JPH0515866A - Treating device for medical waste - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a device for efficiently sterilizing the medical waste such as a spent blood dialyze and reducing the volume thereof. CONSTITUTION:A treating device for medical waste is constituted so that the medical waste is housed in a private vessel 18 for the material to be treated, heated and sterilized by microwave and circulation of hot air. Moreover hot air is forcedly introduced into the private vessel 18. Thereby heat transfer is made good and local overheat is prevented and also the volume of the medical waste is reduced without using a press mechanism.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for efficiently sterilizing and reducing the volume of medical waste such as used hemodialyzers, used syringes, used injection needles, used gauze and used containers. It is a thing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to prevent secondary infection due to infectious medical waste discharged from hospitals, dialysis facilities, etc., there is a guideline of the Ministry of Health and Welfare that defines a treatment method for such waste.
It was announced on November 7, 2012 and has come into effect on April 1, 1990. Therefore, in principle, hospitals, dialysis facilities, etc. are obliged to sterilize medical waste in hospitals or facilities. To heat and sterilize medical waste, steam heating, heating with a band heater, heating with circulating hot air, high frequency heating, etc. can be considered.

[0003] Conventionally, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-176486, a used synthetic resin syringe and an injection needle are housed in a heat-resistant container and heated and melted at a predetermined temperature by an electric heater and a far infrared heater to be sterilized. , A method and apparatus for cooling and solidifying are described. In addition, the actual Kaihei 1-144040
The publication discloses a waste heating and sterilizing apparatus that heats and sterilizes waste with hot air and then crushes and reduces the volume with a crusher. In addition, Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-25470 discloses that
A plastic waste treatment device is described in which plastic waste is placed inside a cylinder, heated by a heater incorporated in a bottom plate and a piston, and compressed, and at the same time, the surface is mainly melted and integrally molded. In addition, JP-A 1-3
Japanese Patent No. 15383 describes a device that heats and sterilizes a used disposable syringe with an electric heater provided on a side surface and a bottom surface of a heating furnace and a far infrared heater. In addition, as an example, a method is described in which a processed product is melted in a heat-resistant container, cooled as an integrated product including a needle, and then taken out. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-263410 discloses a device for heating waste with microwaves to dry, burn and incinerate.

[0004]

The steam heating has a problem of waste water generation and legal regulation of the pressure vessel, and the heating by a band heater or the like causes local overheating, resulting in poor heat transfer. Further, in the heating by circulating the hot air, the heat transfer is poor with the mere spraying, and there is a risk of local overheating. Further, the high-frequency heating has a problem that after the evaporation of water, the material locally causes overheating. In addition, the above-mentioned JP-A-1-1
When using the processing method and apparatus described in Japanese Patent No. 76486, particularly when processing large-sized plastics such as hemodialyzers, which are composed of a plurality of plastics having different melting points, many materials that do not melt remain depending on the processing temperature. Therefore, the volume reduction (molding) is insufficient. Further, since heating is performed by the electric heater and the far infrared heater, local overheating is likely to occur in a large waste such as a hemodialyzer, and harmful gas such as hydrogen chloride gas may be generated from polyvinyl chloride.
Further, in the crushing method by the crusher in the waste heating / sterilization device described in the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1-144040,
The effect of volume reduction is not necessarily great, and in addition, maintenance of the cutter of the crusher is required, and noise, vibration are large, and many power sources are required. Further, in the apparatus for treating plastic waste described in the above Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-25470, sterilization is not intended at all, and since only the surface is coated with the melt, the stability of the molded product is improved. There is a disadvantage that it is not good.

