CH654479A5 - Device for discharging of urine bags. - Google Patents

Abstract

The casing (1) of the device is divided into an apparatus housing (3) and a working housing (4) by a vertically orientated partition wall (2). The casing is provided with an access opening (18) through which a container (17) may be introduced in the working housing (4) and contains the urine bag (26) to be emptied. After setting in place the container (17) and closing the upper valve closure (38), the working housing (4) is sealingly closed so as to prevent any spattering. The apparatus housing contains a cylinder and piston mechanism (6) of which the piston rod (20) carries a cutting device (21) comprising first blades (24) which cooperate with second blades (30) arranged in the container (17). Thus, through the displacement of the piston (20), the urine bag (26) is perforated. The driving mechanism (6) operates under the effect of hydraulic pressure from a main conduit (9) which also supplies a spraying unit (12, 13) of which the jets wash the inside of the working housing when emptying the urine bag. A nozzle (13) is connected to an injection and mixture valve (7) for the addition of a disinfectant. It is supplied at the same time as the water nozzle (12).

Description

** WARNING ** beginning of DESC field could overlap end of CLMS **.

PATENT CLAIMS 1. Device for emptying urine bags by perforating the bag and rinsing the urine from the bag in a closed, drained space by a drain, characterized by a housing (1) through a substantially vertically oriented partition (2) in an apparatus room (3) and a work space (4) is divided, the apparatus space being a drive device (6) and guide elements (36, 37) for displacing a movable cutting unit (21) provided with cutting or piercing members (24, 27) in and out of engagement with the urine bag (26), and the work space is designed for the operational reception of a bag container (17) and said cutting unit (21) which forms a removable part of the device and holds the urine bag (26) to be emptied in a defined manner, and also contains a nozzle arrangement (12, 13) for rinsing and disinfecting the objects located in the work area (4) when the bag is emptied.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the bottom (33) of the housing (1) in the region of the working space (4) contains a conical drain recess (33.1) with a drain connector (32).

3. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the bag container (17) has on the inside a cutting or piercing element arrangement (30) which can be brought into cutting or piercing engagement with the movable cutting unit (21).

4. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the drive device for the movable cutting unit (21) is a cylinder-piston unit (6), on the piston rod (20) traversing the partition (2) a the base of the cutting unit (21 ) forming support plate (23) is arranged.

5. Device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the partition (2) is designed as a supporting element of the nozzle arrangement (12, 13) and / or the drive device (6) and at least the assembly area of these components is inclined to converge upwards .

6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the movement axis (28) of the piston rod (20) is inclined by an angle (a ') of 10-30 "to the horizontal.

7. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the end wall (17.2) of the bag container (17) is provided with a passage opening for the cutting unit (21) and has a lower centering section (17.3) for the urine bag (26) to be emptied, the upper end (17.3 ') is designed as a scraper edge for holding back the empty urine bag.

8. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that a with the support plate (23) movable bag hold-down device (25) is motionally connected in order to depress the upper end of the bag when perforating the bag.

9. Device according to claim 8, characterized in that both the carrier plate (23) and the bag hold-down (25) consist of perforated sheet metal.

10. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the apparatus room (3) additionally contains a disinfectant tank (8) and an injector and mixing valve (7) intended for metering disinfectant into the spray water from at least one spray nozzle (13).

The present invention relates to a device for emptying urine bags according to the preamble of claim 1.

In geriatric care and especially for incontinents Patients are used to collect urine in plastic bags of approximately 1 1/2 liters. These urine bags are preferably attached to the bed frame or glued to the patient's leg. The connection between the patient's bladder and the urine bag is made using a catheter and a flexible tube.

When removing the plastic bags containing urine, some considerable problems arise in practice because they can only be thrown into the rubbish bag when they are empty. Since the urine leaks out of an undamaged plastic bag only poorly, the latter is usually cut, whereby, for example, a corner of the bag is cut off. In many cases, it cannot be avoided that the Bag still needs to be squeezed out by hand. In this handling, not only the pouring spout is sprayed, but also nearby utensils and apparatus, and in particular the personnel involved in the handling. The resulting contamination is not only extremely unsatisfactory from a hygienic point of view, but is also very dangerous because of the latent risk of contamination from poisons contained in the urine.

