Pharmaceutical Cartridge with Angled Needle and Unitary Fluid Path
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing syringe designs face challenges in manufacturing, prefilling, and maintaining sterility, particularly with bent needles, which are difficult to keep sterile due to the long unprotected fluid path.
Innovation Solution
A pharmaceutical cartridge with a cylindrical reservoir and a tube having a sharpened tip, where the fluid path is entirely contained within the unitary body and tube, featuring a bend and a sealing ring with a conical section, and a method for manufacturing involving an angled needle and insert molding to ensure sterility and ease of use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a bent needle is used to enable angled injection, then injection accuracy is improved, but maintaining sterility becomes difficult due to long unprotected fluid path
Solution Approach 1:
The fluid path is nested within the unitary body structure, with the tube containing the fluid pathway integrated into the cartridge housing. This nesting reduces the exposed fluid path length while maintaining the bent needle configuration for accurate injection, thereby resolving the contradiction between injection accuracy and sterility maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The tube and unitary body are merged into a single integrated structure where the fluid path is contained within the body components. This merging eliminates separate unprotected fluid pathways, maintaining sterility while preserving the angled injection capability through the integrated bent tube design.
2Reliability
If needle protrusion length is reduced to maintain sterility, then sterility preservation is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tube is merged with the unitary body through insert molding, creating an integrated structure where the tube is embedded within the body material. This merging simplifies manufacturing by combining multiple components into one molding process while achieving short needle protrusion for sterility preservation.
Solution Approach 2:
The tube is pre-positioned and embedded within the unitary body during the molding process. This preliminary action of integrating the tube structure before final assembly ensures short protected needle protrusion while maintaining manufacturing efficiency through a single molding operation.
3Reliability
If fluid path is contained entirely within unitary body and tube, then sterility is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The tube and unitary body are merged into a single integrated component through insert molding, where the tube is embedded within the body material. This merging ensures the fluid path is completely contained within the unitary structure, achieving sterility while the molding process inherently provides the necessary precision for fluid path containment.
Data Source
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AI summary
A cartridge comprising a reservoir part and an extension extending from said reservoir part, said extension defining a fluid path and comprising a molding and a first needle extending from said molding, the extension turning to a finite angle with respect to an axis of said reservoir part and wherein at least part of said first needle is likewise at said finite angle, at least some of said part of said first needle at said finite angle being enclosed within said molding of said fluid path. A drug delivery device may be used with the cartridge and includes a skin-contacting surface. In use, the longitudinal axis of the interior of the cartridge may be disposed substantially parallel to the skin-contacting surface.