Drug Delivery Device Locking System Prevents Accidental Dose Decrement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current drug delivery devices for self-administration by untrained users lack reliability and accuracy, posing health risks due to the inability to securely decrement doses without accidental adjustments.
Innovation Solution
A drug delivery device with a rotatable movable member and a locking system that allows incremental dose setting and secure decrementing, featuring a releasable locking interface that prevents accidental rotation in the decrementing direction, ensuring user control over dose size and accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a rotatable movable member is provided for dose setting, then user control over dose size is improved, but accidental rotation in the decrementing direction may occur reducing reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The locking system proactively prevents accidental decrementing by establishing a locked state that requires deliberate user action to release. The locking feature and block feature are positioned to engage automatically, creating preliminary protection against unintended rotation before any accidental decrementing can occur.
Solution Approach 2:
The device requires the user to actively release the locking mechanism before decrementing can occur. This preliminary action of releasing the lock ensures that any rotation of the movable member is intentional and controlled, eliminating accidental decrementing while preserving user control.
2Reliability
If a locking system is added to prevent accidental decrementing, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The locking feature is integrated into the movable member itself, and the block feature is integrated into the housing, merging the locking function with existing structural elements. This combination approach provides reliable locking without adding separate complex locking mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The locking system is designed to engage automatically through the relative movement of the movable member and housing, requiring no additional actuation or complex control mechanisms. The geometry of the locking and block features causes them to engage naturally during normal operation, providing self-service locking functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
A drug delivery device includes a housing and a movable member, which is arranged to be rotatable in an incrementing direction and a decrementing direction, the movable member being operatively coupled to an energy storage member and biased to rotate into the decrementing direction by energy stored or storable in the energy storage member. Rotation of the movable member in the incrementing direction increases the energy stored in the energy storage member. The drug delivery device also includes a locking system including a locking feature, a block feature, and a release member, wherein the locking feature is arranged to cooperate with the block feature to form a releasable locking interface configured such that, when the releasable locking interface is established, rotational movement of the movable member relative to the housing is blocked in the decrementing direction, and when the releasable locking interface is released, the movable member is rotatable in the decrementing direction.