Collapsible Valve Dimple Cut Design for Needleless Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing needleless access devices for medical applications often suffer from poor repeatability and controllability of valve collapse, leading to inefficiencies in fluid flow and potential health risks due to blood clotting.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a collapsible valve with a specific design featuring a cut and at least one dimple, strategically positioned to delay the collapse of the valve and ensure predictable fluid flow, thereby enhancing the repeatability and controllability of the valve's collapse.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a collapsible valve is used in needleless access devices, then fluid flow is enabled when accessed, but the collapse behavior is unpredictable and lacks repeatability
Solution Approach 1:
The valve body is segmented by introducing cuts that divide the structure into controllable sections. These cuts allow the valve to collapse in a predictable sequence, improving repeatability by controlling which sections collapse first and how they deform during the access process.
Solution Approach 2:
Dimples are added to specific locations on the valve body to create localized weak points or stress concentration areas. This local modification controls the collapse behavior by directing deformation to specific regions, ensuring predictable and repeatable collapse patterns without complicating the overall valve design.
2Productivity
If the valve collapses unpredictably, then manufacturing can be simplified, but fluid flow efficiency decreases and blood clotting risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cuts divide the valve into segments that collapse in a controlled manner, ensuring that fluid flow pathways remain open efficiently during the access process. This segmentation prevents chaotic collapse that would block flow, maintaining high productivity while adding only minimal manufacturing steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The dimples modify local geometric parameters of the valve body, creating controlled stress distribution patterns. This changes the collapse parameters to ensure predictable behavior that maintains fluid flow efficiency, while the modifications remain simple enough not to significantly complicate manufacturing.
3Reliability
If the valve requires complex structure to control collapse, then repeatability improves, but the valve body strength is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The cuts create segments that can collapse independently in a controlled sequence, improving controllability without requiring thickening of the overall valve wall. Each segment maintains sufficient strength for its specific function while the segmented structure as a whole provides predictable collapse behavior.
Solution Approach 2:
The dimples create localized modifications that control collapse behavior without significantly reducing the overall valve body strength. By concentrating the structural modification at specific points rather than throughout the entire valve, the local quality change achieves controllability while preserving global structural integrity.
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
This design improves the repeatability and controllability of valve collapse, ensuring efficient fluid flow and reducing the risk of blood clotting, while also facilitating easier disinfection and use in various medical applications.
Implementation Method 1
valve 103 is elastic so that it can bend out of the way to allow flow and then return to its original shape after a disconnection is made at the female end
Implementation Method 2
at least one dimple, angularly offset from the cut, enough so that a load point on the top surface of the valve is shifted away from the cut to delay the collapse of the cut
Data Source
AI summary
A collapsible valve comprising a first portion with at least one dimple in a side thereof, and a second portion, the second portion being narrower than the first portion and arranged along an axial dimension of the first portion, the second portion including a cut therein.