Snap-Lock Fluid Connector With Valved Separation Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Medical fluid connections in medical settings, such as IV lines, often dislodge unintentionally due to unexpected forces, leading to potential patient injury, infection, and exposure risks for caregivers.
Innovation Solution
A fluid connector system comprising a first connector with a housing and a second connector with a body, featuring a protrusion and arm that engage to resist separation and maintain a fluid pathway, while allowing reconnection after a threshold force is exceeded, ensuring safe and efficient fluid transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a medical fluid connection is designed to be easily disconnected for maintenance and patient care, then the ease of operation is improved, but the reliability of the connection is worsened, making it prone to unintended dislodgement
Solution Approach 1:
The connector employs a dynamic locking mechanism with arms that can transition between engaged and disengaged states. The arms are biased by springs to automatically engage with the housing, providing secure connection during normal use, but can be deliberately disengaged when needed for maintenance or patient care.
Solution Approach 2:
The connector features preliminary engagement structures including protrusions that must be deliberately retracted before the arms can disengage. This preliminary action requirement prevents accidental separation while allowing controlled disconnection when the user intentionally acts to release the connection.
2Reliability
If the connector is designed with strong engagement features to prevent unintended separation, then the reliability is improved, but the ease of operation is worsened, requiring excessive force for intentional disconnection
Solution Approach 1:
The arms are designed with spring bias that provides strong engagement force during normal operation, yet allows controlled disengagement. The spring mechanism creates a force threshold that must be exceeded for disconnection, ensuring secure connection while permitting intentional release with reasonable force.
Solution Approach 2:
The disconnection mechanism is segmented into distinct components: the arms, the housing, and the protrusions. This segmentation allows the arms to provide strong engagement while the protrusions serve as deliberate release points, separating the functions of securement and release into different structural elements.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the connector allows flexible movement to accommodate patient motion, then the ease of operation is improved, but the reliability is worsened, increasing the risk of dislodgement under unexpected forces
Solution Approach 1:
The connector provides dynamic adaptation through the spring-biased arms that can flex and yield to applied forces up to a certain threshold. Beyond this threshold, the arms maintain firm engagement, providing both flexibility for normal patient movement and resistance to unexpected dislodging forces.
Solution Approach 2:
The protrusions require preliminary action to disengage the arms before any significant movement can occur. This preliminary engagement step ensures that unexpected forces must overcome both the protrusion constraint and the spring bias, providing enhanced protection against accidental disconnection while allowing controlled flexibility.
Data Source
AI summary
Fluid connector systems that can include first and second connectors that are couplable together to form a fluid pathway through the fluid connector system when the first and second connectors are coupled together, and can resist fluid flow through each of the first and second connectors when the first and second connectors are separated from each other, where the first and second connectors can include a valve within a channel and configured resist fluid flow through the respective first or second connector in an closed position and to reduce the resistance to fluid flow through the first or second connector in an open position, and the first and second connectors including one or more arm configured to engage each other to form a snap fitting feature that can resist separation therebetween.