Further, in the apparatus described in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-315383, for a large-sized processed product such as a used hemodialyzer, and a processed product containing water inside, it is easy to raise the temperature by only circulating hot air. I can't warm it up, it ’s not sterilized enough,
In addition, there are many problems such as long processing time. further,
Since the hemodialyzer is composed of a plurality of plastics, some melt and some do not melt depending on the treatment temperature, and the volume cannot be sufficiently reduced.
Further, in the device described in the above-mentioned JP-A-1-263410, when treating a treated product composed of a plurality of plastics such as a used hemodialyzer and tubes, a large amount of harmful substances such as hydrogen chloride is harmful. Because gas is generated,
Along with the measures for the material of the device and the measures for treating the exhaust gas, a large-capacity exhaust gas treatment device is required, which makes the device complicated and large. In addition, the method of performing ashing with microwaves to reduce the volume requires a large amount of electric power, and the apparatus itself has a high temperature, which is not suitable for installation in a hospital or clinic.

On the other hand, medical waste contains plural kinds of plastics. For example, blood circuit (tube etc.),
When the raw material ratios of the materials constituting the hemodialyzer set including a syringe and a saline solution container were analyzed, the following results were obtained. (1) Polyvinyl chloride 50% by weight (2) Polystyrene or polycarbonate 30% by weight (3) Cellulose or synthetic film 5% by weight (4) Polyethylene or polypropylene or silicon 5% by weight (5) Polyurethane and SUS 10% by weight By the way, Among the above materials, the properties of the main plastics are shown in Table 1.

[0007]

[Table 1]

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, in which medical waste is stored in a dedicated treated product container, heated and sterilized by microwaves and hot air circulation, and hot air is treated exclusively. Forced flow into the container improves heat transfer and prevents local overheating, and
An object of the present invention is to provide a device capable of achieving volume reduction without using a pressing mechanism.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the medical waste treatment apparatus of the present invention comprises a carry-in door 12, a hot air outlet 14 and a hot air inlet 16 as shown in FIG. A heat chamber 10 that can be sealed, a processed material container 18 that is housed in the heating chamber 10 and has a hot air passage hole 20, a microwave generator 22 that is connected to the heating chamber 10, and hot air in the heating chamber 10. In order to seal the hot air circulation unit including the hot air heater 26 and the hot air circulation blower 28, which connects the outlet 14 and the hot air inlet 16, the processed product container 18 is provided.
A seal plate 32 having a hot air inlet 34 arranged in the opening 36 of the seal plate, a seal plate moving device 38 for moving the seal plate 32, a hot air inlet 16 of the heating chamber 10 and a hot air flow of the seal plate 32. Hot air introducing means 42 for connecting with the inlet 34
It is characterized by including and.

The hot air introducing means 42, as shown in FIG.
A heating chamber having a slidable double tube structure, a flexible tube 56 as shown in FIG. 3, or a peripheral portion of the seal plate 32 and a substantially parallel proximity to the seal plate as shown in FIG. The wall may be connected to the expandable wall 58, and a large number of small holes 60 may be provided in the seal plate inside the expandable wall 58 instead of the hot air inlet. Further, the apparatus of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 9, has a carry-in door 12 and a hot air outlet 1
4 and a heating chamber 10 that can be hermetically sealed and has a hot air inlet 16;
A processing object container 18 having a hot air passage hole 20 housed in the heating chamber 10, a microwave generator 22 connected to the heating chamber 10, a hot air outlet 14 and a hot air inlet 16 of the heating chamber 10 are provided. A hot-air circulation unit including a hot-air heater 26 and a hot-air circulation blower 28, which is connected, and a side wall of the processed material container 18,
A partition wall 68 provided between the heating chamber 10 and the side wall of the heating chamber 10 is included.

[0011]

The medical waste (processed material 44) is put into the processed material container 18 and then stored in the heating chamber 10. Then, the container 10 and the medical waste are heated by microwaves and circulating hot air. The circulating hot air is forced to flow only into the treated material container 18, heats, sterilizes, melts or softens the medical waste, and contracts and reduces the volume of the medical waste by the wind pressure of the hot air. After heating the medical waste, the hot air in the processed material container 18 flows out from the hot air passage hole 20 and is heated and circulated again.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. However, the materials, shapes, relative arrangements, and the like of the constituent devices described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention to them, unless otherwise specified, and are merely It's just an example. Embodiment 1 In FIG. 1, 10 is a heating chamber that can be closed, and a carry-in door 12
And a hot air outlet 14 at the bottom and a hot air inlet 16 at the top. Reference numeral 18 denotes a treated material container, which is made of heat-resistant plastic or the like that easily transmits microwaves, and has a large number of hot air passage holes 20 in its lower portion. A microwave generator 22 is connected to the heating chamber 10 via a waveguide 24.
It should be noted that the microwave generator 22 is eliminated by removing the waveguide 24.
May be directly connected to the heating chamber 10. The hot air outlet 14 and the hot air inlet 16 of the heating chamber 10 are connected by a hot air circulation duct 30 including a hot air heater 26 and a hot air circulation blower 28. Instead of the hot air circulation duct 30, a double heating chamber structure (double shell, etc.) having the same function as the duct.
It is also possible to

