Humidifier Chamber Port Geometry for Leak-Safe Breathing Support
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing breathing assistance apparatuses face challenges in efficiently integrating and sealing humidifier liquid chambers, leading to issues such as liquid leakage and inefficient gas humidification due to suboptimal design ratios and orientations of connection ports.
Innovation Solution
The humidifier liquid chamber or manifold features base unit connection ports with specific sealing depth-to-port separation ratios and orientations, along with conduits and baffles to ensure proper alignment and sealing, minimizing dead spaces and enhancing gas humidification efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional liquid reservoir is used in a breathing assistance apparatus, then the device can store and deliver liquid (medication, humidification), but the liquid may become contaminated during storage and delivery
Solution Approach 1:
The liquid chamber is divided into a reservoir portion for storing liquid and a dispensing portion for delivering liquid. This segmentation allows the liquid to be stored in a closed environment and only exposed to the external environment when actually dispensed, preventing contamination during storage while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The dispensing portion is designed to be separable from the reservoir portion. This allows the dispensing portion to be removed, cleaned, or replaced independently, preventing cross-contamination between storage and delivery functions while keeping the main reservoir structure simple and sealed.
2Reliability
If a traditional liquid reservoir is used, then the device can store liquid, but the liquid may leak during delivery
Solution Approach 1:
By separating the reservoir and dispensing portions with a defined interface, the system can implement targeted sealing mechanisms at the connection point rather than requiring complex sealing throughout the entire structure. This localized approach prevents leaks while maintaining structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system includes a liquid transfer mechanism that controls liquid flow from the reservoir to the dispensing portion. This preliminary control of liquid movement prevents uncontrolled leaking during delivery while keeping the overall chamber structure relatively simple through automated or semi-automated liquid management.
3Ease of manufacture
If a traditional liquid reservoir is used, then the device can store liquid, but cleaning and sterilization are difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The separable design of the reservoir and dispensing portions allows the dispensing portion to be detached for independent cleaning and sterilization. This segmentation makes maintenance easier without requiring complex disassembly procedures, as the two main components can be separated and cleaned separately.
Solution Approach 2:
The dispensing portion can be extracted from the reservoir for separate cleaning and sterilization processes. This extraction capability enables thorough cleaning of the dispensing area without having to dismantle the entire chamber structure, simplifying the cleaning process while maintaining effective sterilization.
Data Source
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AI summary
A humidifier liquid chamber or a humidifier liquid chamber manifold has first and second base unit connection ports 157, 159 for connecting to a breathing assistance apparatus base unit, the base unit connection ports defining respective axes A1, A2. The base unit connection ports are substantially parallel to each other and are separated by a port separation distance PSD between the axes. At least one of the base unit connection ports 157, 159 has a sealing depth SD defined by a portion of the port that is configured to overlap with a complementary chamber connection port of the base unit. A ratio of the sealing depth SD to port separation distance PSD is more than about 0.25.