Mobile Breathing Station for Decompression Chamber Maintenance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing decompression chambers lack flexibility in operation, requiring permanent breathing stations that are difficult to maintain, repair, and disinfect, leading to inefficiencies and potential health risks due to the need for technicians to enter the chamber for maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A mobile breathing station with detachable coupling units that can be easily connected and disconnected from multiple decompression chamber coupling stations, allowing for flexible use, reserve stations, and reduced maintenance needs, featuring mechanical demand valves for controlled pressure management without electrical components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If permanent breathing stations are installed in decompression chambers, then decompression functionality is provided, but maintenance complexity and technician safety risks increase due to the need for technicians to enter the chamber
Solution Approach 1:
The breathing station is divided into separable components: a mobile breathing unit with demand valves and a stationary coupling station with fluid connections. This segmentation allows the breathing unit to be removed and replaced without technician entry, while the coupling station remains fixed in the chamber.
Solution Approach 2:
The demand valves and breathing apparatus are extracted from the permanent chamber installation and placed in a mobile unit that can be quickly removed. This extraction eliminates the need for technicians to enter the chamber for routine maintenance or repairs of the breathing components.
2Adaptability or versatility
If mobile breathing stations with detachable couplings are used, then flexibility and ease of replacement improve, but connection reliability and fluid-tightness may worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile breathing unit combines multiple functions in one assembly: demand valves, fluid guide units, and coupling mechanisms. This merging ensures that all critical components are integrated and can be replaced as a single unit, maintaining connection reliability while preserving mobility and flexibility.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple coupling stations are installed in decompression chambers, then operational flexibility improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling station is designed with universal fluid connections that can interface with any standard breathing unit. This universality allows a single coupling station design to serve multiple purposes and support various breathing units, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining operational flexibility across multiple stations.
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
Enables flexible and efficient decompression processes, reduces downtime and maintenance costs by allowing quick replacement of defective stations, and minimizes the need for technicians to enter the decompression chamber, ensuring continuous operation and improved safety.
Implementation Method 1
Both demand valves are mechanical and are capable of following a predetermined time-dependent target pressure as an actual pressure in the decompression chamber
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a mobile breathing station (50) for use in a decompression chamber (100), as well as to a decompression chamber (100) having such a breathing station (50), and to a method for operating such a decompression chamber (100). A person-side coupling unit (8) of the breathing station (50) is connected to the respiratory system of a person (P). An inspiration coupling unit (21) and an expiration coupling unit (9) of the breathing station (50) can be detachably connected to two corresponding coupling units (2.1 to 2.4, 10.1 to 10.4) of a decompression chamber (100). The breathing station (50) conducts a gas mixture comprising oxygen from the inspiration coupling unit (21) through an inspiration fluid connection and an inspiration fluid guide unit (7) to the person-side coupling unit (8).Exhaled air flows from the person-side coupling unit (8) through an expiratory fluid guide unit (17) and an expiratory fluid connection to the expiratory coupling unit (9).