JPH02182263A - Fluid treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily detect an inferior product by a method wherein the communication of the internal and external spaces of a housing is cut off when a seal material is arranged to an insertion groove and the communication passage of both spaces is formed when said seal material is not arranged. CONSTITUTION:The liquidtight connection of the housing main body member 3 and blood port forming members 5a, 5b of an artificial kidney is performed by cutting a part of the peripheral edge part of an enlarged end part becoming a contact surface over the entire periphery thereof to provide an insertion groove 10 and arranging an O-ring 11 to said groove 10 but the contact surface is further cut in a slit like state by the shallow detection groove 14 reaching an end 13 on an outer peripheral side from an end part 12 on an inner peripheral side so as to cross the insertion groove 10. When the artificial kidney is assembled normally, the flow passage reaching the outside from the internal space of a housing 1 is interrupted in continuity by the O-ring 11 and liquidtightness is kept but, when said kidney is assembled without arranging the O-ring, the flow passage is held to a continuous state as it is and, therefore, the liquidtightness is lost. As a result, an inferior product can be easily detected by investigating the presence of the leakage of a fluid in the connection parts.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Industrial application field) TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a fluid treatment device.

More specifically, the present invention relates to a fluid processing device having a structure that allows easy detection of defective products during the product shipping process.

(Prior Art) Today, various types of fluid processing devices such as artificial kidneys, artificial lungs, and adsorption-type fluid purifiers are used to replace and support the organs of patients who have lost or become dysfunctional due to disease or accidents. Equipment has been developed and is in use.

These fluid treatment devices generally have a housing that houses a fluid treatment material such as a hollow fiber membrane for treating fluid and provides a predetermined volume of processing space for the fluid treatment material.

For example, FIG. 5 shows the structure of a hollow fiber membrane type artificial kidney. A large number of hollow fiber membranes 6 are arranged in parallel and spaced apart from each other along the longitudinal direction of the housing 1 . The openings at both ends of the hollow fiber membrane 6 are kept unobstructed by partition walls 7 that partition the interior space of the housing 1 into a dialysate circulation space 8 in the center and a blood circulation space 9 at both ends. Each is supported in a liquid-tight manner. Therefore, the interior space of the hollow fiber membrane 6 is also a blood circulation space that communicates with the blood circulation spaces 9 formed at both ends of the interior space of the housing 1.

In this artificial kidney, the housing 1 includes a cylindrical housing main body member 3 provided with dialysate ports h2a and 2b, and blood ports connected to both ends of the housing main body member 3 by screw rings 4a and 4b, respectively. )1
It is formed by blood port forming members 5a and 5b equipped with blood port forming members 5a and 15b, and the housing body member 3 (in this example, both ends of the housing body part shrine 3 are liquid-tightly closed to form the housing) constitutes the housing 1. A sealing material such as an O-ring 11 is placed at the joint between the outer peripheral edge of the partition wall 7 (which is integrated into the main body part 3) and the blood port forming members 5a and 5b to ensure airtightness or liquid tightness. It was supposed to be kept.

By the way, as in the artificial kidney shown in FIG. 5, the housing surrounding the internal space is formed of at least two members, and the air-tightness or liquid-tightness at the joints of the respective parts is maintained by a seal interposed on the contact surface. When assembling a fluid purification device that has a structure that is held by materials, it is easy to accidentally assemble the device without putting sealing material into the joints of the housing, as described above, due to the large number of parts. Ta.

However, defective products assembled without sealing material at the housing joints have no difference in appearance from genuine products, and the contact surfaces of each member at the housing joints are close to each other almost all the way around the entire circumference. If there is complete surface contact, even if fluid flows inside the housing, leakage from the joint cannot be detected during a short inspection process, and the product may be shipped as is. In this case, the processing capacity is reduced due to the inability to maintain the airtightness or liquid-tightness of the internal space of the housing, and furthermore, fluids such as body fluids, solutions for body fluid treatment, gas, etc. leak from the joints, which is a problem. It became. Particularly, as in the artificial kidney shown in FIG. 5, an artificial kidney having a hollow fiber membrane as a treatment membrane, and a part of the partition wall that fixes both ends of the hollow fiber membrane is used as one contact surface of the housing joint. In fluid processing equipment, when a defective product assembled without a sealing hole is heated and sterilized prior to use, the potting agent such as urethane resin that makes up the partition wall deforms, resulting in so-called Fiber leaks also occurred, making the problem even more serious.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved fluid treatment device. Another object of the present invention is to provide a fluid processing device having a structure that allows easy detection of defective products during the product shipping process.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The above features include a housing that has a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet and surrounds an internal space in which fluid is processed.
It is formed by at least two members, and the air-tightness or liquid-tightness of the joint surfaces of each of the members is arranged in a fitting groove provided all around a part of the annular contact surface of either part. In a fluid treatment device held by a sealing material, the abutment surface of the part where the fitting groove is formed has a recess on both sides with the fitting groove in between, and the sealing material is arranged in the fitting groove. The housing is characterized in that the communication between the two recesses is cut off when the sealing material is not placed, and the two recesses communicate when no sealing material is disposed, thereby actively forming a communication path between the internal space and the external space of the housing. This is achieved by a fluid treatment device that

