Tube Pump Cover Layout for Safe Tube Replacement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tube pumps with roller units that intermittently squeeze a flexible tube to pressure-feed liquids suffer from pulsation issues and pose a risk of operator injury due to the potential for fingers to get caught between the rotating rollers, making it difficult to replace the tube.
Innovation Solution
A tube pump design featuring a housing unit with an arc-shaped inner surface, a pair of roller units that rotate in the same direction, and a cover member that provides an annular opening for easy tube insertion and replacement, along with a lid unit that can switch between closed and open states to prevent accidental contact and rotation when the lid is open.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If both roller units are covered to prevent operator injury, then safety is improved, but tube replacement becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The cover member is divided into a cover body that covers the roller units and an annular opening region that remains accessible. This segmentation allows the cover to provide safety coverage while maintaining easy tube replacement capability through the always-accessible opening region.
Solution Approach 2:
The annular opening region acts as an intermediary access point between the tube and the covered roller units. It allows tube insertion and replacement without requiring removal of the entire cover, thus maintaining both safety and ease of operation.
2Stability of the object's composition
If roller units rotate independently in the same direction, then pulsation is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Both roller units rotate in the same direction around a common axis, merging their rotational motion to create a more stable liquid flow. This combined rotational action reduces pulsation compared to alternating rotation while maintaining a relatively simple device structure.
3Volume of moving object
If roller units are positioned close together to compact the device, then device size is reduced, but risk of finger entrapment increases
Solution Approach 1:
The harmful factor of finger entrapment is extracted and eliminated by providing the annular opening region that maintains a safe distance between the tube and roller units. The opening region ensures that even when roller units are compacted, there is always a protected zone where fingers cannot be trapped.
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 allows for independent rotation of the roller units to prevent finger entrapment and facilitates easy tube replacement by ensuring the rollers do not come into contact with the tube when the lid is open, enhancing safety and operational convenience.
Implementation Method 1
a tube pump that pressure-feeds a liquid in a tube with flexibility by a plurality of rollers intermittently squeezing the tube
Implementation Method 2
the tube squeezed by the rollers returns to the original shape
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a tube pump including: a housing unit that has an inner peripheral surface, which is formed in an arc shape around an axis, along which a tube with flexibility is disposed, and that is opened toward one end side along the axis; a pair of roller units that are accommodated in the housing unit and rotate about the axis in a state in which the tube is blocked; a pair of drive units that cause each of the pair of roller units to rotate about the axis in the same direction; and a cover member that is disposed in the housing unit such that the cover member covers the pair of roller units and provides an annular opening region into which the tube is able to be inserted toward the inner peripheral surface.