real time. Through the image I(x, y, t) collected by the camera in real time, where x and y represent the coordinates of the image pixels and t is the time, a two-dimensional image sequence of the glue-coated area can be obtained, and the image is pre-processed to enhance the image quality and reduce noise and unnecessary interference;

[0092] Detect the edge of the glue coating, determine the glue coating range and thickness, and use the Canny algorithm for calculation. Specifically, calculate the gradient G(x,y) of the image through the Sobel operator, determine the change direction and intensity of each pixel, eliminate non-edge points, retain the local maximum value on the edge, use high and low double thresholds to detect the edge, eliminate noise and pseudo edges, and obtain the binary image I(x,y) through edge detection, where the white area represents the boundary of the glue and the black area is the background;

[0093] The glue coating area is segmented based on the edge detection result, and the glue coating area A is extracted using the threshold-based segmentation algorithm. Its area can be calculated by the following formula: ,in, is the mask image of the glue-coated area, where the pixel value of the glue-coated area is 1 and that of other areas is 0;

[0094] The thickness is detected by combining the grayscale changes of the image. The larger the grayscale value, the thicker the glue; the smaller the grayscale value, the thinner the glue;

[0095] Set the expected thickness range of glue to [T1, T2], and determine whether there is a defect by calculating whether the thickness exceeds this range. Specifically, The obtained binary defect image can mark the location of coating thickness anomalies.

[0096] Moreover, both the glue and the catheter are transparent, and in order to improve the detection of the uniformity of the glue on the outside of the catheter, the deformation piece that drives the inside of the catheter to deform outward in a gradual manner is made of black material. It serves as the background, provides a good visual contrast with the transparent glue and catheter, effectively blocks the light of the background environment, and reduces the interference of external light sources. During the gluing process, the distribution of glue on the outer wall of the catheter can be observed more clearly, thereby improving the detection accuracy of the glue coating uniformity and facilitating the rapid identification of the uniformity of the glue coating.

[0097] After completing the uniformity test of the glue coating, the joint needs to be installed on the pipe mouth where the glue is coated to complete the installation of the interface and the catheter. The catheter has a tapered structure due to the drive deformation, and is in a gradually recovering state during installation with the interface. The contact area between the catheter surface and the interface is larger, and its bonding area is larger, so the joint is firmly fixed on the pipe mouth, reducing interface failure caused by stress during use and improving the sealing and firmness of the interface and catheter installation.

[0098] In the present invention, in step S2, the inside of the conduit is driven outward to deform into a tapered angle, and the angle between the contraction wall surface of the tapered conduit and its central axis is 0-10°.

[0099] In the present invention, in step S3, the dispensing parameters include: glue temperature, glue quantity, and feed speed.

[0100] In the present invention, in step S3, the dispensing parameters are controlled, including the following steps:

[0101] Step S31, real-time monitoring of the temperature in the dispensing environment, and pre-processing of the monitored data;

[0102] Step S32, transmitting the pre-processed data to the control unit;

[0103] Step S33: Based on the collected environmental data, the control unit dynamically adjusts the glue temperature to maintain the viscosity of the glue to ensure that the glue can flow evenly;

[0104] Step S34: Calculate the dispensing parameters based on the dynamic adjustment of the glue temperature and the parameter data of the catheter.

[0105] Among them, dynamically adjusting the glue temperature and controlling the viscosity of the glue requires combining the temperature of the external environment and obtaining the value according to the Arrhenius equation: ,in, represents the target viscosity, Indicates the viscosity of the glue under ideal flow conditions. represents constants related to the chemical properties of glue, is the gas constant, Indicates the target temperature;

[0106] Transforming the equation, we get , preliminarily adjust the temperature of the glue according to the target temperature, , Indicates the adjusted glue temperature, Indicates the current ambient temperature. Indicates the adjustment coefficient, between 0 and 1;

[0107] When the ambient temperature is low, the glue will cool down quickly, resulting in an increase in viscosity. Therefore, the initial temperature of the glue should be raised in advance so that the viscosity remains moderate after it comes into contact with the ambient temperature.

[0108] When the ambient temperature is high, the glue will be too thin after it is discharged due to the high temperature, and its fluidity will increase; therefore, the initial temperature of the glue is lowered to compensate for the influence of the ambient temperature so that the viscosity of the glue remains moderate after it is discharged.

[0109] By dynamically adjusting the glue temperature according to the temperature of the external environment, it can adapt to the viscosity changes under different environmental conditions, ensuring that the glue maintains ideal fluidity during the coating process, thereby achieving better fluidity and uniform coating, avoiding defects such as uneven coating and bubbles, and controlling the amount of glue to avoid overflow and insufficient coating. Precise adjustment ensures stable output of glue, further improves the accuracy of glue coating, and improves the uniformity of glue coating.

