Ostomy Wafer Reinforcement Structure for Shape Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ostomy wafers face challenges in maintaining the shape of the stoma receiving opening during user movements, leading to potential deformation, adhesive detachment, and increased risk of leakage due to the lack of sufficient rigidity and flexibility in existing designs.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a reinforcement structure between the adhesive and backing layers or within the adhesive layer of the ostomy wafer, which can be in the form of closed shapes like rings, ellipses, or discrete members, to enhance stiffness and reduce deformation, thereby maintaining the shape of the stoma receiving opening and preventing adhesive detachment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the ostomy wafer is made flexible to conform to skin movements, then the adhesive maintains better contact with the skin, but the stoma receiving opening deforms during user movements
Solution Approach 1:
The wafer is segmented into distinct functional zones: a rigid central region containing the stoma receiving opening that maintains shape stability, and a more flexible peripheral region that can conform to skin movements. This segmentation allows different parts of the wafer to have different mechanical properties, resolving the contradiction between shape stability and flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The wafer employs composite material construction with rigid support structures (such as reinforcement rings or stiffening layers) integrated into a flexible adhesive matrix. This composite design provides the central opening area with rigidity to prevent deformation while allowing the surrounding areas to remain flexible for skin conformity.
2Strength
If the adhesive layer is made thicker to improve adhesion strength, then the bond to skin is stronger, but the adhesive layer becomes more susceptible to cracking during bending
Solution Approach 1:
The adhesive layer thickness is varied locally across the wafer surface. Thicker adhesive is applied in regions requiring strong bonding (peripheral areas), while thinner adhesive is used in regions subject to bending (central area around stoma opening). This local variation optimizes both adhesion strength and crack resistance in different functional zones.
Solution Approach 2:
A intermediate reinforcement structure or barrier layer is introduced between the adhesive layer and the backing layer. This intermediary element provides structural support to the adhesive layer, preventing it from cracking during bending while still allowing it to maintain strong adhesion to the skin.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the wafer is made more rigid to prevent deformation, then the stoma receiving opening maintains its shape, but the adhesive may detach from the skin surface during movements
Solution Approach 1:
The wafer structure is segmented into a rigid central platform that maintains the stoma opening shape and a flexible peripheral zone that moves with the skin. This segmentation allows the central area to remain stable while the peripheral adhesive zones can flex without detachment.
Solution Approach 2:
The mechanical parameters of the wafer are spatially varied, with rigidity concentrated in the central region and flexibility distributed in the peripheral regions. This parameter change across different zones allows simultaneous achievement of shape maintenance and adhesive bond preservation during skin movements.
Data Source
AI summary
An adhesive ostomy wafer has a liner removed to expose adhesive and thus ready the adhesive ostomy wafer for adhesion to a user. The adhesive ostomy wafer includes a backing layer providing a distal surface of the adhesive ostomy wafer that is oriented to face away from skin of the user during use, an adhesive layer deposited onto the backing layer, with the adhesive layer providing a proximal surface of the adhesive ostomy wafer, an opening formed through the backing layer and the adhesive layer, with the opening adapted to fit around a stoma of the user, and a reinforcement structure located between the distal surface and the proximal surface of the adhesive ostomy wafer.