Tracheostoma Filter Device With Nested Spring Element
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing filter devices for tracheostomas often have limited filter body volume, which compromises their air humidification and heating functions despite their overall size.
Innovation Solution
A filter device with a movable closure member and a spring element integrated within a foam filter body, allowing for maximum volume utilization and efficient air handling, featuring a deformable spring bar and a receiving recess to maintain the filter body's volume without compression during actuation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of stationary object
If the filter body volume is increased to improve filtering, humidification and heating functions, then the overall device size must be increased, but this limits the practical applicability and comfort for throat breathers
Solution Approach 1:
The spring element is nested within the filter body, specifically positioned in a receiving recess of the filter body. This allows the spring mechanism to occupy space that would otherwise be unused, enabling the filter body to achieve maximum volume without increasing the overall device footprint. The filter body surrounds and contains the spring element, creating an efficient space-utilization configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring element is designed as a deformable spring bar that extends transversely through the housing and is fastened at its two opposite ends to essentially opposite areas of the housing wall. This transverse arrangement allows the spring to operate in a different spatial dimension relative to the filter body, enabling maximum filter volume while maintaining compact overall device dimensions.
2Ease of manufacture
If the spring element is positioned outside the filter body to simplify access, then the filter body volume is reduced, but this compromises filtering and humidification efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The spring element is nested within the filter body in a receiving recess, allowing the filter body to achieve maximum volume. The spring element remains accessible through the rigid connection to the actuating element, which can be operated from the exterior of the device.
Solution Approach 2:
The actuating element serves as an intermediary between the user and the spring element. The user interacts with the actuating element from the outside, which is rigidly connected to the closure element and positioned to engage with the spring element, allowing indirect access and operation of the spring mechanism without requiring direct access to the spring itself.
3Ease of operation
If the filter body is compressed during actuation to accommodate closure member movement, then the device can function, but the filter body volume is reduced compromising performance
Solution Approach 1:
The spring element is designed as a deformable spring bar that can dynamically change its configuration during actuation. When the actuating element is pressed down, the spring bar is deformed, which then moves the actuating element and thus the closure element back to their starting or opening positions when the force acting on the actuating element is removed. This dynamic deformation allows the system to accommodate movement without compressing the filter body.
Solution Approach 2:
The device is segmented into distinct functional components: the filter body with its receiving recess, the spring element with its deformable spring bar, the actuating element, and the closure element. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function independently, with the spring element's deformation providing the return motion while the filter body maintains its volume.
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 maximizes the filter body volume, enhancing the device's filtering, air humidification, and air heating capabilities, ensuring reliable performance in tracheostoma applications.
Implementation Method 1
A spring element acts directly or indirectly on the actuating element, which is supported on the housing or connected to it or attached to it in some other way and biases the actuating element and thus the closure element into the opening position of the closure element
Implementation Method 2
Between the closure element and the actuating element is a filter body, which preferably consists of foam
Implementation Method 3
the filter body volume, which is advantageous for a good filter, air humidification and air heating function
Implementation Method 4
the filter body volume, which is advantageous for a good filter, air humidification and air heating function
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4
AI summary
The filter device (10) for use in a tracheostoma is provided with a housing (12) having a first opening (36), which can be brought into fluid communication with the tracheostoma, and a second opening (48). The filter device (10) is also provided with a closure element (42) which, inside the housing (12), is movable between a closure position, in which the closure element (42) closes the first opening (36), and an open position, in which the closure element (42) frees the first opening (36). The filter device (10) has an actuating element (52), which is connected to the closure element (42) in order to actuate the closure element (42), and a filter body (70) arranged in the housing (12). The filter device (10) also has a spring element (54), which is operatively connected on the one hand to the actuating element (52) and on the other hand to the housing (12), in the area between the closure element (42) and the second opening (48), and which permits automatic movement of the closure element (42) to the open position thereof, wherein the filter body (70) has at least one receiving recess (78) through which the spring element (54) extends.