[0110] In summary, the following experiments were conducted to investigate the changes in the initial temperature of the glue and the changes in the peel strength of the edge banding after the PVC hose and connector were installed and fixed using PVC special glue:

[0111] Materials preparation:

[0112] Use a PVC hose with an inner diameter of 4mm and a length of 100mm, a connector that matches the PVC hose, PVC special glue, a heating plate, and a universal material testing machine;

[0113] Prepare 5 groups of PVC hose and connector samples. When the ambient temperature is at room temperature (25°C), the glue amount and feed speed are the same, each group is coated on the surface of the pipe mouth of the PVC hose at a different initial glue coating temperature. Each group of pipe mouths is coated with 0.5 ml of glue. The initial glue coating temperatures are 30°C, 35°C, 40°C, 45°C, and 50°C respectively.

[0114] Experimental steps:

[0115] 1. Cut the hose into the same length and ensure that the cut is smooth to facilitate the attachment of the edge banding.

[0116] 2. Set different initial temperatures of glue in turn and apply glue evenly at the hose opening.

[0117] 3. Connect the joint to the glue-coated PVC hose and make sure that the joint and the PVC hose fit tightly and press them with the same pressure to ensure the consistency of the bonding effect.

[0118] 4. Place the sample at room temperature and cool until the glue is completely cured.

[0119] 5. Use a peel tester to perform peel tests on the samples at a fixed angle and peel speed, and record the peel strength and failure load (unit: N / mm) of each group of samples.

[0120]

[0121] In summary, by comparing the experimental data of groups 1-5, at low temperatures, the molecular movement of the glue slows down, resulting in a significant increase in its viscosity, which reduces the fluidity of the glue and makes it difficult to evenly coat the joint surface, which may lead to uneven coating or omissions, thus affecting the bonding effect. In addition, the curing reaction rate at low temperatures is reduced, resulting in a prolonged curing time of the glue. During the connection process, the glue fails to cure in time, which will affect the bonding strength and cause easy peeling when external force is applied. Since the glue has poor fluidity at low temperatures, it is difficult to fully penetrate into the tiny depressions on the joint surface, which may lead to insufficient interface adhesion, thereby affecting the bonding effect.

[0122] As the temperature increases, the fluidity of the glue is improved, making it easier to apply and the adhesion of the glue is better. However, if the temperature is too high, the glue may flow too fast, resulting in it not being able to stay on the joint surface for a sufficient time for effective bonding and not being able to form a uniform glue layer on the surface of the pipe mouth, resulting in insufficient contact between the joint and the PVC hose, reducing its adhesion.

[0123] Due to the change in the angle between the shrinking wall and the central axis of the tapered pipe, the flow rate of the glue is different after the glue is dispensed at the pipe mouth. By studying the effect of the change in the angle between the shrinking wall and the central axis of the tapered pipe from 0 to 10° on the uniformity of glue coating, the optimal angle is determined to achieve a uniform coating effect:

[0124] Experimental preparation:

[0125] Make samples of different angles (inner diameter 6mm, outer diameter 8mm, length 10cm), PVC special glue, thickness gauge, universal material testing machine;

[0126] Six groups of PVC hose and connector samples were prepared. When the external ambient temperature was at room temperature (25°C), the amount of glue and the feeding speed were the same, each group was coated on the pipe mouth surface of the PVC hose at the same initial coating temperature (45°C), and 0.5 ml of glue was coated on the pipe mouth of each group. The angles of the contraction wall of the tapered pipe with the central axis were 0°, 2°, 4°, 6°, 8° and 10°, respectively.

[0127] Experimental steps:

[0128] 1. Select 6 groups of tapered pipe samples with different angles, and ensure that the size of each group of samples is consistent; ensure that the surface of each group of samples is clean to improve the adhesion of the glue.

[0129] 2. Heat the PVC special glue to a suitable coating temperature (45°C) to ensure its good fluidity.

[0130] 3. Use a dispensing device to evenly dispense 0.5 ml of glue at the nozzle position of the shrinkage wall of each sample to ensure that the amount of glue for each group of samples is consistent.

[0131] 4. Use a thickness gauge to measure the thickness of the glue coating at multiple different locations, record the thickness data in different areas (such as the top, side, and bottom of the pipe), and calculate the thickness difference and standard deviation of each measurement point;

[0132] 5. Use a universal material testing machine to measure the peel strength of each group of samples and record the maximum applied force value.

[0133]

[0134] By comparing the experimental data of groups 6-11, as the angle between the tapered conduit-shaped contraction wall and its central axis gradually increases, the flow velocity gradient is reduced, the sliding speed of the glue is slowed down, and the flow velocity of the glue is more evenly distributed in the conduit-shaped contraction wall. The coating speed of the glue on the conduit wall is more consistent, which is conducive to the uniform distribution of the coating thickness. In addition, the glue is greatly restricted by the friction of the wall, but is relatively less affected by the gravity drop. The tendency of the glue to diffuse on the tube wall is enhanced, and the balance effect of the surface tension at different angles is conducive to the uniform distribution of the glue.

