Container Holder Mechanism for Sterile Wearable Drug Injection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing drug delivery devices face challenges in delivering medications, particularly in delivering medications, where the device is designed to address the issue of maintaining contact between the injection site and the skin for extended periods, especially for volumes above 1 mL, and ensuring sterility during handling and use.
Innovation Solution
A drug delivery device with a housing, needle actuator, container, and actuator button, featuring a container holder to prevent premature engagement with the valve assembly, a drive assembly to move the container, and a spring-biased needle actuator for the needle, allowing for self-injection and wearability, with a valve assembly for fluid communication, and a mechanism to control the needle's retraction and extension.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If the container is allowed to move freely from the first position to the second position, then the injection time can be extended for larger volumes, but the container may engage with the valve assembly prematurely causing safety issues
Solution Approach 1:
The container holder acts as an intermediary component between the container and the valve assembly. It allows the container to move from the first position to the second position (enabling extended injection time) while preventing direct engagement between the container and valve assembly (ensuring safety). The container holder serves as a protective intermediary that mediates the interaction between these two components.
2Ease of operation
If the device is designed for self-injection and wearability, then ease of operation is improved, but maintaining sterility during handling becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The container is pre-positioned in the first position, spaced from the valve assembly, before use. The container holder is pre-configured to restrict movement until needed. This preliminary arrangement ensures that the sterile container remains isolated from non-sterile components during handling and wearability, while still allowing self-injection functionality when the container is deliberately moved to the second position.
3Reliability
If the container holder restricts container movement in the pre-use position, then sterility is maintained, but the container cannot engage with the valve assembly for injection
Solution Approach 1:
The container holder provides dynamic restriction rather than static prevention. In the pre-use position, the container holder restricts container movement to maintain sterility. When the user needs to inject, the container can be deliberately moved to the second position where engagement with the valve assembly becomes possible. The system transitions from a restricted state to an engaged state based on user action, providing both sterility maintenance and injection readiness.
Data Source
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AI summary
A drug delivery device includes a housing, a needle having a retracted position and an extended position, a needle actuator body received within the housing and configured to move from a pre-use position where the needle is in the retracted position to a use position where the needle is in the extended position, a container received within the housing, with the container having a first position and a second position spaced axially from the first position, and an actuator button moveable relative to the housing from a first position to a second position to actuate the needle actuator body from the pre-use position to the use position. The actuator button includes a container holder configured to restrict movement of the container from the first position to the second position when the needle actuator body is in the pre-use position.