Liquid Medicament Dispenser with Tapered Tip and Shoulder Interface
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dispensers for liquid medicaments in aerosolizing devices often waste medicament due to inefficiencies in delivering the entire supply and providing accurate doses, especially as the liquid volume decreases, leading to potential air mixing and incorrect dosages.
Innovation Solution
A dispenser design that includes a sealed container with a dispensing mechanism featuring a tapered tip and shoulder interface, allowing for precise metered volume delivery onto a vibratable mesh, along with optional last-use indicators to signal when the medicament level is low, ensuring all medicament is used and accurate dosages are maintained.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional dispenser design is used, then the dispensing mechanism is simple, but the liquid medicament is wasted and accurate dosing cannot be maintained as the liquid volume decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The dispenser is divided into functionally distinct segments: a reservoir for liquid storage, a dispensing mechanism with a dip tube and tapered tip for controlled delivery, and a shoulder interface for sealing. This segmentation allows each component to optimize its specific function, ensuring complete liquid delivery while preventing air mixing and maintaining dosing accuracy throughout the dispensing cycle.
Solution Approach 2:
The tapered tip acts as an intermediary element between the dip tube and the liquid medicament. Its geometry creates a sealed interface that prevents air from mixing with the liquid as it is dispensed, ensuring that only pure medicament is delivered to the aerosolizing device throughout the entire liquid volume, from full to near-depletion.
2Quantity of substance
If the dispenser delivers all liquid medicament, then medicament waste is minimized, but air mixing may occur and cause incorrect dosages
Solution Approach 1:
The dispenser utilizes geometric parameter changes through its tapered tip design. The varying cross-sectional area of the taper creates a flow regime that maintains liquid integrity during dispensing, preventing air entrainment even as the liquid volume decreases. This geometric parameter optimization allows complete liquid delivery while maintaining dosing accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The shoulder interface is designed to provide a sealed boundary condition before air can mix with the liquid. This pre-established seal prevents air contamination throughout the dispensing process, cushioning against the potential harmful effect of air mixing that would occur in conventional designs as the liquid level drops.
3Measurement precision
If a tapered tip and shoulder interface are used, then dosing accuracy is maintained, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The dispenser merges multiple functions into integrated components. The dip tube serves both as the liquid conveyance pathway and as part of the sealing system. The tapered tip combines the dispensing aperture with the air-prevention seal. The shoulder interface integrates structural support with sealing functionality. This merging reduces the number of separate parts while maintaining dosing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
Each component of the dispenser is designed with multi-functionality. The dispensing mechanism not only delivers liquid but also prevents air mixing through its geometric design. The shoulder interface provides both structural alignment and sealing. This universal design approach achieves accurate metered volume delivery without requiring additional specialized components, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity.
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 dispenser effectively delivers the entire supply of liquid medicament with accurate dosages, minimizing waste and ensuring reliable delivery even as the medicament level approaches depletion, by using a tapered tip and shoulder interface to prevent air mixing and providing visual indicators for timely replacement.
Implementation Method 1
a vibratable membrane or mesh having a front face exposed at the outlet and a rear face for receiving a liquid to be dispensed, and a vibrating mechanism connected to the housing and operable to vibrate the membrane to dispense aerosol of the liquid through the membrane
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
A dispenser for supplying a metered volume of a liquid medicament to an aerosolizing device. The dispenser may include a container having a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the container is configured to store a volume of liquid medicament. The dispenser may also include a dispensing mechanism coupled to the distal end of the container. The dispensing mechanism may have a distal end terminating in a tip through which the liquid medicament is dispensed. The dispensing mechanism operates to dispense a metered volume of the liquid medicament from the tip each time the dispensing mechanism is operated. The distal end of the dispensing mechanism includes an interface that interacts with a housing of an inhaler to limit an insertion depth of the tip into an opening the housing.