Hygiene requirements that are taken for granted today and the avoidance of any contamination in nursing homes, hospitals etc. urgently call for improvement of the pouch destruction described above, since the cause of so-called cross infections is often to be found in this area. The urine bag should no longer have to be destroyed manually so that its contents can be safely discharged into a spout.

The object of the invention thus consists in creating a device for emptying urine bags, in which the urine bag is received, punctured, emptied and disinfected in such a way that there is no risk of splashing or contamination during bag treatment. At the same time, the parts of the device that are spatially adjacent when the bag is emptied should also be included in the disinfection process.

The inventive solution to this problem is characterized by claim 1. Embodiments thereof emerge from the dependent claims.

An embodiment of the subject matter of the invention is explained below with reference to the drawing. It shows: Fig. 1 shows schematically in longitudinal section an inventive device for emptying urine bags, Fig. 2a, b the container for receiving the bag to be emptied in vertical section (a) and in plan (b), and Fig. 3a, b the bag piercing elements in the rest and working position, essentially along the line AA in Fig. 1st

In Fig. 1, reference number 1 denotes a housing which is divided by a partition 2 into an essentially closed apparatus space 3 and an open work space 4. The apparatus space, which can be closed by a removable cover 5, contains in particular a pressure-operated cylinder-piston unit 6, an injector or mixing valve 7 for adding a disinfectant to the rinsing water, a disinfectant tank 8 and main lines 9 and 10 for the supply of a rinsing and pressure medium, preferably tap water to the cylinder-piston unit 6, the injector valve 7 and the supply of disinfectant to the injector valve. The apparatus room 3 also contains a filling line 11 for refilling the tank 8 and supply lines 14, 15 leading to spray nozzles 12 and 13 for rinsing water and disinfectant mixture.

The liquid level in the disinfectant tank is made visually visible by a level indicator 16 arranged outside the housing 1. The latter can

be combined with an alarm device. Optionally, the fill level monitoring can also be carried out by devices which, for example, initiate the automatic refilling of the tank 8 and / or block the actuation of the bag emptying device if the fill level is too low. The pressure medium or tap water is supplied via a preferably manually operated control valve 39 in the main line 9.

It goes without saying that the disinfectant tank 8 and the associated level monitoring devices as well as the injector or mixing valve 7 can also be arranged outside the housing 1 as separate devices.

The work space 4 is designed to accommodate a bag container 17 which can be easily installed and removed, the details of which can be seen more clearly from FIGS. 2a and 2b. Access to the Ar workspace 4 is formed by an inclined opening 18, which is formed by depositing the housing top wall 1.1 to approximately half the housing height and obliquely cutting the housing side walls. When inserting the bag container 17 in the Workspace 4, the container 17 is tilted in the general direction of the arrow E, while moving downward along the head wall edge 19 gradually pivots ver and thus brought into its working position.

In the upper part of the working space 4 are the ge spray nozzles 12 and 13, in the middle part one with the outer end of the piston rod 20 of the cylinder Piston unit 6 connected longitudinally movable cutting unit 21 and below an upright bottom center wall 22 for local setting of the rear through the Head wall 1.1 and laterally through the housing side walls of the container 17 inside the work space 4. With a directly on the outer end of the piston rod 20 seated support plate 23 of the cutting unit 21 is a first measurement set 24 and a counter from FIG. 3a, 3b in a top view the oblique opening 18 facing Bag hold-down device 25 connected. The latter is intended for the Upper part of a urine bag 26 to be emptied at the latest Start emptying the bag, d. H. shortly after the sharp knife edges 27 hit the bag surface, to push against the rear wall of the bag container 17.

