Patch Fluid Delivery Assembly With Reusable Pump and Disposable Reservoir
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing patch-sized fluid delivery systems face challenges in reducing size, weight, and cost while ensuring reliable and precise delivery of therapeutic fluids, often requiring complex designs with multiple components and user interfaces that increase complexity and malfunction rates.
Innovation Solution
A patch-sized fluid delivery system is designed with a reusable and disposable portion, incorporating a flexible membrane fluid path, shape-memory actuators, and redundant systems to ensure safe and precise fluid delivery, featuring a modular design with a disposable fluid reservoir and a reusable control assembly that includes sensors, actuators, and power sources, minimizing user interface components and enhancing fail-safe operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If existing patch-sized fluid delivery systems use complex designs with multiple components and user interfaces, then fluid delivery functionality is achieved, but device complexity increases and malfunction rates increase
Solution Approach 1:
The device is divided into separate modular components: a reusable portion containing the pump mechanism, sensors, and control electronics, and a disposable portion containing the fluid reservoir and fluid path. This segmentation allows the complex reusable portion to be manufactured and tested separately, improving reliability while maintaining functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The disposable portion including the reservoir and fluid path is designed as a single-use component that is discarded after use. This eliminates the need for complex cleaning, sterilization, and maintenance procedures, reducing overall system complexity and potential sources of malfunction while maintaining reliable fluid delivery.
2Volume of moving object
If the device size and weight are reduced to patch-sized dimensions, then wearability and patient comfort are improved, but manufacturing precision and assembly difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the device into reusable and disposable portions, each module can be manufactured at optimal sizes for its specific function. The reusable portion can be larger and more complex, while the disposable portion is minimized for single-use efficiency, overall achieving compact patch-sized dimensions without compromising manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The disposable portion is designed to nest within or attach to the reusable portion, maximizing space utilization. The fluid reservoir, fluid path, and other components are arranged in a compact nested configuration that achieves minimal overall device volume while maintaining manufacturing feasibility.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If redundant systems and fail-safe mechanisms are incorporated, then patient safety and operational reliability are improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The disposable portion incorporates fail-safe design features such as single-use limitation and disposable fluid paths that prevent contamination and dosing errors. By discarding the disposable portion after one use, the system inherently prevents many potential safety issues without requiring complex active safety mechanisms, thus improving patient safety while limiting complexity increase.
Solution Approach 2:
The device includes sensors and control systems that automatically monitor fluid delivery and detect potential problems, providing self-service safety monitoring. The reusable portion's electronics automatically detect and respond to anomalies such as occlusions or improper assembly, reducing the need for user intervention and simplifying the overall safety system architecture.
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 system effectively reduces size and weight while ensuring reliable, precise, and safe fluid delivery, with redundant components and fail-safe mechanisms preventing unsafe flow rates and maintaining operation even in case of component failures, thus improving patient safety and device reliability.
Implementation Method 1
shape-memory actuators
Data Source
AI summary
A method for making a fluid delivery device including a reusable portion and a disposable portion. The disposable portion is adapted to be secured to a user and includes a conduit fluidly connecting a reservoir containing a fluid and a moveable pumping member. The moveable pumping member can expand an expandable structure with the fluid. The reusable portion is selectively engageable to the disposable portion and contains a drive device for engaging the moveable pumping member of the disposable portion. The drive device has a rotatable pumping actuation member with a plurality of projections for engaging the moveable pumping member and thereby moving the fluid to expand the expandable structure.