Infusion Filter with Flow-Guiding Elements for Rapid Priming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional infusion filters require time-consuming priming procedures, have low flow rates with small dimensions, tend to clog, and fail to effectively prevent air embolism due to air entry through infusion lines, especially near the patient access point.
Innovation Solution
The infusion filter is designed with a housing that ensures turbulence-free flow using flow-guiding elements like bends and inclined baffles to direct fluid flow smoothly to a hydrophilic filter membrane, minimizing dead spaces and enabling rapid priming without special procedures, and incorporates a vent filter to release trapped air.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If conventional infusion filters are used with small filter area, then the device size is reduced, but the flow rate becomes low and the filter clogs easily
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs curved flow-guiding surfaces and rounded transitions within the housing to direct fluid flow smoothly toward the filter membrane. This curvature eliminates sharp corners and dead zones, ensuring uniform flow distribution across the entire filter surface, which maximizes the effective filter area and prevents clogging while maintaining compact dimensions.
2Reliability
If conventional infusion filters are used, then particle filtering is achieved, but the priming procedure becomes time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is pre-designed with integrated flow-guiding elements and optimized internal geometry that automatically directs fluid flow in the correct path during priming. This preliminary structural arrangement eliminates the need for manual positioning or complex priming procedures, allowing the filter to be primed quickly and reliably in any orientation.
3Reliability
If conventional infusion filters are used, then air separation is provided, but air can still enter through downstream connectors and valves
Solution Approach 1:
The patent positions the infusion filter as an intermediary component located downstream near the patient access point, between potential air entry sources (valves, connectors) and the patient. This strategic placement allows the filter to capture air bubbles that may have entered through downstream components, providing an additional safety barrier against air embolism.
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 filter achieves a high flow rate with a small size, rapid priming in any orientation, low residual volume, and effective particle retention, preventing air embolism by ensuring bubble-free infusion near the patient access point.
Implementation Method 1
a hydrophilic filter membrane arranged in the flow path which, in particular after a flow/fluid flow along the flow path upstream of the infusion filter ceases, forms an air barrier
Implementation Method 2
a hydrophilic filter membrane arranged in the flow path which, in particular after a flow/fluid flow along the flow path upstream of the infusion filter ceases, forms an air barrier
Implementation Method 3
the housing is designed to ensure that the flow along the entire flow path is turbulence-free (laminar)
Implementation Method 4
incorporates a vent filter to release trapped air
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
The disclosure relates to an infusion filter (1) for or of a medical infusion line (3), with a housing (4) which defines a flow path between a housing inlet (12), couplable to a portion of the infusion line (3), and a housing outlet (13), and with a hydrophilic filter membrane (8) which is arranged in the flow path, is oriented parallel to the main flow direction predefined by the infusion line and is placed in the housing in such a way that it divides the housing into an upstream and a downstream housing portion (4a, 4b), wherein the housing (4) has, upstream of the filter membrane (8), a first flow-guiding element in the form of an elbow (17) for a first deflection of a flow along the flow path transversely, in particular perpendicularly, to the main flow direction and, directly thereafter, a second flow-guiding element in the form of a baffle surface (35), oriented obliquely with respect to the main flow direction, for a second deflection of the flow back into the main flow direction, in order thereby to ensure that flow impinges on the filter membrane exclusively at the upstream membrane side thereof. The disclosure further relates to an infusion set (2) with an infusion line (3), of which a first end portion has a connector (37) for a container with an infusion solution, and of which a second end portion has a connector (40) for a patient port or a further infusion line, and with an infusion filter (1) according to the disclosure arranged in the infusion line (3).