To ensure that the entire edge length of the knives from knife set 24 or

the sharpened edges 27 to avoid ver on the bag surface and thus reduce the risk of flattening the bag, the knife edges 27 include an angle a of about 100-120 to the direction of movement of the piston rod 20. This can ensure that the bulbous bulge in its lower part is first pierced there by the knife tip located below and the liquid outflow begins quickly.

To work on practically all parts of the longitudinally movable Cutting unit 21 inclined surfaces for rapid dewatering and also to achieve an overall low overall height of the device, is also the axis 28 of the piston rod 20 inclined to the horizontal. This angle of inclination a 'is approximately 10-30 ". Correspondingly, the partition 2 between the apparatus and the working space 3 or 4, to which the cylinder-piston unit 6 is fastened, is approximately 10-30 inclined to the vertical.

To ensure rinsing and disinfection of the rear surfaces with respect to the spray nozzles 12, 13 23 ', 25' of the carrier plate 23 and the bag holding-down device 25, these parts are perforated, for example from perforated sheet metal.

So that the movement of the piston-driven cutting unit 21 and the cutting or slicing of the urine bag 26 in the manner described above, and the spraying by means of Spray nozzles 12, 13 is possible, the end face of the container 17 is open, as can be seen from FIGS. 2a, 2b and 3a, 3b. According to FIGS. 2a and 2b, the container 17 consists of a cup-shaped container body 17.1 with a front face 17.2 cut free over a substantial part of its extent.

Only a lower section 17.3 stands for holding the urine bag, in particular as a retaining member or scraper for the lower section of the bag 26 when the first set of knives 24 moves back into its starting position after the bag has been pierced. In order to be able to be effective as a scraper, the end edge 17.3 'lies just below the path of the knives 24.1, 24.2 of the first knife set 24. Inward-curved corner parts 17.4 form side wall stiffeners. The side wall surfaces 17.5 are simultaneously centering surfaces of the container 17 in the housing 1.

The rear wall 17.6 carries a handle 29 on its outside at the top, and a second knife set 30 complementary to the first knife set 24 on its inside below.

The container bottom 17.1 contains, for example, a nozzle-shaped outlet opening 31. The latter opens into an outlet connection 32 in the operating position according to FIG. 1 in a conically recessed part 33.1 of the housing base 33.

The top of the container is provided with a spray protection cover 34 (FIGS. 1 and 2a, 2b), which covers approximately half of the surface of the container and contains a central holding slot 35 for receiving and clamping the bag supply hose 26.1. To achieve splash protection during operation of the device, the uncovered part of the top of the container is closed with a hinged lid 38, for example fixed to the housing.

As shown in FIG. 1, the second set of knives 30 arranged in the interior of the container 17 is aligned with the piston rod axis 28. The vertical knife edges 30 ′ are essentially (but not necessarily) parallel to the knife edges of the first knife set 24.

The knife sets 24 and 30 consist, as can be seen in particular from FIGS. 3a and 3b, each of a series of shorter central knives 24.1 and 30.1, each of which are in a gap with one another. On both sides of the rows of shorter central knives 24.1, 30.1 there is a longer outer knife 24.2, 30.2. These outer knives are each next to each other at a distance which is partly dependent on the parallel guiding accuracy of the (movable) cutting unit 21 through the guide rod 36 and partly on an adequate side play of the container 17 in the working space 4 of the housing 1 and is preferably chosen to be minimal with regard to these criteria The guide rod 36 is mounted on the carrier plate 23, protrudes from it at right angles and crosses the partition wall 2, guided by a sealing sleeve 37 preventing the penetration of liquid into the apparatus space 3.

The interaction of the first and the second set of knives is described with reference to FIGS. 3a and 3b. In FIG. 3a, the undamaged urine bag 26, guided by the lower end section 17.3, lies in front of the knives 30.1, 30.2 of the second knife set 30 arranged in the bag container 17. The first knife set 24 carrying the knives 24.1, 24.2 is fastened on the carrier plate 23 shown in its initial position with the piston rod 20 retracted.

3b shows the carrier plate 23 or the first knife set 24 when the piston rod 20 is extended in meshing engagement with the first knife set, the urine bag 26 'being punctured several times, largely flattened and emptied.