(Function) In the fluid treatment device of the present invention, in order to maintain airtightness or liquidtightness at the joint portion of the housing, a sealing material such as an O-ring is disposed at the joint portion of the housing. The annular contact surface of the member in which the fitting groove in which the material is placed has a recess on both sides with the fitting groove in between. Therefore, the fluid treatment device of the present invention
When the housing is properly assembled with a sealant placed at the joint, even if the housing has four parts on both sides with an inset groove in between, these two recesses will be continuous due to the presence of the sealing hole. However, on the other hand, it is possible to assemble the housing without placing any sealing material on the joints of the housing. If this happens, these four parts will cause a distinct defect on the abutment surface of the joint. Therefore, when a fluid such as air is inserted into the flow path in the housing to which the joint part belongs, if it is assembled without a sealing material, the fluid flows through the communication path actively formed by both recesses. Since fluid leaks noticeably from the inside of the housing to the outside, by detecting the presence or absence of fluid leakage from the outside during the inspection process, it becomes possible to easily identify defective products that have not been provided with a sealing material.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to Examples.

FIG. 1 is a partially sectional plan view showing the structure of an artificial kidney which is an embodiment of the fluid treatment device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a blood port forming member of the same embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of the same embodiment. FIG. 4 is a rear view of an example blood port forming member, and FIG. 4 is a half sectional view of another example blood port forming member with a threaded ring.

The artificial kidney shown in FIG. 1 includes a housing 1, which includes a cylindrical housing body member 3 provided with dialysate ports 2a and 2b, and screw rings attached to both ends of the housing body member 3. It is formed by blood port forming members 5a, 5b connected by 4a, 4b. Further, inside the housing 1, a large number of hollow fiber membranes 6 are arranged in parallel and spaced apart from each other along the longitudinal direction of the housing 1, extending over the entire area. Then, both ends of the hollow fiber membrane 6 are opened in a state where each opening is not closed.
Both ends of the housing body member 3 are supported by partition walls 7 in a liquid-tight manner.

In addition, each of the partition walls 7 forms a wall surface of the dialysate circulation space 8 together with the outer circumferential surface of the hollow fiber membrane 6 and the inner surface of the housing body member 3, and blood port forming members 5a connected to both ends of the housing body member 3; A blood circulation space 9 formed by the internal space of the membrane 5b and the internal space of the hollow fiber membrane 6 communicating therewith and the dialysate circulation space 8 are partitioned in a fluid-tight manner.

The liquid-tight joint between the housing body member 3 and the blood port forming members 5a and 5b constituting the housing 1 described above is achieved at the enlarged diameter end (housing body member By cutting a part of the peripheral edge surface of the housing main body member 3 over the full width to provide a fitting groove 10 and disposing an O-ring 11 in this fitting groove 10, the end portion that becomes the abutment surface of the housing main body member 3 is formed. Peripheral surface (in this embodiment, a partition wall 7 that is integrated into the housing body member 3 by liquid-tightly closing both ends of the housing body member 3)
This is done by interposing the O-ring 11 at the joint between the outer peripheral edge of the blood port forming member 5a and the peripheral edge of the enlarged diameter end of the blood port forming members 5a and 5b.

However, in this embodiment, the abutting surfaces of the blood port forming members 5a, 5b in which the fitting grooves 10 are formed further include an inner circumferential end 12 of the abutting surfaces, as shown in FIGS.
The detection groove 14 is cut into a slit shape so as to cross the fitting groove 10 to reach the outer circumferential end 13 and has a shallower depth than the fitting groove 10 .

As shown in FIG. 1, an O-ring 1 is inserted into the fitting groove 10.
1 is placed and assembled correctly, this detection groove 14
The flow path leading from the internal space of the housing 1 to the outside at the joint portion formed by a part of the fitting groove 10 is formed by an O
The presence of the ring 11 breaks the continuity and maintains airtightness or liquidtightness at this joint. On the other hand, if the assembly is mistakenly performed without placing the O-ring 11 in the fitting groove 10, the flow path remains continuous, so that the housing body member 3 and the blood port forming member 5a
, 5b are in almost perfect surface contact over the entire circumference, the airtightness or liquidtightness at the joint will obviously be impaired. Therefore, in the testing process after assembling the artificial kidney, one of the blood ports 15a
Alternatively, if a fluid such as air or water is allowed to flow into the blood circulation space 9 from 15b, a defective product in which the O-ring 11 has been forgotten will noticeably leak fluid from the flow path to the outside even during a short inspection. Therefore, defective products can be easily detected by checking the presence or absence of fluid leakage at the joint.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the detection groove 14 formed in the blood port formation part has an inner circumferential side 14A extending from the inner circumferential end 12 to the fitting groove 10, and an outer circumferential side. Outer peripheral side portion 14B extending from the end portion 13 to the fitting groove 10
Although they are arranged on the same straight line, they do not necessarily need to be arranged on the same straight line, and even if the inner circumferential side part 14A and the outer circumferential side part 14B are arranged at positions considerably shifted from each other. , or may be formed at different angles with respect to the fitting groove 10.

