JP2003310743A - Sterilization device for medical waste - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sterilization process for a medical waste capable of immediately sterilizing the medical waste such as an infectious waste and the like at the site of medical treatment and the site of research. <P>SOLUTION: The sterilization device 1 for the medical waste is equipped with a hopper 10, a heating cylinder 12 equipped with an electric heater 11 for receiving the medical waste 2 thrown into the hopper 10 and heat-plasticizing it, a cooling tank 13 for receiving the medical waste plasticized and sterilized by the heating cylinder 12 (hereafter called a plasticized product 2A) and cooling it, a deodorizing device 14 connected with the cooling tank 13, a heat-resistant cover 15 for covering at least the heating cylinder 12, and a leg part 16 for supporting the heating cylinder 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a sterilizer for sterilizing medical waste, particularly infectious waste.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In medical institutions such as hospitals and clinics, various medical devices are used every time a medical act of diagnosing, treating, treating or preventing a disease of a person or the like is performed. In addition, many medical devices are also used in research activities such as testing and research institutions. Of these medical devices, those that can be reused after use are subjected to, for example, boiling sterilization, while other devices are discarded. Recently, many medical devices have been "discarded", and the boiling sterilizer is no longer used. Disposable medical waste may have pathogens that infect humans and requires different disposal treatment than other waste. According to the Waste Disposal and Cleaning Law (Waste Disposal Law), waste that contains or is attached to pathogens that infect or may infect humans is infectious waste. It is obligatory for medical institutions to perform proper processing.

[0003]

However, if the treatment route of medical waste such as infectious waste is long, not only medical staff such as doctors and nurses but also waste disposal contractors are involved. Increased risk of contamination. Actually, nosocomial infections such as vancomycin-resistant enterococci have been reported, and hepatitis C and hepatitis B infections both inside and outside the hospital have become a problem.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a medical waste sterilization process capable of immediately sterilizing a disposable medical waste at a medical site or a research site.

[0005]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a hopper with a lid for inputting medical waste,
A heating cylinder provided with an electric heating device for receiving and heating and plasticizing the medical waste put in the hopper, a cooling tank for receiving and cooling the medical waste plasticized by the heating cylinder, The medical waste sterilizer is configured by including a deodorizing device in communication with the cooling tank and a heat insulating cover that covers at least the heating cylinder (the invention according to claim 1). In this medical waste sterilizer, most of the medical waste is made of synthetic resin, and the medical waste has a predetermined temperature (in the case of a typical synthetic resin, about 100 to about 200).
It focuses on the physical properties of the material that are plasticized at different degrees. Therefore, the device becomes a compact device, and by disposing this device in a building room, for example, a treatment room in a ward, it is possible to immediately sterilize contaminated medical waste at a medical site, a research site, or the like. There is also the possibility of treating sterilized medical waste as general waste. The medical waste after sterilization can be recycled by selecting valuables after incineration and melting treatment.

[0006] Further, a hopper with a lid for throwing in medical waste, and a screw mechanism for receiving the medical waste thrown into the hopper and for extruding and transferring the medical waste are provided.
A heating cylinder provided with an electric heating device for heating and plasticizing medical waste transferred by the screw mechanism, a cooling tank for receiving and cooling the medical waste plasticized by the heating cylinder, and a cooling tank for the cooling tank. A medical waste sterilizer (invention according to claim 2) may be provided with a deodorizing device in communication with each other and a heat insulating cover that covers at least the heating cylinder.
In this device, the screw mechanism more reliably carries out the melting treatment of the medical waste, so that the same effects as those of the above-described invention can be obtained.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a medical waste sterilizer according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 to 5
Is a partially cutaway front view of the medical waste sterilization apparatus according to the first embodiment, a top view of the same apparatus, a partially cutaway left side surface of the apparatus, a right side view of the apparatus, and a cross-sectional view. Is. In addition, in each drawing, the same reference numerals indicate the same configurations, and duplicate description will be omitted.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, the medical waste sterilization apparatus (hereinafter, simply referred to as an apparatus) 1 includes a hopper 1
0 and the medical waste 2 put in the hopper 10 (see FIG. 6).
(Refer to FIG. 3), and an electric heating device 11 for heating and plasticizing the same.
And a cooling tank 13 for receiving and cooling medical waste (hereinafter referred to as plasticized product 2A) that has been plasticized and sterilized by the heating cylinder 12, and is connected to the cooling tank 13. The deodorizing device 14, a heat insulating cover 15 that covers the heating cylinder 12, and a leg portion 16 that supports the heating cylinder 12.

Medical waste 2 to be sterilized by the device 1
Is a synthetic resin such as a syringe, a blood transfusion set, a catheter, an infusion set, a test tube, and a petri dish. Specifically, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (P
P), vinyl chloride resin (PVC), polystyrene (P
S), ABS, silicone resin and the like. Of these synthetic resins, amorphous plastics are plasticized and become molten when heated above the glass transition temperature. In the case of crystalline plastic, when it is heated above the crystal melting point, it is plasticized and becomes molten. Thermosetting plastics such as silicone resin are plasticized when heated and hardened when kept heated. It becomes possible to sterilize by heating these synthetic resins by heating them to plasticize them.