[0135] As the glue gradually flows from top to bottom under the action of gravity, it is gradually coated on the outer wall of the catheter, which helps the glue to evenly cover each area without accumulation or excessive distribution, so as to form a uniform coating, thereby ensuring the uniform thickness of the glue coverage, effectively improving the adhesion and uniformity of the glue coating, and the tapered tubular structure makes the glue coating area on the outer wall of the pipe mouth relatively large, which not only increases the contact area between the glue and the pipe wall, but also improves the bonding strength and increases the bonding area between the catheter and the joint;

[0136] However, as the angle between the tapered conduit-shaped contraction wall and its central axis is too large, the glue slides down slowly due to gravity, making it difficult to spread evenly, reducing fluidity, limiting the effect of uniform coating, and the glue is prone to accumulation during the flow process, especially at the inlet area of ​​the pipe. The small space causes the glue to accumulate in certain locations during the flow, easily forming a coating with uneven thickness.

[0137] Therefore, the angle between the tapered conduit-shaped contraction wall surface and its central axis is preferably 8°.

[0138] When the present invention is used, when the catheter glue coating module 7 is used to dispense glue on the catheter whose nozzle is vertically upward, the installation sleeve 9 is driven to be sleeved on the outer wall of the catheter, and the installation sleeve 9 and the central axis of the catheter are aligned to ensure the uniformity of coating, and the deformable part moves to the inner wall of the nozzle of the catheter, and the connecting pipe 11 moves into the nozzle of the catheter with the movement of the installation sleeve 9, and the airbag 3 also enters into the catheter, and the air pump is used to transport gas to the connecting pipe 11, so that the airbag 3 expands, and the catheter is driven to gradually deform from the inside of the catheter to a tapered structure, and the control unit controls the glue dispensing parameters, and the nozzle 10 The glue output is controlled by an electromagnetic valve, and glue is dispensed on the outer wall of the pipe mouth, while the pipe mouth is in a vertical position upward. Under the action of gravity, the glue can flow evenly along the outer wall of the catheter. The detection component detects the uniformity of the distribution of the glue on the outer wall of the pipe mouth in real time, and transfers the joint to the joint installation module 8 through the manipulator device in the joint loading module 6 to prepare for subsequent installation operations. Specifically, the joint loading module 6 is equipped with a conveyor belt, which can deliver the produced joint to the joint installation module 8 at an appropriate speed, install the joint to the outer wall of the catheter pipe mouth, and fix it with the glue on the outer wall of the pipe mouth.

