Dispensing Device Individual Flow Paths Powder Adherence
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing inhalation devices face challenges in ensuring reliable, repeatable, and accurate dispensing of powder doses, with issues such as powder adherence to device surfaces, subsequent dislodgment, and inconsistent release into the airstream, leading to variable inhaled doses and increased device size, complexity, and cost.
Innovation Solution
A dispensing device with unique flow paths for each powder pocket, featuring a support system and mouthpiece that deaggregates powder in the airstream, minimizing powder adherence and allowing for efficient inhalation by providing a separate flow path for each pocket, and an indexing mechanism for rotating carriers to align pockets with the dispensing mechanism, enabling simultaneous or sequential dispensing of medicaments from multiple carriers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a common flow path is used for multiple powder pockets, then device complexity is reduced, but powder adherence to shared walls causes dose inconsistency and reliability problems
Solution Approach 1:
The device divides the flow path into separate individual flow paths for each powder pocket, so that powder from each pocket travels through its own dedicated channel to the mouthpiece. This segmentation prevents powder from adhering to shared walls and contaminating subsequent doses, thereby ensuring dose consistency while maintaining reasonable device complexity through the use of a single carrier with multiple pockets.
2Volume of moving object
If powder is dispensed into a shared flow path, then device size is minimized, but previously adhered powder may dislodge and contaminate subsequent doses
Solution Approach 1:
Each powder pocket is assigned its own dedicated flow path that connects directly to the mouthpiece without sharing walls with other pockets. This ensures that even though the device remains compact, powder from one pocket cannot adhere to and subsequently contaminate other pockets' doses, maintaining dose accuracy throughout the device's usage life.
3Ease of manufacture
If a single flow path is used for all pockets, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but powder adherence and dislodgment increase manufacturing precision requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The device incorporates individual flow paths for each powder pocket within a single carrier structure. While this requires slightly more complex manufacturing than a single shared flow path, the use of a single carrier with integrated individual channels maintains ease of manufacture. The segmentation eliminates powder adherence issues, thereby reducing the manufacturing precision requirements for ensuring consistent powder release compared to a shared flow path design.
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 device ensures consistent and accurate delivery of powder doses, reduces powder adherence, and maintains device simplicity and cost-effectiveness by using unique flow paths and an efficient indexing mechanism, allowing for sustained powder entrainment and easy inhalation, even at varying flow rates.
Implementation Method 1
walls for defining individual respective first flow paths downstream of each respective pocket of a supported carrier wherein each individual respective first flow path... is for deaggregating powder in the airstream
Data Source
AI summary
A device for dispensing individual doses of powder from respective pockets of a disc-shaped carrier by outwardly rupturing a lidding foil by means of pressure on an opposite side surface, the device providing individual respective deaggregation flow paths for each pocket, split airstreams allowing improved entrainment of powder, a cam mechanism for outwardly rupturing the pockets, an indexing mechanism linked to the cam mechanism and a dose counter.