Reference numeral 32 denotes a seal plate for hermetically sealing the processed material container 18, which has a hot air inlet 34 and is arranged in the vicinity of the opening 36 of the processed material container 18. A seal plate moving (elevating) device 38 for moving (elevating) the seal plate is connected to the seal plate 32. 40 is a piston. The hot air inlet 16 of the heating chamber 10 and the hot air inlet 34 of the seal plate 32 are connected via the hot air introducing means 42. 44 is a treated product, 46 is a stirrer fan for uniformly dispersing microwaves, 48 is an attracting fan, and 50 is an exhaust gas treatment device. In some cases, no attracting fan is provided. Instead of the hot air circulation duct 30, the exhaust gas outlet to the exhaust gas treatment device 50 can be the upper part of the heating chamber as shown by the chain line.

As an example, the hot air introducing means 42 has a slidable double tube structure as shown in FIG. In this case, the clearance between the inner pipe 52 and the outer pipe 54 is made as small as possible to reduce the amount of gas leaked.
The inner tube and the outer tube may be reversed. Also,
As another example of the hot air introducing means, as shown in FIG. 3, the hot air inlet 16 of the heating chamber and the hot air inlet 34 of the seal plate are connected by a flexible tube 56. Further, as another example of the hot air introducing means, as shown in FIG.
The peripheral portion of and the upper wall of the heating chamber that is adjacent to the seal plate substantially in parallel are connected by the expandable wall 58, and a large number of small holes 60 are formed in the seal plate 32 inside the expandable wall 58. . Figure 5
Is the seal plate 32 and the piston 4 of the seal plate moving device 38.
An example of a connection part with 0 is shown. That is, the flange portion 62 is connected to the lower end of the piston 40, and the seal plate 32 is raised by the flange portion 62. When the medical waste is full in the processed material container, the seal plate 32 rises apart from the collar portion 62, but the medical waste is softened.
When the volume is reduced, the seal plate 32 descends and comes into contact with the collar portion 62. In addition, as shown in FIG.
In some cases, the lower end of the and the upper surface of the seal plate 32 are connected by the spring 64. In the above, the case of using the medical waste treatment device in a vertical position has been described, but it is also possible to use it in a horizontal position.

Next, an example of an experiment in which hot air is forced to flow into the processed material container and when hot air is not forced to flow will be described. As shown in FIG. 7, 400 mm
The processed product 4 is placed at the bottom of the processed product container 18 with a corner height of 450 mm.
After housing 4, the processed material container 18 is sealed with a lid 66 having a hot air inlet 34 (the clearance between the lid 66 and the container 18 is zero), and then hot air of 180 ° C. is blown from the hot air inlet 34 to blow the bottom portion. The central temperature of the treated product 44 (the temperature of the portion marked with X) was measured. As a result, after 3 hours, 1
The temperature was 171 ° C. after 5 hours at 18 ° C. On the other hand, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, after the processed product 44 is stored in the bottom of the processed product container 18 of 400 mm square and 450 mm in height, the hot air inlet 3
4 is fixed so that the clearance c between the processed material container 18 and the lid 66 is 20 mm, hot air of 180 ° C. is blown from the hot air inlet 34, and the central temperature of the processed material 44 placed at the bottom is (Temperature of X mark part) was measured.
The amount of the treated product 44 and the water content were the same as those shown in FIG. 7. As a result, 106 ° C after 3 hours,
After 5 hours, the temperature was 112 ° C.