It goes without saying that the knives of the knife sets 24, 30 can also be designed differently than shown in the drawing, can be arranged in a different configuration or can be replaced by puncturing members (not shown) in order to achieve sufficient perforation of the urine bag.

The operation of the device for emptying urine bags shown in Fig. 1 will now be described.

The bag 26, which is sealed with a closure cap 26.2, is inserted into the container 17 when it is removed from the housing 1, the supply hose 26.1 being clamped into the holding slot 35 of the splash guard 34 of the container 17 (FIG. 2a). The provided with a urine bag 26 is then inserted through the oblique opening 18 into the working space 4 of the housing and then the hinged lid 38 is folded over the working space 4. Then a water main line 9 with the local water supply network WN connecting check valve 39, z. B. opened a manually operated tap or an electro valve. As a result, the spray nozzle 12 is fed directly and sprays the interior of the container 17 through the perforated bag hold-down device 25. Impingement and seepage water simultaneously wet the remaining parts of the work area 4. At the same time, water reaches the injector or mixing valve 7 via the line branch 9 ', whereby disinfectant is sucked out of the tank 8.

The water-disinfectant mixture prepared in the valve 7 passes via the feed line 15 to the spray nozzle 13, which, like the nozzle 12, sprays the inside of the container 17 and the adjacent parts of the working space 4.

When the main line 9 is pressurized with water, the cylinder-piston unit 6 is also fed via the line 9 ″. The piston 20 ′ pushes the piston rod 20 against the pressure of a return spring 40, as a result of which the movable cutting unit 21 with the first knife set 24 extends along the Axis 28 moves against the bag 26. With the carrier plate 23 carrying the knife set 24, the bag hold-down device 25 connected to the latter also moves obliquely downward and thereby presses the upper part of the bag 26 backwards or left against the knife edges 30 'of the container-side ) Knife set 30.

The bag wall can already be perforated. As the piston rod 20 progressively ejects, the knife edges 27 of the first knife set 24 also pierce from the front against the bag wall and perforate the latter (FIG. 3b). After the piston stroke has ended, the knife sets 24, 30 remain. The nozzles 12, 13 remain in action until experience has shown that the urine is flushed out of the bag 26 or is sufficiently diluted that the bag can be added to the rest of the rubbish.

Flushing liquid, urine and disinfectant flow to the sewage system via the outlet opening 31 and the outlet connection 32. All components inside the work space 4 are exposed to the rinsing and disinfection process and can therefore be kept clean.

After the rinsing and disinfection process is complete, the valve 39 is closed. The piston 20 ′ and the piston rod 20 move back into their starting position under the action of the return spring 40, the breast-side piston chamber being dewatered via the nozzle 12. The empty pouch 26 '(FIG. 3b) is stripped off by the knives of the movable knife set 24 when the cutting unit 21 is withdrawn at the wall edge 17.3'.

Claims (10)

