Rotating Dose Ring Inhaler for Powder Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current multidose inhalers for powdery substances are cumbersome, prone to dosing errors, and expensive due to their complex designs with numerous parts, which increase manufacturing costs and the risk of contamination and incomplete dose delivery.
Innovation Solution
A multidose inhaler design featuring a dose ring with integrated powder chambers and a simplified mechanism that uses a rotating dose ring to expose chambers to the air flow, eliminating the need for piercing or tearing mechanisms, and incorporating a one-way valve to prevent accidental air inhalation, resulting in a compact, cost-effective, and user-friendly device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a complex piercing or tearing mechanism is used to expose powder chambers, then the powder can be delivered, but the device becomes large, cumbersome, and requires many parts
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the complex piercing or tearing mechanism from the inhaler design. Instead of using needles, blades, or tearing foils to expose the powder chambers, the patent uses a simple rotating dose ring with openable elements that are directly accessible through the housing, thereby reducing the number of parts and simplifying the device structure while maintaining reliable powder delivery
Solution Approach 2:
The dose ring is segmented into multiple discrete powder chambers, each with its own openable element. This segmentation allows each chamber to be independently accessed and emptied without affecting other chambers, enabling simple rotation-based advancement to the next dose while maintaining device simplicity
2Reliability
If many parts are used in the inhaler design, then powder chambers can be sealed and delivered, but manufacturing costs increase and errors increase linearly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges multiple functions into fewer components. The dose ring serves as both the container for multiple powder chambers and the mechanism for dose advancement through rotation. The openable elements are integrated directly into the dose ring structure rather than being separate components, reducing assembly steps and manufacturing complexity while maintaining precise dose delivery
Solution Approach 2:
The rotating dose ring performs multiple functions: it stores multiple doses, advances to the next dose, seals the powder chambers during storage, and provides the opening mechanism for dose delivery. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate mechanisms for each function, reducing part count and manufacturing cost while ensuring reliable dose delivery
3Ease of operation
If the inhaler is made compact and thin with fewer parts, then it is easier to store and handle, but the mechanism to expose powder chambers becomes simpler
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a complex mechanism to open the powder chambers from the inside out (as in piercing or tearing designs), the invention inverts the approach by having openable elements on the dose ring that are directly accessible from the outside. The user simply rotates the dose ring to bring the desired chamber into position, and the openable element is already exposed and ready for dose delivery, eliminating the need for additional opening actions
4Reliability
If a one-way valve is added to prevent accidental air inhalation, then dosing errors are prevented, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The one-way valve is designed to automatically prevent accidental exhalation into the powder chamber without requiring user intervention or complex control mechanisms. The valve self-regulates based on pressure differential: it remains closed during normal operation and only opens when the user performs a correct inhalation action, thereby preventing dosing errors while adding minimal complexity to the device
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 design achieves a significantly smaller and thinner inhaler with reduced parts, ensuring precise dose delivery, minimizing the risk of contamination and dosing errors, and allowing for easy handling with one hand, while maintaining safety and usability.
Implementation Method 1
The air channel is designed to create negative pressure when the user inhales, which opens the openable element and allows the powdery substance to be extracted from the powder chamber
Implementation Method 2
Air flow through the air channel carries the powdery substance from the powder chamber to the user's mouthpiece
Data Source
Figure 1A~2C
Figure 3~4C
Figure 5A~6B
AI summary
The invention refers to an inhalation device provided with a dose ring (2, 38, 65) intended for storage and release of substances in powder form such as a drug, comprising a plurality of substantially circular recesses or powder chambers (1, 37, 66) for storing a respective dose of a preloaded powdery substance, and an air channel (7, 43, 43a, 67) or uncovering device (68) for dispensing one dose at a time, wherein an advancing mechanism (5,41) is arranged to feed the dose ring (2, 38, 65) in its direction of rotation one powder chamber (1, 37, 66) at a time. The invention is achieved by that the powder chambers (1, 37, 66) are oriented in the surface of the dose ring (2, 38, 65), that at least one seal (27,29,35) is arranged to seal the dose ring (2, 38, 65) so that the powder chambers (1, 37, 66) are sealed from each other for retaining the doses of powder in the respective powder chambers (1, 37, 66), that the dose ring (2, 38, 65) is arranged so that said powder chambers (1, 37, 66) can be uncovered or opened to at least a portion of an air channel (7, 43, 43a, 67) arranged in the position for the powder chamber (1, 37, 66) which is to dispense a dose of powder, and that the seal (27, 29, 35), at the rotation position for dispensing the dose of powder, is or can be opened to the air channel (7, 43, 67) so that the powder chamber (1, 37, 66) and its content is exposed to, and can pass through, the air channel (7, 43, 43a, 67) by means of an air flow.