Respiratory Cushion with Hardness Inserts for Seal Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Respiratory interface devices often experience gaps in the seal due to the patient contacting cushion being too soft, leading to incomplete sealing when the user moves.
Innovation Solution
A respiratory interface device with a cushion body and removable inserts of varying hardness, allowing for selective adjustment of the cushion's stiffness by inserting inserts into stiffener passages to enhance the seal's completeness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If the patient contacting cushion is made from soft material to adapt to the user's face, then the cushion can conform to facial contours, but the cushion becomes too soft and creates gaps when the user moves
Solution Approach 1:
The cushion incorporates inserts with different hardness values (e.g., 20 Shore A, 40 Shore A, 60 Shore A) into specific regions of the cushion body. This allows different parts of the cushion to have different mechanical properties - softer regions for comfort and conformity, and harder regions for gap prevention and seal maintenance during movement.
Solution Approach 2:
The cushion is constructed as a composite structure combining a soft cushion body material (e.g., silicone or TPE) with harder insert materials. This composite construction allows the cushion to simultaneously achieve facial conformity through the soft base material and seal reliability through the harder inserts positioned at critical sealing locations.
2Reliability
If the cushion material hardness is increased to reduce gapping, then the seal completeness improves, but the cushion loses its ability to adapt to the user's face
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than uniformly increasing cushion hardness, the invention places harder inserts only in specific locations where gapping occurs during movement. The majority of the cushion body remains soft to maintain facial adaptability, while localized harder regions provide the necessary support for seal completeness.
3Ease of manufacture
If the cushion is made from a single material with fixed hardness, then the manufacturing is simple, but the cushion cannot be adjusted for different users or conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The cushion is divided into modular components: a cushion body and separate removable inserts. This segmentation allows the inserts to be manufactured independently and then assembled into the cushion body, maintaining manufacturing simplicity while enabling hardness adjustment. Users can select and install inserts with appropriate hardness values based on their specific needs.
Solution Approach 2:
The cushion system transitions from a static, fixed-hardness design to a dynamic, adjustable system. The removable inserts allow users to change the cushion's mechanical properties by inserting or removing inserts, or by swapping inserts with different hardness values, thereby adapting the cushion to different users, facial contours, and usage conditions.
Data Source
AI summary
A respiratory interface device provides a support cushion (15) including a cushion body (20) and at least two inserts (50). The cushion body has a plurality of stiffener passages (22). The at least two inserts are stiffening inserts shaped to correspond to the stiffener passages. The cushion body is made from a first material having a first hardness. One of the at least two inserts is made from a first material, having substantially the same first hardness as the cushion body, and the second insert is made from a second material having a second hardness, the second hardness being different than the first hardness.