The hopper 10 has a wide mouth 100 into which medical waste 2 is charged and a narrow mouth 1 communicating with the heating cylinder 12.
01, and a lid 102 is attached to the wide mouth 100. A flange 103 is formed on the back surface of the lid 102 in contact with the inner edge of the wide mouth 100 to ensure airtightness when the lid 102 is closed and prevent the spread of pathogens and the like. The capacity of the hopper 10 thus configured may be about 20 liters.

The electric heating device 11 is composed of a heater and transfers heat to the heating cylinder 12 to heat the medical waste 2 therein. For example, a nichrome wire as a resistance heating element is covered with an insulator or a resistance. The heater may be composed of a band heater in which a heating element is sandwiched by mica and covered with an iron plate, or a cartridge heater in which a resistance heating element is housed in a metal sealed pipe. The range heated by the heater 11 may be the entire surface of the heating cylinder 12 wound around as shown in FIG. 5, or the heating element may be densely attached to the lower half of the heating cylinder 12.

As described above, the heating temperature for plasticizing is determined by the physical properties of the material of the medical waste 2 to be heated, and if it exceeds the range, "carbonization" or "hardening" will occur. . Therefore, a thermostat (automatic temperature controller) or the like is provided in the heating cylinder 12 to properly control the heating temperature of the heater 11.

As shown in FIG. 5, the heating cylinder 12 has a waste receiving portion 12 connected to the narrow mouth 101 of the hopper 10.
0, a heating part 121 inclined downward from the receiving part 120 by a predetermined angle, and a connecting part 122 that is bent substantially vertically from the heating part 121 and is connected to the cooling tank 13.
Consists of.

The angle of inclination of the heating section 121 may be any angle that allows the plasticized material 2A plasticized and melted by the heater 11 to flow down naturally.

The cooling tank 13 stores a plasticizing material 2A flowing down from the connecting portion 122 of the heating cylinder 12, and a cooling water tank portion 131 for cooling the plasticizing material 2A that has fallen into the storing portion 130. Consists of. The storage section 130 is attached so as to be drawn out via a handle 132, and the solidified waste 2B that has been cooled and solidified can be peeled off and discharged. The cooling water tank section 1
31 is a bottom surface 132 of the storage section 130, both side surfaces 13,
The rear surface 135 and the rear surface 135 are arranged so that they can be cooled with "water". In FIG. 1 and the like, “136” is a water supply cock and “137” is a drain cock.

As shown in FIG. 5, in the deodorizing device 14, the lower part of the tower-shaped cover 140 faces the storage part 130, the deodorizing filters 141 are provided in a plurality of stages, and the fan 142 is installed on the upper part thereof. A ventilation hole 143 is provided. Therefore, by the fan 142, the cover 14
The gas is deodorized from the reservoir 130 through the deodorizing filter 141 and discharged by depressurizing the upper part to a negative pressure.

The heat insulating cover 15 is used for the hopper 10.
The heat of the heater 11 is cut off by covering the heating cylinder 12 from the lower part to the upper part of the cooling tank 13, and the left and right covers 150 and 151 can be divided. When the heating cylinder 12 is inspected, the cover stopper 152 is released and the left and right covers 150, 15 are removed.
1 can be removed.

The lower portion of the leg portion 16 and the cooling tank 1
A caster 160 is provided below the device 3,
Makes it easy to move.

The device 1 constructed as described above has a length dimension of about 90 cm, a width dimension of about 35 cm, and a height dimension of about 8 cm.
The medical waste 2 can be immediately sterilized at a medical site, a research site, etc. by being made compact to about 0 cm and arranged in each medical department, operating room, dialysis room, etc. of a ward.
Therefore, it is possible to prevent the inside and outside of the hospital from being contaminated by the medical waste 2.

Next, an example of use of the above apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. First, (a) in order to prevent scattering of blood and the like adhering to the medical waste 2, put the medical waste 2 in a bag 20 made of a material substantially the same as the medical waste 2, and open the lid 102 of the hopper 10. Then, the lid 102 is closed. (B) The input medical waste 2 is the waste receiving unit 1
Stay at 20. (C) When the melting switch of the operation panel 3 (see FIG. 2) is turned on, the heater 11 and the fan 142 of the deodorizing device 14 are turned on.
Simultaneously with the energization of the device, a timer (not shown) for controlling the energization time is turned on. This timer is set corresponding to the melting time of the heater 11 with respect to the capacity of the hopper 10. When the heating cylinder 12 reaches the melting temperature, it gradually begins to melt from the tip of the lump of the medical waste 2, becomes a molten state (plasticized product 2A), and flows down toward the tank 13. (D) The plasticized product 2A is accumulated in the reservoir 130,
It is cooled and solidified. After that, when the timer times out, the energization of the heater 12 is stopped, and after a predetermined time, the energization of the fan 142 is stopped. As described above, in the device 1, the medical waste 2 is not incinerated but is melted and sterilized,
No dioxin is generated. Further, the metal such as the injection needle is sterilized and then sealed in the solidified material 2B.

