AU637905B2

AU637905B2 - Dual function valve assembly

Info

Publication number: AU637905B2
Application number: AU77052/91A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Kenneth Irwin
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1990-05-24
Filing date: 1991-05-16
Publication date: 1993-06-10
Anticipated expiration: 2011-05-16
Also published as: AU7705291A

Description

637905

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION For a Standard Patent

ORIGINAL

Name of Applicant: KENNETH IRWIN Actual Inventor(s): KENNETH IRWIN Address for Service: Kennedy Street, Morley, Western Australia, Australia, 6062.

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Invention Title: "Dual Function Valve Assembly" Details of Associated Provisional Application: No: PK0256 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- 1 i I 2-- THIS INVENTION relates to a valve assembly that is capable of being used both as a resuscitator for the treatment of people having breathing difficulties, and as an inhalation valve for assisting in the delivery of anaesthetic gases or enriched breathing gases for a patient who is otherwise capable of breathing.

Valve assemblies have previously been developed but those known valve assemblies have generally lacked simplicity in design, have been difficult to use, and have provided maintenance problems. In particular, it has been found that certain prior art valve assemblies are of a construction where various components thereof sometimes work loose resulting in the danger of a patient inhaling fragments of plastic or metal. Indeed, complete inner valve assemblies have been known to unscrew and drop out during use.

Furthermore, some prior art valve assemblies have been configured such that staff members using the valve assemblies have mistakenly loosened a locking ring in the belief that it was for adjustment purposes, thus allowing ii the assembly to work loose and fall apart. Further still, some prior art valve assemblies have required the use of a second part in order to be able to hold inflation of the lungs of a patient, which is often needed for applications in physiotherapy or for the complete expulsion of carbon dioxide from a patient, and therefore an additional Tshaped piece providing an opening for the gas line has been •..introduced. This increases the cost factor and also increases the risk of cross infection.

An aim of the present invention is to provide a valve i: assembly which overcomes, or at least partly alleviates, the difficulties mentioned above.

oe 3 The present invention provides a valve assembly comprising a hollow valve body having first and second open ends and having an outwardly projecting boss which defines a bore which is in fluid communication with the interior of the valve body and is located intermediate the ends of the valve body, the boss including an expiratory flow adjuster for adjusting the flow of gas from the interior of the valve body into the bore of the b :s and out of the boss through vent ports therein, an inspiratory plunger and a valve element, wherein closure of the expiratory flow adjuster prevents the valve element from opening and does not allow any expiratory flow through the vent ports, and opening of the expiratory flow adjuster allows the valve element to open thus allowing expiratory flow through the vent ports, and wherein manual operation of the inspiratory plunger closes the valve element whilst the plunger is held closed to allow manual closing of the valve element when the expiratory flow adjuster is open, the valve body also including a gas inlet port which allows fluid communication of external gases to a position intermediate the ends of the valve body, and the expiratory flow adjuster being generally elongate and having substantially hollow ends, the hollow ends being separated by a web located therebetween, said web having a centrally located aperture therein which allows communication between the two hollow ends.

SIn a preferred form of the invention, the bore of the boss and each of the expiratory flow adjuster, the inspiratory plunger, and the valve element are located coaxially.

Further, the bore of the boss, the expiratory flow adjuster *and the inspiratory plunger are each preferably generally cylindrical. In this form, the bore of the boss is internally threaded such that the expiratory flow adjuster may be correspondingly externally threaded to fit in a threaded engagement therewithin.

3a The inspiratory plunger is preferably located within the expiratory flow adjuster, while the valve element is also preferably located within the expiratory flow adjuster but between the inspiratory plunger and a valve seat provided about the fluid communication opening between the bore of the boss and the interior of the valve body.

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o* :o• *e~ •*o o *o 4 The expiratory flow adjuster is preferably generally elongate and has substantially hollow ends. The hollow ends are preferably separated by a web located therebetween having a centrally located aperture therein which allows communication between the two hollow ends.

In this form, the plunger is preferably housed within one hollow end, being that end extending outwardly away from the valve body when the expiratory flow adjuster is located within the boss, while the valve element, which includes a valve head capable of engaging the valve seat and an elongate valve stem, is located in the other hollow end such that the valve stem extends through the centrally located aperture in the web of the expiratory flow adjuster to abut one end of the inspiratory plunger. The valve head located at the end of the valve stem away from the inspiratory plunger is thus capable of seating on the valve seat.