PATENT CLAIMS 1. Device for emptying urine bags by perforating the bag and rinsing the urine from the bag in a closed, drained space by a drain, characterized by a housing (1) through a substantially vertically oriented partition (2) in an apparatus room (3) and a work space (4) is divided, the apparatus space being a drive device (6) and guide elements (36, 37) for displacing a movable cutting unit (21) provided with cutting or piercing members (24, 27) in and out of engagement with the urine bag (26), and the work space is designed for the operational reception of a bag container (17) and said cutting unit (21) which forms a removable part of the device and holds the urine bag (26) to be emptied in a defined manner, and also contains a nozzle arrangement (12, 13) for rinsing and disinfecting the objects located in the work area (4) when the bag is emptied. 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the bottom (33) of the housing (1) in the region of the working space (4) contains a conical drain recess (33.1) with a drain connector (32). 3. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the bag container (17) has on the inside a cutting or piercing element arrangement (30) which can be brought into cutting or piercing engagement with the movable cutting unit (21). 4. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the drive device for the movable cutting unit (21) is a cylinder-piston unit (6), on the piston rod (20) traversing the partition (2) a the base of the cutting unit (21 ) forming support plate (23) is arranged. 5. Device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the partition (2) is designed as a supporting element of the nozzle arrangement (12, 13) and / or the drive device (6) and at least the assembly area of these components is inclined to converge upwards . 6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the movement axis (28) of the piston rod (20) is inclined by an angle (a ') of 10-30 "to the horizontal. 7. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the end wall (17.2) of the bag container (17) is provided with a passage opening for the cutting unit (21) and has a lower centering section (17.3) for the urine bag (26) to be emptied, the upper end (17.3 ') is designed as a scraper edge for holding back the empty urine bag. 8. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that a with the support plate (23) movable bag hold-down device (25) is motionally connected in order to depress the upper end of the bag when perforating the bag. 9. Device according to claim 8, characterized in that both the carrier plate (23) and the bag hold-down (25) consist of perforated sheet metal. 10. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the apparatus room (3) additionally contains a disinfectant tank (8) and an injector and mixing valve (7) intended for metering disinfectant into the spray water from at least one spray nozzle (13). The present invention relates to a device for emptying urine bags according to the preamble of claim 1. In geriatric care and especially for incontinents Patients are used to collect urine in plastic bags of approximately 1 1/2 liters. These urine bags are preferably attached to the bed frame or glued to the patient's leg. The connection between the patient's bladder and the urine bag is made using a catheter and a flexible tube. When removing the plastic bags containing urine, some considerable problems arise in practice because they can only be thrown into the rubbish bag when they are empty. Since the urine leaks out of an undamaged plastic bag only poorly, the latter is usually cut, whereby, for example, a corner of the bag is cut off. In many cases, it cannot be avoided that the Bag still needs to be squeezed out by hand. In this handling, not only the pouring spout is sprayed, but also nearby utensils and apparatus, and in particular the personnel involved in the handling. The resulting contamination is not only extremely unsatisfactory from a hygienic point of view, but is also very dangerous because of the latent risk of contamination from poisons contained in the urine. Hygiene requirements that are taken for granted today and the avoidance of any contamination in nursing homes, hospitals etc. urgently call for improvement of the pouch destruction described above, since the cause of so-called cross infections is often to be found in this area. The urine bag should no longer have to be destroyed manually so that its contents can be safely discharged into a spout. The object of the invention thus consists in creating a device for emptying urine bags, in which the urine bag is received, punctured, emptied and disinfected in such a way that there is no risk of splashing or contamination during bag treatment. At the same time, the parts of the device that are spatially adjacent when the bag is emptied should also be included in the disinfection process. The inventive solution to this problem is characterized by claim 1. Embodiments thereof emerge from the dependent claims. An embodiment of the subject matter of the invention is explained below with reference to the drawing. It shows: Fig. 1 shows schematically in longitudinal section an inventive device for emptying urine bags, Fig. 2a, b the container for receiving the bag to be emptied in vertical section (a) and in plan (b), and Fig. 3a, b the bag piercing elements in the rest and working position, essentially along the line AA in Fig. 1st In Fig. 1, reference number 1 denotes a housing which is divided by a partition 2 into an essentially closed apparatus space 3 and an open work space 4. The apparatus space, which can be closed by a removable cover 5, contains in particular a pressure-operated cylinder-piston unit 6, an injector or mixing valve 7 for adding a disinfectant to the rinsing water, a disinfectant tank 8 and main lines 9 and 10 for the supply of a rinsing and pressure medium, preferably tap water to the cylinder-piston unit 6, the injector valve 7 and the supply of disinfectant to the injector valve. The apparatus room 3 also contains a filling line 11 for refilling the tank 8 and supply lines 14, 15 leading to spray nozzles 12 and 13 for rinsing water and disinfectant mixture. The liquid level in the disinfectant tank is made visually visible by a level indicator 16 arranged outside the housing 1. The latter can ** WARNING ** End of CLMS field could overlap beginning of DESC **.