Next, a configuration example of the device 1A according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. This device 1A is different from the device 1 of the first embodiment in that the heating cylinder 12 is provided with a screw mechanism 4 and the screw mechanism 4 is moved to move the medical waste 2 introduced into the hopper 10 to the connecting portion 122. The point is to heat while extruding and transferring to.

As shown in FIG. 8, the screw mechanism 4 includes a motor 40, reduction gear trains 41, 12, 43 for reducing the rotation speed of the motor 40, and a rotational force in synchronization with the rotation of the gear 43. Is transmitted, and the screw 44 rotates in the forward direction.

The screw 44 is housed in the heating cylinder 12 formed in a cylindrical shape, and the blades 4 of the screw 44 are accommodated.
5 is arranged so as to be substantially in contact with the inner circumference of the heating cylinder 12. The other configuration is the same as that of the device 1 of the first embodiment, and therefore, the same effect is obtained.

Next, a usage example of the device 1A will be described with reference to FIG. Similar to FIG. 6A, the bag 20 containing the medical waste 2 is put into the hopper 10 by opening the lid 102 and closing the lid 102. (B) The input medical waste 2 stays in the waste receiving unit 120 of FIG. (C) When the melting switch of the operation panel 3 is turned on, the heater 11 and the fan 142 are energized, and when the heating cylinder 12 reaches the melting temperature, the motor 40 is turned on and the screw 44 rotates in the forward direction. To do. As a result, the medical waste 2 in the waste receiving section 120 is melted while being extruded toward the connecting section 122. (D) The melted plasticized product 2A is
Run down to 3. Then, it is cooled and solidified by the tank 13. The motor 40 is turned on by a timer or the like in accordance with a time period in which the waste 2 having a capacity of the hopper 10 can be melted while being extruded to the connecting portion 122 in advance. Further, the heater 11 is turned off after the energization time of the motor 40 has elapsed after reaching the melting temperature. The same applies to the fan 142. In this device 1A, the screw mechanism 4
Thereby, the medical waste 2 is uniformly heated and forcedly melted.

Devices 1, 1 according to the first and second embodiments
In A, the medical waste 2 is stored in the hopper 10 and processed in batches, so that the devices 1 and 1A can be moved only once a day or the like.

[0026]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a compact device is provided, and by disposing the device in a building room, for example, a treatment room in a ward, medical equipment immediately contaminated at a medical site, a research site, or the like. The waste can be sterilized. Further, sterilization by melting treatment rather than incineration treatment makes it possible to avoid discharge of dioxins and the like.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the medical waste 2 can be uniformly heated and forcibly melted, so that the medical waste can be more reliably melted. The same operational effects as those of the above invention are exhibited.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a medical waste sterilizer according to a first embodiment,

FIG. 2 is a top view of the device,

FIG. 3 is a side view of the device,

FIG. 4 is a side view of the device,

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the device,

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a usage example of the device,

FIG. 7 is a front view of the medical waste sterilizer according to the second embodiment,

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the device,

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a usage example of the apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Medical Waste Sterilizer 2 Medical Waste 10 Hopper 11 Electric Heater 12 Heater 2A Plasticizer 13 Cooling Tank 14 Deodorizer 15 Heat Protective Cover 16 Leg 100 Wide Mouth 101 Narrow Mouth 102 Lid 103 Collar 120 Receiving Waste Part 121 Heating part 122 Connecting part 130 Storage part 131 Cooling water tank part 132 Handle 2B Solidified waste 136 Water supply cock 137 Drain cock 14 Deodorizing device 140 Cover 141 Deodorizing filter 142 Fan 143 Ventilation hole 15 Heat insulating cover 150, 151
Cover 152 Cover stopper 16 Leg 160 Castor 4 Screw mechanism 40 Motor 41, 12, 43 Reduction gear train 44 Screw

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A hopper with a lid for charging medical waste, a heating cylinder equipped with an electric heating device for receiving and heating and plasticizing the medical waste charged in the hopper, and a plasticizer by the heating cylinder. A medical waste sterilization apparatus comprising: a cooling tank for receiving and cooling medical waste, a deodorizing device in communication with the cooling tank, and a heat insulating cover for covering at least the heating cylinder. 2. A hopper with a lid for charging medical waste, and a screw mechanism for receiving the medical waste input to the hopper and for pushing and transferring the medical waste,
A heating cylinder provided with an electric heating device for heating and plasticizing medical waste transferred by the screw mechanism, a cooling tank for receiving and cooling the medical waste plasticized by the heating cylinder, and a cooling tank for the cooling tank. A medical waste sterilizer comprising: a deodorizing device in communication with each other; and a heat insulating cover that covers at least the heating cylinder.