[0139] The above is based on the ideal embodiment of the present invention. Through the above description, relevant personnel can make various changes and modifications without departing from the technical concept of the present invention. The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the content in the specification, and the technical scope must be determined according to the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. An automated device for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter, comprising: An extruder, an installation platform, and a catheter winding module, a catheter flipping module, a joint feeding module, a catheter gluing module, a joint installation module, and a detection module located on the installation platform; characterized in that: The catheter winding module is used to roll and shape the catheter produced by the extruder; The catheter flipping module is used to flip the wound catheter and control the tube mouth of the catheter to be in a vertical position. The catheter flipping module uses a mechanical arm device to flip the catheter from a horizontal position to a vertically upward position, and the tube mouth of the catheter is in a vertically upward position; The catheter glue coating module dispenses glue on the outer wall of the catheter orifice with the orifice pointing upward and in a vertical state; The detection module is used to detect whether the glue on the outer wall of the pipe mouth is evenly distributed; The detection module uses a high-resolution camera to monitor the glue coating in real time and uses an image processing algorithm to analyze the uniformity and thickness of the glue. Specifically: A high-resolution camera is used to capture a high-resolution image of the glue-coated area of ​​the catheter in real time, and the image I (x, y, t) collected by the camera in real time, where x and y represent the coordinates of the image pixels and t is the time, is used to obtain a two-dimensional image sequence of the glue-coated area, and the image is preprocessed; Detect the edge of the glue coating, determine the glue coating range and thickness, and use the Canny algorithm for calculation. Specifically, calculate the gradient G(x,y) of the image through the Sobel operator, determine the change direction and intensity of each pixel, eliminate non-edge points, retain the local maximum value on the edge, use high and low double thresholds to detect the edge, eliminate noise and pseudo edges, and obtain the binary image I(x,y) through edge detection, where the white area represents the boundary of the glue and the black area is the background; The glue coating area is segmented based on the edge detection result, and the glue coating area A is extracted using the threshold-based segmentation algorithm. Its area can be calculated by the following formula: ,in, It is the mask image of the glue-coated area, where the pixel value of the glue-coated area is 1 and that of other areas is 0; The thickness is detected by combining the grayscale changes of the image. The larger the grayscale value, the thicker the glue; the smaller the grayscale value, the thinner the glue. Set the expected thickness range of glue to [T1, T2], and determine whether there is a defect by calculating whether the thickness exceeds this range. Specifically, ,The obtained binary defect image can mark the location of coating thickness anomaly; The joint feeding module is used to transport the joint to the joint installation module, and the joint installation module installs the joint to the outer wall of the conduit orifice and fixes it with glue on the outer wall of the orifice. The joint is transferred to the joint installation module by a manipulator device in the joint feeding module. Specifically, the joint feeding module is equipped with a conveyor belt, which delivers the joint to the joint installation module at an appropriate speed, installs the joint to the outer wall of the conduit orifice, and fixes it with glue on the outer wall of the orifice. The catheter glue coating module comprises: a mounting sleeve, a nozzle located inside the mounting sleeve, a control unit for controlling glue dispensing parameters, and a detection unit for detecting glue coating uniformity; the diameter of the mounting sleeve is larger than the diameter of the outer wall of the catheter, and the nozzle is arranged in a ring shape; A deformation member is arranged in the installation sleeve, and the deformation member drives the conduit to deform into a tapered conduit shape; The control unit controls the glue coating temperature, glue amount and feeding speed; The detection unit cooperates with the deformable member to detect uniform glue coating; The glue discharging parameters include: glue temperature, glue amount, and feeding speed; The deformable member includes: a connecting tube, and an air bag located at the end of the connecting tube; the connecting tube is installed at the center of the mounting sleeve, and both ends of the connecting tube are open, one end is sealed and connected to the air bag, and the other end is connected to an external air pump; A flow control valve is provided between the air pump and the airbag to accurately adjust the gas flow entering the airbag, and by controlling the gas flow, the response to the air pressure is achieved to maintain the stable state of the airbag; Specifically, as the gas flows in, the gas content increases, and the internal air pressure of the airbag increases, thereby causing the catheter to expand to a larger angle. The expansion angle of the catheter is monitored in real time by a laser rangefinder, and the actual angle is compared with the preset target angle. When the target angle is reached, the flow control valve is closed to maintain the expansion angle of the catheter. After the catheter expands to the target angle, glue is dispensed at the tube mouth of the catheter. Since the inner diameter of the catheter with a tapered structure tends to gradually increase from the tube mouth to the bottom, the glue is prevented from flowing downward too quickly, resulting in a thinner glue coating at the tube mouth of the catheter.

2. An automated device for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter according to claim 1, characterized in that: The connecting tube is inserted 2-2.5 cm at the position of the central axis of the catheter.

3. An automated device for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter according to claim 1, characterized in that: The connecting tube is a black rubber tube, and the airbag is made of silicone.

4. An automated device for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter according to claim 1, characterized in that: The angle between the tapered conduit-shaped contraction wall surface and its central axis is 0-10°.

5. An automated process for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter, based on an automated device for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The following steps are involved: Step S1, controlling the wound conduit opening to be vertically upward, and fixing the position of the conduit; Step S2, transporting the fixed catheter to the glue dispensing position, and driving the inside of the catheter to deform outwards to form a gradually shrinking shape; Step S3, controlling the dispensing parameters, including the glue temperature, glue amount, and feeding speed, and performing surrounding dispensing on the outer wall of the nozzle, so that the glue slides vertically and is coated on the outer wall of the nozzle; Step S4, real-time detection of uniformity of glue coating; Step S5: After the glue is evenly coated, the joint is installed at the pipe opening at the glue coating position to complete the installation of the interface and the conduit.

6. The automated process for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter according to claim 5, characterized in that: In step S3, controlling the dispensing parameters includes the following steps: Step S31, real-time monitoring of the temperature in the dispensing environment, and pre-processing of the monitored data; Step S32, transmitting the pre-processed data to the control unit; Step S33: Based on the collected environmental data, the control unit dynamically adjusts the glue temperature to maintain the viscosity of the glue to ensure that the glue can flow evenly; Step S34: Calculate the dispensing parameters based on the dynamic adjustment of the glue temperature and the parameter data of the catheter.

7. The automated process for dispensing glue at the mouth of a surgical catheter according to claim 6, characterized in that: In step S33, the glue temperature is dynamically adjusted, specifically, the temperature of the external environment needs to be combined and the Arrhenius equation is used to obtain ,in, represents the target viscosity, Indicates the viscosity of the glue under ideal flow conditions. represents constants related to the chemical properties of glue, is the gas constant, Indicates the target temperature; Transforming the equation, we get , preliminarily adjust the temperature of the glue according to the target temperature, , Indicates the adjusted glue temperature, Indicates the current ambient temperature. Indicates the adjustment coefficient, between 0 and 1.

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