Elastomeric Infusion Device with Segmented Reservoir
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical infusion devices with elastomeric pumps are limited by plastic deformation after initial use, leading to reduced elasticity, bulkiness, and incompatibility with long-term fluid storage, requiring complex maintenance and potential solution alteration due to silicone contact.
Innovation Solution
A compact, ergonomic device with an elastomeric outer casing that deforms elastically to reduce overall dimensions, allowing active fluid administration and avoiding silicone contact, featuring a flexible reservoir and a semi-rigid side wall for protection and quick maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the reservoir is filled with fluid for prolonged time before use, then the reservoir expands and stores more fluid, but excessive plastic deformation occurs reducing elasticity and fluid supply capability
Solution Approach 1:
The device is divided into two separate functional components: a rigid outer casing that maintains structural integrity and a flexible inner reservoir that expands and contracts. This segmentation allows the reservoir to deform elastically without permanent plastic deformation, maintaining reliability for repeated use while still accommodating variable fluid quantities.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the material parameter of the outer casing from flexible to rigid, and the reservoir from rigid to flexible. This parameter change allows the reservoir to expand with fluid while the rigid casing prevents excessive deformation and maintains the device's structural integrity, enabling repeated use without loss of elasticity.
2Strength
If the outer casing is made rigid to protect the reservoir, then protection against damage and uncontrolled discharge is improved, but the device volume increases by 50% and becomes bulky
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses a flexible reservoir enclosed within a rigid outer casing. The rigid casing provides necessary protection while the flexible reservoir allows volume reduction when empty. This combination achieves both protection and compactness, eliminating the need for excessive casing volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The device transitions from a static rigid structure to a dynamic system where the inner reservoir expands and contracts based on fluid content. When empty, the reservoir collapses reducing overall device volume; when filled, it expands to provide fluid storage. This dynamic behavior resolves the contradiction between protection and compactness.
3Ease of operation
If the reservoir is made of elastomeric material to enable expansion and contraction, then fluid administration function is improved, but the device can only be used once due to plastic deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The device separates the flexible reservoir from the rigid outer casing, allowing the reservoir to deform elastically during fluid administration while the rigid casing maintains structural integrity. This segmentation enables repeated use as the reservoir returns to its original shape after each use, unlike fully elastomeric devices that undergo permanent deformation.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines rigid and flexible materials in a composite structure. The rigid outer casing provides structural stability and prevents permanent deformation, while the flexible inner reservoir enables expansion and contraction for fluid administration. This composite approach allows the device to be reused multiple times while maintaining fluid administration capability.
4Reliability
If the reservoir is filled immediately before use to avoid plastic deformation, then elasticity is maintained, but the device cannot be prepared in advance and requires complex opening and closing procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The separable design allows the reservoir to be filled in advance and then easily coupled to the rigid casing. The magnetic coupling mechanism enables quick connection and disconnection, eliminating complex opening and closing procedures. The reservoir can be prepared separately and attached to the casing immediately before use, maintaining elasticity while enabling advance preparation.
5Ease of operation
If the reservoir is made of silicone elastomeric material to provide flexibility, then expansion and contraction is improved, but the solution may be altered during long-term storage
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the silicone material from the fluid-contacting reservoir and replaces it with silicone-free flexible material. The rigid outer casing can be made of silicone or other materials, but the inner reservoir that contacts the fluid is specifically designed to be silicone-free. This extraction eliminates the harmful interaction between silicone and medical solutions while maintaining the necessary flexibility for expansion and contraction.
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 provides efficient, discreet, and cost-effective fluid infusion with reduced dimensions, maintaining sterility and mobility, while preventing fluid alteration and enabling reusable designs.
Implementation Method 1
at least partially made of a second elastomeric base material suitable to make elastically deformable the casing to vary the geometry and internal volume thereof as a function of the volume of said reservoir
Data Source
AI summary
A device for infusion of medical fluids is provided. It has an internal reservoir for a fluid to be administered made of a first flexible base material to vary its volume as a function of the quantity of fluid present thereinside; and an outer casing containing the reservoir, having a side wall made of a second elastic base material suitable to make elastically deformable the casing to vary the geometry and internal volume thereof as a function of the volume of the reservoir.