Embodiment 2 In this embodiment, instead of providing the seal plate 32 and the seal plate moving device 38, as shown in FIG. 9, a partition is provided between the side wall of the object container 18 and the side wall of the heating chamber 10. The wall 68 is provided so that all the hot air supplied into the heating chamber 10 can be forced to flow into the processed material container 18. The partition wall 68 may be attached to the processed material container 18 or the heating chamber wall. Also, the partition wall 68
It suffices that the mounting position of is above the hot air passage hole 20, and a plurality of mounting positions may be provided. Other configurations and operations are similar to those of the first embodiment.

[0017]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, it has the following effects. (1) Since hot air is forced to flow in, heat transfer is improved, and heat treatment time is shortened. (2) Since local overheating can be prevented and heating can be performed uniformly, the hot air temperature can be lowered. Further, when the waste containing polyvinyl chloride is treated, it is possible to suppress the generation of harmful gas such as hydrogen chloride gas due to local overheating. (3) Shrinkage / volume reduction is promoted by forcedly flowing hot air pressure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment of a medical waste treatment apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing an example of hot air introducing means in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing another example of the hot air introducing means in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing still another example of the hot air introducing means in FIG.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing an example of a connecting portion between the seal plate and the seal plate moving device in the device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing another example of the connecting portion.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an apparatus used in an experiment in which hot air is forced to flow into a processed material container.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of an apparatus used in an experiment in which hot air is not forced to flow into a processed material container.

FIG. 9 is a vertical cross-sectional explanatory view showing another embodiment of the device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 heating chamber 12 carry-in door 14 Hot air outlet 16 Hot air inlet 18 Processed material container 20 holes for hot air passage 22 Microwave generator 26 Hot air heater 28 Hot air circulation blower 30 hot air circulation duct 32 seal plate 34 Hot air inlet 36 openings 38 Seal plate moving device 42 means for introducing hot air 56 flexible tube 58 telescopic wall 60 small holes 68 Partition wall

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A hermetically sealed heating chamber (10) having a carry-in door (12), a hot air outlet (14) and a hot air inlet (16).
And a hot air passage hole (20) housed in the heating chamber (10)
And a microwave generator (2) connected to the heating chamber (10).
2), the hot air outlet (14) and the hot air inlet (16) of the heating chamber (10)
In order to seal the hot air circulation part, which is connected to the hot air heater (26) and the hot air circulation blower (28), with the processed product container (18),
8), the hot air inlet (3) arranged at the opening (36)
4) a seal plate (32), a seal plate moving device (38) for moving the seal plate (32), a hot air inlet (16) of the heating chamber (10) and a seal plate (32)
Hot air inlet means (4) for connecting to the hot air inlet (34) of
2) and a medical waste treatment device comprising: 2. The apparatus for treating medical waste according to claim 1, wherein the hot air introducing means (42) has a slidable double tube structure. 3. The apparatus for treating medical waste according to claim 1, wherein the hot air introducing means (42) is a flexible tube (56). 4. The hot air introducing means (42) is a seal plate (3).
The peripheral part of 2) and the wall of the heating chamber which is adjacent to the seal plate in a direction substantially parallel to each other are connected by an expandable wall (58).
The medical waste treatment device according to claim 1, wherein the seal plate inside 8) has a structure in which a large number of small holes (60) are provided instead of the hot air inlet. 5. A hermetically sealed heating chamber (10) having a carry-in door (12), a hot air outlet (14) and a hot air inlet (16).
And a hot air passage hole (20) housed in the heating chamber (10)
And a microwave generator (2) connected to the heating chamber (10).
2), the hot air outlet (14) and the hot air inlet (16) of the heating chamber (10)
A partition provided between the hot air circulation part including a hot air heater (26) and a hot air circulation blower (28), which is connected to the side wall of the processed material container (18) and the side wall of the heating chamber (10). A wall (68); and a medical waste treatment device comprising: