Medical Device Connector with Flange Grip and Wedge Lock
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical device connectors for piercing devices and vials often fail to provide a simple, easy-to-use, leak-safe connection, leading to contamination risks and handling challenges for nursing personnel during medicament transfers.
Innovation Solution
A medical device connector with a base member and flanges that include grip members with wedge portions for secure snap-on attachment to vials, reducing the risk of leakage and improving handling by providing easy assembly and detection of misalignment, while also being stackable and less prone to rolling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional connectors are used for piercing devices and vials, then connection is achieved, but leakage risk increases and handling becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The connector is divided into distinct functional segments: a base member for structural support, flanges for positioning and grip, and grip members with wedge portions for secure attachment. This segmentation allows each component to optimize its specific function while maintaining overall reliability and ease of handling.
Solution Approach 2:
The grip members incorporate flexible wedge portions that can dynamically adapt during the connection process. The wedge portions are designed to flex and deform elastically to engage with the vial opening, providing a self-adjusting mechanism that ensures secure attachment while maintaining ease of operation.
2Reliability
If technically advanced connectors are designed for leakage security, then leakage prevention improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple functions are merged into a single integrated structure. The flanges serve both as structural extensions of the base member and as positioning elements that guide the grip members. The grip members themselves combine the gripping function with the sealing function through their wedge portions, eliminating the need for separate sealing components and reducing overall complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The connector design achieves multi-functionality where the same structural elements serve multiple purposes. The flanges provide both structural support and alignment guidance, while the grip members with wedge portions simultaneously provide gripping force and leakage prevention. This universal design reduces the number of separate components needed.
3Ease of operation
If grip members are arranged on flanges extending from base member periphery, then attachment ease improves, but rolling tendency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The connector employs asymmetric flange positioning and grip member arrangement that optimizes both attachment ease and stability. The flanges extend from the base member periphery in specific orientations that provide leverage for easy attachment while the asymmetric distribution creates a stable center of gravity that minimizes rolling tendency during handling.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a medical device connector for connecting a piercing device, with a vial comprising a base member. A plurality of grip members, each grip member comprising a distal end (D) and a proximal end (P) and each comprising a wedge portion adapted to temporarily or permanently lock the medical device connector to the vial. The base member further comprises a plurality of flanges, wherein the proximal ends (P) of the grip members are arranged to the flanges. The flanges extend substantially out from the periphery of the base member in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of the grip members, wherein the space formed between the flanges of the base member forms at least one grip portion. The present invention provides for a medical device connector which is easy and comfortable to use, which provide good stacking capabilities and which permits a user to readily acknowledge that the medical device connector is correctly assembled with the vial.