Further, in the artificial kidney device shown in FIG. 1, blood port forming members 5a, 5b and a screw ring 4a.

4b, an artificial kidney device that operates in the same manner as described above can be obtained even if the housing 1 is formed by connecting the blood port forming member 16 with a threaded ring shown in FIG. 4 to the housing main body part tA3.

That is, the threaded ring (-J blood port forming portion 1; +16 shown in FIG. 4 has a shape that integrates the blood port forming portion +, t5a, 5b shown in FIG. However, in this blood port forming member 16 with a threaded ring, a part of the peripheral edge surface 17 of the annular enlarged diameter end portion that comes into contact with the peripheral edge surface of the end portion of the housing body (rA3) is cut all around the entire circumference. A fitting groove 10 is provided, and a detection groove 14 is further formed to cut the circumferential edge surface 17 from the inner circumferential end 12 across the fitting groove 10 to reach the outer circumferential end 13. .

Note that, unlike the detection groove 14 in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, which has a narrow slit shape, the detection groove 14 in the embodiment shown in FIG. Although it is cut out diagonally from the peripheral edge surface 17, which is a surface, and has a stepped shape, there is no difference in function. That is, such a detection groove 14 is one that can effectively form a flow path from the internal space of the housing 1 to the outside at the joint site by a part of the detection groove 14 and the fitting groove 10 (as described above). ), then its width,
There are no limitations on the slope, etc.

Although the fluid processing device of the present invention has been described above by taking the case of an artificial kidney device as an example, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. A housing surrounding the space is formed of at least two members, and airtightness or liquidtightness at the joints of the respective members is provided over the entire circumference of a part of the annular contact surface of any part H. If it has a structure that is held by a sealing material placed in the fitting groove, the structure of the fluid treatment material in the internal space of the housing or the arrangement direction of the joint surface at the joint (such as the circumferential direction or radial direction of the housing) ) etc., and may include various aspects without being influenced by the slowness of This includes water purifiers, etc.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the present invention provides a housing having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet and surrounding an internal space in which fluid is processed, which is formed by at least two parts. In a fluid treatment device in which airtightness or liquidtightness at the joints of each member is maintained by a sealing material placed in a fitting groove provided all around a part of the annular contact surface of one of the members. , the abutment surface of the member on which the fitting groove is formed has a recess on both sides with the fitting groove in between, and when a sealing material is placed in the fitting groove, communication between both the recesses is cut off, and the seal is closed. This fluid treatment device is characterized in that when no material is placed, both recesses communicate with each other to actively form a communication path between the internal space and the external space of the housing, so that it is possible to create a communication path between the internal space and external space of the housing. Through a simple inspection, it is possible to easily detect defective products in which the sealant was not applied by mistake, thereby increasing the reliability of the product to consumers.

4. Brief explanation of the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a partially sectional plan view showing the structure of an artificial kidney which is an embodiment of the fluid processing device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view of a blood port forming part shrine of the same embodiment, and Fig. 3 is the same. FIG. 4 is a rear view of the liquid port forming part of the embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a half sectional view of a blood port forming member with a threaded ring according to another embodiment of the present invention.
Further, FIG. 5 is a partially sectional plan view showing the structure of an example of a conventional fluid treatment device.

1... Housing, 2a, 2b... Dialysate port,
3... Housing main body member, 4a, 4b... Screw ring, 5a, 5b... Blood port forming member, 6... Hollow fiber membrane, 7... Partition wall, 8... Dialysate circulation space, 9...
Blood circulation space, 10... Fitting groove, 11... 0 ring, 12... Inner circumference side end of contact surface, 13... Outer circumference side end of contact surface, 14... Detection groove, 14A...Inner peripheral side portion of the detection groove, 14B...Outer peripheral side portion of the detection groove, 15a, 15b...Blood port, 16...Blood port forming member with screw ring, 17.
... Peripheral surface of expanded diameter end.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A housing having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet and surrounding an internal space in which fluid is processed is formed of at least two members, and the airtightness or liquidtightness at the joints of each of the members is In a fluid treatment device that is held by a sealing material arranged in a fitting groove provided all around a part of an annular abutment surface of one of the members, the abutment surface of the member in which the fitting groove is formed is , has recesses on both sides with a fitting groove in between, and when a sealing material is placed in the fitting groove, communication between both recesses is cut off, and when no sealing material is placed, both recesses communicate. A fluid processing device characterized in that a communication path between an internal space and an external space of a housing is positively formed.