Biassing means are then preferably provided between a circumferential abutment provided about the inspiratory plunger and the web of the expiratory flow aijuster to bias the plunger away from the web. The abutment provided about the plunger then may also serve to allow the plunger to be retained within that hollow end of the expiratory flow adjuster by engagement with a retaining ring or the like.

The plunger then needs to be manually urged towards the g valve body to urge the head of the valve element into engagement with the valve seat. In this respect, the valve head will be held in chis position by holding the plunger inwardly.

i Biassing means are also preferably provided between the other side of the web in the other hollow end of the expiratory flow adjuster and the top of the valve head.

This biassing means urges the valve head into engagement 5 with the valve seat. Therefore, by providing a biassing means that urges the valve head into engagement with the seat with a predetermined level of force, it is possible to allow for the valve head to be pushed away from engagement with the seat when a predetermined pressure of air is reached within the valve body. For example, a patient exhaling air through the valve body at that given pressure will urge the valve head away from the seat. The exhaled air will thus pass into a plenum chamber that is defined between the expiratory flow adjuster and the boss.

The vent ports are thus preferably provided within the boss in fluid communication with the plenum chamber defined above. In this way, the continual exhaling of a patient allows the valve head to move away from engagement with the seat allowing the exhaled air to pass into the plenum chamber and out through the vent ports.

The threaded engagement between the expiratory flow adjuster and the bore of the boss allows the expiratory flow adjuster to be moved longitudinally of the bore, thus e. e either increasing or decreasing the size of the plenum chamber. The end of the expiratory flow adjuster within the bore of the boss is adapted to include an abutment means that will abut the rear of the valve head when the V. expiratory fijw adjuster is moved to its closed position.

At this closed position, the valve head is unable to move away from engagement with the valve seat and thus gas is not able to pass from the valve body through to the vent :e ports. Furthermore, the gradual movement of the expiratory flow adjuster away from that closed position gradually increases the degree of opening possible by the valve head, thus allowing an operator by rotation of the expiratory flow adjuster to control the ease with which gas may be expelled through the vent ports.

6 It can thus be seen that the present invention provides a dual function valve assembly that is relatively simple in construction, having a small number of parts, that has a resuscitator function which allows supervision and control of the patient's exhaling breath, either by set adjustment via operation of the expiratory flow adjustment, or by manual intervention by the use of the inspiratory plunger.

The valve assembly also includes an inhalation function that allows the delivery of gases to a patient when the patient themself is capable of breathing.

The present invention will now be described in relation to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention. However, it is to be understood that the following description is not to limit the generality of the above description.

In the drawings:- Figure 1 illustrates a sectional view of a dual function valve assembly according to an emrbodiment of S. the present invention; and Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of the valve S: assembly of Figure 1 when in use.

Figure 1 illustrates a valve assembly 10 which includes a valve body 12 having an externally and outwardly projecting boss 14. The boss 14 defines a bore 16 that is internally threaded for engagement with corresponding external threading on the expiratory flow adjuster 18.

The expiratory flow adjuster 18 includes hollow ends 20 and 22, with end 20 including therewithin the inspiratory plunger 24 and end 22 having the valve element 26 extending therethrough. The valve element 26 includes a valve stem 28 and a valve head The expiratory flow adjuster 18 also includes a web 32 located between the ends 20 and 22, having a centrally located aperture 34 therewithin. Extending from the centrally located aperture 34 and the web 32 is an abutment portion 36 which is capable of abutting against the rear 38 of the valve head 30 when the expiratory flow adjuster 18 is rotated to its innermost and closed position. The abutment of the rear 38 of the valve head 30 with the abutment portion 36 of the expiratory flow adjuster 18 serves to seal the valve head against the valve seat 40 to prevent the passage of gas from the interior 42 of the valve body 12.

A plenum chamber 44 is defined between the expiratory flow adjuster 18 and the bore 16 of the boss 14. The plenum chamber 44 is in fluid communication with the exterior of the boss 14 via vent ports 46.

