A sealing air blowing mechanism and a coating dipping device

Abstract

This application relates to a sealing air blowing mechanism and a coating dipping device. It uses an air blowing assembly in conjunction with a sample hanging assembly to dip and remove residual coating liquid from medical catheters. A drive unit drives the air blowing orifice of the air blowing assembly to connect with a one-way valve. A negative pressure generator extracts gas from the hollow cavity of the central gas collecting plate, creating a pressure difference across the one-way valve. This solves the problem of normal pressure leakage from the one-way valve, ensuring that gas inside the medical catheter cannot escape during dipping, thus reducing the amount of coating liquid entering through the distal opening of the medical catheter. At the end of dipping, the negative pressure generator is turned off, and a positive pressure gas source is turned on. Positive pressure gas enters the internal cavity of the medical catheter through the air blowing orifice, the one-way valve, and the sample hanging shaft, blowing out a small amount of residual coating liquid. This effectively reduces the amount of coating liquid entering the medical catheter and achieves automated dipping and residual liquid removal from medical catheters. This facilitates automated, mass production of medical catheters, improving production quality and efficiency.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This utility model relates to a sealing air blowing mechanism and a coating dipping device, belonging to the field of medical catheter technology. Background Technology

[0002] Coated urinary catheters, nasogastric tubes, and other medical catheters have seen rapid development in recent years, driven by materials science, bioengineering, and clinical needs. Surface modification techniques have significantly improved the performance of traditional medical catheters. Taking urinary catheters as an example, compared to traditional catheters, coated catheters offer significant advantages in terms of infection resistance, surface lubrication, and service life. However, the manufacturing process for coated catheters is more complex than that of traditional catheters, involving surface treatment, coating application, and curing. Currently, the main coating methods for coated catheters include dip coating, spray coating, spin coating, and chemical vapor deposition. Among these, dip coating requires relatively simple equipment, produces good coating uniformity, and has wide applicability to substrate materials, making it suitable for large-scale production.

[0003] In traditional medical catheter coating processes, because the catheter is hollow, only the outer surface is often coated, not the inner surface. Therefore, it's necessary to seal the path of the coating solution into the inner surface, such as by placing a rubber stopper. However, there is still a risk of a small amount of coating solution entering the catheter, and manually placing rubber stoppers is not conducive to large-scale production. In particular, due to structural reasons, the distal opening of medical catheters such as urinary catheters and nasogastric tubes is not at the catheter tip, but often on the distal side wall, creating a space that can easily lead to coating solution retention. When using the dip-coating method for urinary catheters, the coating solution can enter the catheter through the distal opening, causing blockage of the lumen or internal coating residue during the later curing process, affecting catheter quality. To reduce distal fluid ingress, distal sealing and high-pressure air blowing are generally used. The distal sealing material is usually made of a material that does not chemically react with the coating solution and has a certain degree of elasticity, and the distal opening of the urinary catheter is sealed before dip-coating. This method prevents the coating solution from entering, but it requires manual sealing of each catheter, making it inefficient and unsuitable for large-scale production. Furthermore, it cannot prevent small amounts of coating solution from seeping in, potentially leaving some residue inside the lumen. High-pressure air blowing, on the other hand, applies a certain amount of high-pressure gas into the lumen to purge and remove any intruded coating solution. While effective at removing small amounts of coating solution, it is less effective at removing large amounts of residual coating solution. Utility Model Content

[0004] The purpose of this invention is to provide a sealing air blowing mechanism and a coating dipping device to solve the above-mentioned problems.

[0005] To achieve the above objectives, this utility model provides the following technical solution: a sealing air blowing mechanism, the sealing air blowing mechanism comprising:

[0006] The sample hanging assembly includes a fixture plate and several sample hanging shafts that pass through the fixture plate in a vertical direction. The sample hanging shafts are used to fix the medical catheter and form an airflow channel between them. A one-way valve is provided at the end of the sample hanging shaft away from the medical catheter to restrict the upward flow of airflow in the medical catheter.

[0007] An air blowing assembly is arranged on one side of the sample hanging assembly. The air blowing assembly includes an air collecting plate and a driving component connected to the air collecting plate. The air collecting plate has a hollow cavity inside and an air blowing hole corresponding to a plurality of one-way valves at its bottom. A positive pressure air source and a negative pressure generator are respectively connected to the air collecting plate. The driving component drives the air collecting plate to move closer to or away from the sample hanging assembly so that the air blowing hole is connected to or disconnected from the one-way valve.

[0008] Furthermore, a sealing gasket is provided at the air blowing hole, and the sealing gasket is arranged at one end of the air blowing hole near the sample hanging assembly.

[0009] Furthermore, the sample hanging shaft has a hollow structure and a sealing thread structure is arranged at one end near the air blowing assembly, and the one-way valve is threadedly connected to the sample hanging shaft.

[0010] Furthermore, the sample hanging shafts are arranged linearly and sequentially on the fixture plate, and adjacent sample hanging shafts are meshed and connected.

[0011] Furthermore, a gear is provided on the hanging shaft, and the gear is arranged on the upper surface of the fixture plate.

[0012] Furthermore, the air blowing assembly is arranged above the sample hanging assembly, and the driving component is a cylinder, which is arranged vertically and fixedly connected to the upper surface of the air collecting plate.

[0013] Furthermore, the gas collecting plate is provided with a pair of air inlets that connect to the hollow cavity, and the positive pressure gas source and the negative pressure generator are respectively connected to the air inlets through hoses.

[0014] This application also provides a coating dip-coating device, which includes a sealing air blowing mechanism as described above, a coating tank arranged below the sample hanging shaft for containing medical coating liquid, a first driving device for driving the coating tank to move up and down and / or a second driving device for driving the fixture plate to move up and down, and a curing unit for curing the coating on a medical catheter.

[0015] In addition, this application also provides a method for operating the above-mentioned coating dip-coating equipment, the method comprising:

[0016] Install the medical catheter onto the sample hanging shaft;

[0017] The driving component drives the air blowing hole of the air blowing assembly to connect with the one-way valve, and draws out the gas in the hollow cavity of the central air collecting plate through the negative pressure generator, so as to generate a pressure difference on both sides of the one-way valve.

[0018] Drive the first drive device and / or the second drive device to immerse the medical catheter on the sample hanging shaft into the coating tank;

[0019] Drive the first drive device and / or the second drive device to work, so that the medical catheter on the sample hanging shaft leaves the medical coating solution in the coating solution tank;

[0020] Turn off the negative pressure generator and turn on the positive pressure gas source. The positive pressure gas enters the internal cavity of the medical catheter through the air blowing hole, one-way valve and sample hanging shaft, blowing out the residual coating liquid.

[0021] Furthermore, the driving component drives the air collecting plate to move downward, so that the lower end of the air collecting plate is tightly fitted with the upper end of the one-way valve; then the negative pressure generator is activated to extract the air in the hollow cavity of the air collecting plate, so that a pressure difference is generated at both ends of the one-way valve.

[0022] The beneficial effects of this utility model are as follows: This application uses an air blowing assembly in conjunction with a sample hanging assembly to perform immersion coating and removal of residual coating liquid on medical catheters, particularly urinary catheters and nasogastric tubes. The driving component drives the air blowing orifice of the air blowing assembly to connect with a one-way valve. A negative pressure generator extracts gas from the hollow cavity of the central gas collecting plate, creating a pressure difference across the one-way valve. This solves the problem of normal pressure leakage from the one-way valve, ensuring that gas inside the medical catheter cannot escape during immersion coating, thus reducing the amount of coating liquid entering through the distal opening of the medical catheter. At the end of immersion coating, the negative pressure generator is turned off, and the positive pressure gas source is turned on. The positive pressure gas enters the internal cavity of the medical catheter through the air blowing orifice, one-way valve, and sample hanging shaft, blowing out a small amount of residual coating liquid. This effectively reduces the amount of coating liquid entering the medical catheter and achieves automated immersion coating and residual liquid removal, which is conducive to automated and mass production of medical catheters, improving production quality and efficiency. Furthermore, this operation method is simple and controllable, requiring no individual manual operation, which is beneficial for large-scale production.

[0023] The above description is only an overview of the technical solution of this utility model. In order to better understand the technical means of this utility model and to implement it in accordance with the contents of the specification, the preferred embodiments of this utility model are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Attached Figure Description

[0024] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the sealing air blowing mechanism according to an embodiment of this application;

[0025] Figure 2 for Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the internal structure of the sample hanging component. Attached image description:

[0027] 10. Sample hanging assembly; 11. Fixture plate; 12. Sample hanging shaft; 13. One-way valve; 14. Gear; 15. Airflow channel;

[0028] 20. Air blowing assembly; 21. Air collecting plate; 22. Drive unit; 23. Positive pressure air source; 24. Negative pressure generator; 25. Sealing gasket; 26. Hoses;

[0029] 30. Urinary catheter. Detailed Implementation

[0030] The specific embodiments of this utility model will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. The following examples are used to illustrate this utility model, but are not intended to limit its scope.

[0031] In the description of this utility model, it should be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "axial", "radial", "circumferential", etc., indicate the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings. They are only for the convenience of describing this utility model and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, or be constructed and operated in a specific orientation. Therefore, they should not be construed as limitations on this utility model.

[0032] In the description of this utility model, it should be understood that the term "distal" refers to the end that is away from the doctor or nurse or other operators during the surgical procedure.

[0033] Furthermore, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly specifying the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of that feature. In the description of this utility model, "a plurality of" means two or more, unless otherwise explicitly specified.

[0034] In this utility model, unless otherwise explicitly specified and limited, the terms "installation," "connection," "joining," and "fixing," etc., should be interpreted broadly. For example, they can refer to a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral part; they can refer to a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; they can refer to a direct connection or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium; they can refer to the internal communication of two components or the interaction between two components. Those skilled in the art can understand the specific meaning of the above terms in this utility model according to the specific circumstances. Furthermore, in this utility model, unless otherwise explicitly specified and limited, "on" or "below" the second feature can mean that the first feature is in direct contact with the second feature, or that the first feature is in indirect contact through an intermediate medium.

[0035] In the description of this specification, the references to terms such as "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "example," "specific example," or "some examples," etc., indicate that a specific feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with that embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, the illustrative expressions of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments or examples.

[0036] Please refer to Figures 1 to 2 The sealing air blowing mechanism shown in one embodiment of this application includes a sample hanging assembly 10 and an air blowing assembly 20.

[0037] The sample hanging assembly 10 includes a fixture plate 11 and several sample hanging shafts 12 that pass through the fixture plate 11 in a vertical direction. The sample hanging shafts 12 are used to fix the medical catheter 30 and form an airflow channel 15 between them. A one-way valve 13 is provided at the end of the sample hanging shaft 12 away from the medical catheter 30 to restrict the upward flow of airflow in the medical catheter 30.

[0038] The air blowing assembly 20 is arranged above the sample hanging assembly 10. The air blowing assembly 20 includes an air collecting plate 21 and a driving member 22 connected to the air collecting plate 21. The air collecting plate 21 has a hollow cavity inside and an air blowing hole corresponding to a number of one-way valves 13 at its bottom. A positive pressure air source 23 and a negative pressure generator 24 are respectively connected to the air collecting plate 21. The driving member 22 drives the air collecting plate 21 to move closer to or away from the sample hanging assembly 10 so that the air blowing hole is connected to or disconnected from the one-way valve 13.

[0039] In one embodiment, a sealing gasket 25 is provided at the air blowing hole, and the sealing gasket 25 is arranged at the end of the air blowing hole near the sample hanging assembly 10. The sealing gasket 25 is a circular rubber sealing ring, the inner diameter of which is equal to the inner diameter of the air blowing hole, and the outer diameter is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the one-way valve 13. This allows the circular rubber sealing ring to be compressed and deformed to cover the end of the one-way valve 13 when the air blowing hole is connected to the one-way valve 13, thereby improving the sealing effect between the air blowing hole and the one-way valve 13.

[0040] In one embodiment, the sample hanging shaft 12 has a hollow structure and a sealing threaded structure is arranged at the end near the air blowing assembly 20. The one-way valve 13 is threadedly connected to the sample hanging shaft 12. The medical catheter 30 is inserted into the end of the sample hanging shaft 12. The hollow cavity of the sample hanging shaft 12 communicates with the internal chamber of the medical catheter 30 to form an airflow channel 15, thereby facilitating the outflow of air from the positive pressure air source 23. The one-way valve 13 is threadedly connected to the sample hanging shaft 12 through the sealing threaded structure, which facilitates the installation and removal of the sample hanging shaft 12 and the one-way valve 13, while improving the sealing effect between the two and avoiding the need to set up other sealing structures.

[0041] In one embodiment, the sample hanging shafts 12 are arranged linearly on the fixture plate 11, and adjacent sample hanging shafts 12 are meshed together. This arrangement facilitates the synchronous rotation of the sample hanging shafts 12, thereby enabling automated synchronous installation or removal of the one-way valve 13.

[0042] In one embodiment, a gear 14 is provided on the hanging shaft 12, and the gear 14 is arranged on the upper surface of the fixture plate 11. By externally providing the gear 14, it is convenient to connect the power component to the gear 14 during the installation or removal of the one-way valve 13, thereby realizing automated installation or removal of the one-way valve 13 and reducing manual intervention.

[0043] In one embodiment, the air blowing assembly 20 is arranged above the sample hanging assembly 10, and the driving component 22 is a cylinder. The cylinder is arranged vertically and fixedly connected to the upper surface of the air collecting plate 21. The output shaft of the cylinder is connected to the center of the air collecting plate 21 to ensure that the air collecting plate 21 moves smoothly up and down. The sealing effect between the air blowing hole and the one-way valve 13 is improved by the weight of the air blowing assembly 20 combined with the driving force of the cylinder. Of course, in other embodiments, multiple cylinders can also be set to improve the smoothness of the up and down movement. The position of the air blowing assembly 20 can also be adjusted according to the assembly space. For example, the air blowing assembly 20 can be arranged on the side of the sample hanging assembly 10 through a bent tube-shaped one-way valve. It can be set according to the requirements and is not specifically limited here.

[0044] In one embodiment, the upper surface of the air collecting plate 21 is provided with a pair of air inlets communicating with the hollow cavity, and the pair of air inlets are symmetrically arranged on both sides of the cylinder. This arrangement allows the cylinder to be connected to the center of gravity of the air collecting plate 21, thereby preventing the air collecting plate 21 from tilting during lifting and lowering, and improving the sealing effect.

[0045] In one embodiment, the positive pressure air source 23 and the negative pressure generator 24 are respectively connected to the air inlet via a hose 26. The air collecting plate 21 is connected to the positive pressure air source 23 and the negative pressure generator 24 via the hose 26, which facilitates the cylinder to drive the air collecting plate 21 to engage or disconnect with the one-way valve 13.

[0046] The working process of the sealing air blowing mechanism is as follows: First, the medical catheter 30 is fixed to the end of the sample hanging shaft 12. The end of the medical catheter 30 has an opening that connects to the atmosphere. The driving component 22 drives the air collecting plate 21 to move downward, so that the sealing gasket 25 at the lower end of the air collecting plate 21 is tightly fitted to the upper end of the one-way valve 13. Then, the negative pressure generator 24 is started to extract the air in the hollow chamber of the air collecting plate 21, so that a pressure difference is generated at both ends of the one-way valve 13. The one-way valve 13 starts to work, so that the air cannot be discharged from the bottom to the top. At this time, the coating step of the medical catheter 30 can be carried out. Because the air inside the medical catheter 30 cannot be discharged through the one-way valve 13, when the coating liquid enters the medical catheter 30 through the opening at the distal end of the medical catheter 30, the coating liquid will be subjected to the internal air pressure, which reduces the amount of coating liquid entering the medical catheter 30. After the medical catheter 30 is coated, the negative pressure generator 24 is turned off and the positive pressure gas source 23 is turned on. Gas is supplied to the collection plate through the hose 26 and blown into the one-way valve 13 through the air blowing hole. At this time, the one-way valve 13 is in the open state in the direction of airflow. The airflow passes through the one-way valve 13 and the sample hanging shaft 12 and enters the internal cavity of the medical catheter 30, blowing out a small amount of residual coating liquid and completing the cleaning of residual coating liquid.

[0047] The sealing air blowing mechanism provided in this application uses an air blowing assembly in conjunction with a sample hanging assembly to impregnate medical catheters and remove residual coating liquid. The driving component drives the air blowing orifice of the air blowing assembly to connect with a one-way valve, and a negative pressure generator extracts the gas in the hollow cavity of the gas collecting plate, creating a pressure difference on both sides of the one-way valve. This solves the problem of normal pressure leakage of the one-way valve and ensures that the gas inside the medical catheter cannot be discharged during impregnation, thereby reducing the amount of coating liquid entering from the distal opening of the medical catheter. When the impregnation is completed, the negative pressure generator is turned off and the positive pressure gas source is turned on. The positive pressure gas enters the internal cavity of the medical catheter through the air blowing orifice, the one-way valve, and the sample hanging shaft, blowing out a small amount of residual coating liquid. This effectively reduces the amount of coating liquid entering the medical catheter and realizes automated impregnation and removal of residual liquid from medical catheters. This is conducive to the automated and mass production of medical catheters and improves the production quality and efficiency of medical catheters.

[0048] This application also provides a coating dip-coating apparatus, which includes the sealing air blowing mechanism as described above, a coating tank arranged below the sample hanging shaft 12 for containing medical coating solution, a first driving device for driving the coating tank to move up and down and / or a second driving device for driving the fixture plate 11 to move up and down, and a curing unit for curing the coating on the one-way valve 30. The curing unit can conventionally be a UV lamp, a curing chamber, or other curing equipment, which can be selected as needed.

[0049] In addition, this application also provides a method for operating the above-mentioned coating dip-coating equipment, the method of which includes:

[0050] Install the one-way valve 30 on the sample hanging shaft 12;

[0051] The driving component 22 drives the air blowing hole of the air blowing assembly to connect with the one-way valve 13, and the negative pressure generator 24 extracts the gas in the hollow chamber of the central gas collecting plate 21, so as to generate a pressure difference on both sides of the one-way valve 13.

[0052] Drive the first drive device and / or the second drive device to work, immersing the one-way valve 30 on the sample hanging shaft 12 into the coating tank;

[0053] Drive the first drive device and / or the second drive device to work, so that the one-way valve 30 on the sample hanging shaft 12 leaves the medical coating liquid in the coating liquid tank;

[0054] Turn off the negative pressure generator 24 and turn on the positive pressure gas source 23. The positive pressure gas enters the internal cavity of the one-way valve 30 through the air blowing hole, one-way valve 13 and sample hanging shaft 12, blowing out the residual coating liquid.

[0055] Preferably, the air blowing assembly 20 is arranged above the sample hanging assembly 10. The air collecting plate 21 is driven to move downward by the driving component 22, so that the lower end of the air collecting plate 21 is tightly attached to the upper end of the one-way valve 13. Then, the negative pressure generator 24 is started to extract the air in the hollow chamber of the air collecting plate 21, so that a pressure difference is generated at both ends of the one-way valve 13.

