Breathing Circuit Filter Device Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current breathing circuits experience gas leaks, leading to inefficiencies in anesthetic gas delivery, increased treatment costs, and potential health risks for medical practitioners due to the leakage of anesthetic gases into the environment.
Innovation Solution
The development of filter devices that seal inspiratory and expiratory pathways from each other and the environment, incorporating a distal and proximal housing with filters to prevent gas leakage, and integrating these devices with breathing circuits to reduce size and cost while enhancing gas flow efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional breathing circuits are used, then gas flow is maintained, but gas leaks occur through joints leading to anesthetic loss and environmental contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The breathing circuit is divided into separate inner and outer pathways, with the inner pathway enclosing the outer pathway. This segmentation allows independent sealing of each pathway, preventing gas leaks at connection joints while maintaining proper gas flow delivery to the patient.
Solution Approach 2:
The inner pathway is nested within the outer pathway, creating a concentric configuration where the inner tube is surrounded by the outer tube. This nested structure provides redundant sealing, ensuring that anesthetic gases remain contained within the inner pathway and cannot leak through joints to the environment.
2Reliability
If breathing circuits are designed with sealed pathways, then gas leaks are prevented, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The inner and outer pathways are merged into a single integrated breathing circuit assembly, where the inner tube is positioned within the outer tube and both are connected at their ends. This merging approach achieves reliable sealing without requiring completely separate circuit components, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity.
3Measurement precision
If filters are added to prevent gas leakage, then anesthetic delivery accuracy improves, but treatment cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The nested tube structure itself acts as an intermediary sealing mechanism between the anesthetic gas source and the patient. By using the concentric tube configuration as the primary sealing barrier, the design reduces or eliminates the need for additional expensive filters, thereby maintaining anesthetic delivery precision while controlling manufacturing costs.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively prevents gas leaks, ensuring accurate anesthetic delivery, reducing treatment costs, and minimizing health risks by maintaining a sealed environment for gas exchange within the breathing circuit.
Implementation Method 1
a proximal housing comprising a proximal inner port and a proximal outer port, the proximal housing being sealingly affixed to the distal housing to form an inner pathway between the distal inner port and the proximal inner port and to form an expiratory pathway between the distal outer port and the proximal outer port that is fluidly sealed from the inner pathway
Implementation Method 2
a first filter in the inner pathway or in the expiratory pathway to filter gases flowing through the inner pathway or the expiratory pathway
Data Source
AI summary
A filler device includes a distal housing comprising a distal inner port and a distal outer port; a proximal housing comprising a proximal inner port and a proximal outer port, the proximal housing being sealingly affixed to the distal housing to form an inspiratory pathway between the distal inner port and the proximal inner port and to form an expiratory pathway between the distal outer port and the proximal outer port that is fluidly sealed from the inspiratory pathway, the inspiratory pathway being laterally adjacent the expiratory pathway; and a first filter in the inspiratory pathway or in the expiratory pathway to filter gases flowing through the inspiratory pathway or the expiratory pathway.