The inspiratory plunger 24 includes a circumferentially extending abutment 48 that serves to retain the plunger 24 within the opening 20 via abutment with retaining ring Furthermore, a biassing means in the form of a spring 52 abuts one side of the abutment 48 together with the rear of web 32 to urge the plunger away from the valve body 12.

The valve stem 28 of valve element 26 abuts the bottom of plunger 24 when the plunger 24 is manually urged towards the valve body 12 such as to urge the valve head 30 against e "the valve seat 40. This allows manual closing of the valve when the expiratory flow adjuster is not in its closed o :position.

The rear 38 of the valve head 30 is in abutment with a biassing means in the form of a spring 54 which urges the valve head into engagement with the valve seat 40. By selecting a spring with a suitable biassing force, the 8 pressure of gas required to open the seal between the valve head 30 and the valve seat 40 may be controlled.

The boss 14 includes apertures 58 capable of receiving screws 60 which when screwed into the apertures 58 extend within a reduced diameter portion 62 of the expiratory flow adjuster so as to retain the expiratory flow adjuster within the bore 16 of the boss 14.

It will be understood that the configurations described herein may include further improvements or alterations that may also be within the scope of the present invention.

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Claims

1. A valve assembly comprising a hollow valve body having first and second open ends and having an outwardly projecting boss which defines a bore which is in fluid communication with the interior of the valve body and is located intermediate the ends cL -he valve body, the boss including an expiratory flou edjuster for adjusting the flow of gas from the interior of the valve body into the bore of the boss _nd out of the boss through vent ports therein, an inspiratory plunger and a valve element, wherein closure of the expiratory flow adjuster prevents the valve element from opening and does not allow any expiratory flow through the vent ports, and opening of the expiratory flow adjuster allows the valve element to open thus allowing expiratory flow through the vent ports, and wherein manual operation of the inspiratory plunger closes the valve element whilst the plunger is held closed to allow manual closing of the valve element when the expiratory flow adjuster is open, the valve body also including a gas inlet port which allows fluid communication of external gases to a position intermediate the ends of the valve body, and the expiratory flow adjuster being generally elongate and having substantially hollow ends, the hollow ends being baparated by a. web located therebetween, said web having a centrally located aperture o *o therein which allows communication between the two hollow ends.

2. A valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein the bore of the boss and each of the expiratory flow adjuster, o e the inspiratory plunger, and th3 valve element are located coaxially, and wherein each of the expiratory flow adjuster, the inspiratory plunger and the bore of the boss are generally cylindrical. to X t _I 10

3. A valve assembly according to claim 2 wherein the bore of the boss is internally threaded and the expiratory flow adjuster is correspondingly externally threaded to fit in a threaded engagement therewithin.

4. A valve assembly accordiig to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the plunger is housed substantially within one hollow end, being that hollow end extending outwardly away from the valve body when the expiratory flow acl -ter ±s located within the boss, while the valve element, which includes a valve head capable of engaging the valve seat and an elongate valve stem, is located at least partially within the other hollow end such that the valve stem extends through the centrally located aperture in the web of the expiratory flow adjuster to abut one end of the inspiratory plunger.

A valve assembly according to claim 4, wherein biassing means are provided between a circumferential abutment provided about the inspiratory plunger and the web of the expiratory flow adjuster to bias the plunger away from the web, the plunger being retained within said one hollow end of the expiratory flow adjuster by engagement with a retaining ring or the like.

6. A valve assembly according to claim 4, wherein biassing means are provided in said other hollow end of the expiratory flow adjuster between the web and the top of the valve head, the biassing means urging the valve head into engagement with a valve seat.

7. A valve assembly according to any one of claims 4 to 6 wherein a plenum chamber is defined between said other hollow end of the expiratory flow adjuster and the boss, and the vent ports are provided within the boss in fluid communication with the plenuit chamber. 11

8. A valve assembly according to any one of claims 4 to 7 wherein the expiratory flow adjuster is adapted to include an abutment means within said other hollow end that will abut the rear of the valve head when the expiratory flow adjuster is moved to its closed position.

9. A valve assembly according to claim 1 substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED th s day of M 1993 KENNETH IRWIN Applicant. 4 S 5 S SS S. S S S F'r