[0056] Taking CN110918385A as an example, a coating method and equipment for medical catheters are disclosed. Conventional coating equipment includes a fixture, a coating tank, and a curing unit. The fixture has a carrier shaft, through which the medical catheter to be coated is fixed. During fixation, the carrier shaft is directly above the coating tank; alternatively, the fixture can be moved above the coating tank after the catheter is fixed. During coating, the fixture can be moved downwards to immerse the catheter in the coating solution, or the coating tank can be moved upwards to immerse the catheter in the coating solution. Moving the coating tank provides greater stability. Alternatively, the fixture can be moved downwards a certain distance first, and then the coating tank can be moved upwards. After coating, the coating tank is moved downwards, and / or the fixture is moved upwards, to remove the catheter from the coating solution. Afterwards, the catheter can be left in place, the door of the curing unit can be opened, and a UV lamp can be used to irradiate the catheter for curing. Alternatively, the catheter can be directly moved into the curing chamber for curing.

[0057] Furthermore, taking CN111299067A as an example, a production line method can also be used to coat and cure medical catheters, with fixtures being transported to various units according to the cycle time. In this application, the negative pressure generator 24 extracts the gas from the hollow chamber of the gas collecting plate 21 before impregnation, creating a pressure difference across the one-way valve 13. After the fixture moves to the corresponding position in the blowing tank, the negative pressure generator 24 is turned off, and the positive pressure air source 23 is turned on to perform the blowing operation.

[0058] The technical features of the above embodiments can be combined in any way. For the sake of brevity, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0059] The embodiments described above are merely illustrative of several implementations of this utility model, and while the descriptions are relatively specific and detailed, they should not be construed as limiting the scope of the utility model patent. It should be noted that those skilled in the art can make various modifications and improvements without departing from the concept of this utility model, and these all fall within the protection scope of this utility model. Therefore, the protection scope of this utility model patent should be determined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A sealing air blowing mechanism, characterized in that, The sealing air blowing mechanism includes: The sample hanging assembly includes a fixture plate and several sample hanging shafts that pass through the fixture plate in a vertical direction. The sample hanging shafts are used to fix the medical catheter and form an airflow channel between them. A one-way valve is provided at the end of the sample hanging shaft away from the medical catheter to restrict the upward flow of airflow in the medical catheter. An air blowing assembly is arranged on one side of the sample hanging assembly. The air blowing assembly includes an air collecting plate and a driving component connected to the air collecting plate. The air collecting plate has a hollow cavity inside and an air blowing hole corresponding to a plurality of one-way valves at its bottom. A positive pressure air source and a negative pressure generator are respectively connected to the air collecting plate. The driving component drives the air collecting plate to move closer to or away from the sample hanging assembly so that the air blowing hole is connected to or disconnected from the one-way valve.

2. The sealing and blowing mechanism as described in claim 1, characterized in that, A sealing gasket is provided at the air blowing hole, and the sealing gasket is arranged at one end of the air blowing hole near the sample hanging component.

3. The sealing and blowing mechanism as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The sample hanging shaft has a hollow structure and a sealing thread structure is arranged at one end near the air blowing assembly. The one-way valve is threadedly connected to the sample hanging shaft.

4. The sealing and blowing mechanism as described in claim 3, characterized in that, The sample hanging shafts are arranged linearly on the fixture plate and are meshed with each other.

5. The sealing air blowing mechanism as described in claim 4, characterized in that, A gear is provided on the hanging shaft, and the gear is arranged on the upper surface of the fixture plate.

6. The sealing air blowing mechanism as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The air blowing assembly is arranged above the sample hanging assembly, and the driving component is a cylinder, which is arranged vertically and fixedly connected to the upper surface of the air collecting plate.

7. The sealing air blowing mechanism as described in claim 6, characterized in that, The gas collecting plate is provided with an air inlet that connects to the hollow cavity. The positive pressure gas source and the negative pressure generator are respectively connected to the air inlet through hoses.

8. A coating dip-coating device, characterized in that, The coating dipping equipment includes a sealing air blowing mechanism as described in any one of claims 1-7, a coating tank arranged below the sample hanging shaft for containing medical coating liquid, a first driving device for driving the coating tank to move up and down and / or a second driving device for driving the fixture plate to move up and down, and a curing unit for curing the coating on medical catheters.

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