JPH02253830A - Production of hollow yarn type fluid treating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the degradation in production efficiency by fixing the aperture ends of hollow yarn membranes by paraffin wax to close the aperture and loading the hollow yarn membranes into a housing. CONSTITUTION:The paraffin wax 1 infiltrates the inside OA of the hollow yarn membranes 2 when the wax 1 is heated and melted and the aperture ends 3 of the membranes 2 are immersed into the was 2 bath. The heat of the wax 1 is thereafter absorbed in the membranes 2. Gelatinization begins and the capillary phenomenon stops when the temp. of the bath falls down to the m.p. or below. The aperture ends 3 of the membranes 2 are then closed by the was 1. The hollow yarn membranes are loaded into the housing and while centrifugal force is imparted to the housing, the fixing material is injected to the housing end to load and fix the membranes. The sealing of the aperture ends is executed in this way and the high-quality device is obtd.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing body fluid treatment devices such as hemodialyzers, plasma separators, hemofilters, plasma component separators, ascites concentrators, and ascites filters. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a body fluid treatment device in which the open end of a hollow fiber membrane is sealed with paraffin wax and the hollow fiber membrane is attached to a housing.

The present invention also relates to cell culture containers for animals and plants, industrial fluid processing equipment, purification, separation, and filtration equipment for pharmaceuticals, food products, etc.
It can also be used to manufacture any other fluid treatment devices.

[Prior art and its problems J Currently, fluid treatment devices loaded with hollow fiber membranes are being produced in large quantities.

Usually, the hollow fiber membrane is cut to a predetermined length and installed and fixed in a housing with both ends open.

As a method for mounting and fixing a hollow fiber membrane in a housing, the following methods are implemented depending on the material of the hollow fiber membrane.

For example, if the hollow fiber membrane is made of a material with high airtightness, the end portion of the hollow fiber membrane can be sealed and installed into the housing at the same time by the method described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 31962/1982.

However, these methods are not preferable because the hollow fiber membrane near the fixing agent swells up, reducing the effective area of the hollow fiber membrane.

In order to prevent the hollow fiber membrane from lifting, it is necessary to apply a large centrifugal force when fixing the hollow fiber membrane in the housing.

However, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-31962 has the disadvantage that its applicability is narrow because it is adjusted by the volumetric expansion of the air within the hollow fiber membrane, the viscosity of the fixative, and the magnitude of centrifugal force.

Possible methods for applying a large centrifugal force include: (1) increasing the temperature inside the hollow fiber membrane; (2) using a high-viscosity fixing agent; and (2) making the cut portion at the end of the hollow fiber membrane long. However, in the method (2), if the temperature rises too much, air generation increases and gets mixed into the fixing agent, making it difficult to commercialize the product. Furthermore, with the method (2), the fixing agent cannot penetrate into the outer periphery of the hollow fiber membrane.

In addition, the method (2) results in higher costs and lower production efficiency.

For this reason, the viscosity of the fixative is 800 to 2,000 CPS, and the rotation speed is 500 to 650 rpm to apply a predetermined centrifugal force.
Produced within the range of m.

However, if the rotation speed is within the range of 500 to 650 rpm,
The hollow fiber membrane lifts up by 3 to 4 mm, and a decrease in the effective area of the hollow fiber membrane cannot be avoided.

In addition, when using a hollow fiber membrane made of a material with high gas permeability, the fixing agent may penetrate too deeply into the hollow fibers, and when the ends of the hollow fibers are cut and opened later, the hollow fibers may be damaged. It was practically unusable because the end could not be opened.

For this reason, a hollow fiber membrane made of a material with high gas permeability is used as a pretreatment for attaching and fixing it to a housing. There is a method of mounting the hollow fiber membrane in the housing by loading the hollow fiber membrane into the housing and injecting the fixing agent twice.

Furthermore, when the hollow fiber membrane is made of a thermoplastic resin such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polysulfone, etc., a method of sealing by heat is also used.

However, in the case of these methods, there may be variations in the amount of fixative initially filled, or an error in the filling operation may cause excessive fixative to be filled, making it impossible to completely fill the openings of the hollow fiber membrane. It was difficult to seal.

If a sealing defect occurs, when filling the sealing defect with fixing agent, the fixing agent will enter the opening of the hollow fiber membrane, resulting in areas where the end of the hollow fiber membrane will not be opened during the subsequent cutting process. do.

In such hollow fiber membranes, during use, fluid cannot flow through the membranes, resulting in blood remaining in the unopened areas, and sufficient membrane performance cannot be maintained due to the reduction in the effective area of the hollow fiber membranes.

Furthermore, in the method of heat-sealing the open ends of hollow fiber membranes, the sealing state of the openings and mouths becomes uneven due to variations in temperature and the amount of melting of the hollow fiber membranes, making it difficult to seal completely.

In addition, even with hollow fiber membranes made of the highly airtight materials mentioned above, it is possible to seal only the openings, but it is difficult to manage various manufacturing conditions, and it is difficult to manage the various manufacturing conditions. When loading into the housing, the loading density becomes too high and the fixing agent does not penetrate sufficiently between the hollow fiber membranes, which may lead to seal failure, which is not preferable.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present inventors have made extensive studies and have arrived at the following invention.

That is, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a fluid treatment device in which a hollow fiber membrane is loaded into a housing.

(2) A step of solidifying the open end of the hollow fiber membrane with paraffin wax and freezing it.

[2] A step of loading the hollow fiber membrane of [1] into the housing.

[3] A step of filling the end of the housing with a fixing agent and solidifying it while applying centrifugal force to the housing of [2].

(2) A hollow fiber type fluid treatment device consisting of the above (2) to (4) is provided.

In the present invention, we investigated the conditions for a blocker for the openings of hollow fiber membranes and found that (a) the substance should have low viscosity, a quick curing time, and be easy to handle;

(b) Even after curing, the hollow fiber membrane near the occlusive agent does not sag.

(c) The material of the hollow fiber membrane must be composed of components different from those of the fixative.

It was found that an occluding agent that satisfies the following conditions is preferable, and as a result of extensive studies, it was found that paraffin wax is the most suitable.

As a means of closing the open ends of hollow fiber membranes with paraffin wax, the ends of the hollow fiber membranes are immersed in a paraffin wax bath melted by heating, and the paraffin wax is hardened and closed by cooling to room temperature. .

For example, as shown in Figure 1, paraffin wax l is heated and melted, the temperature of the paraffin wax l is maintained at 1 to 20°C higher than the melting point, and the viscosity is reduced to 5,0OOCPS.
Adjust as below. When the open end 3 of the hollow fiber membrane 2 is immersed in the paraffin wax 1 bath, the paraffin wax 1
penetrates into the interior (OA) of the hollow fiber membrane 2 by capillary action.

Thereafter, the heat of the paraffin wax l is absorbed by the hollow fiber membrane 2, and when the temperature of the bath falls below the melting point, gelation begins and capillary action stops. In this way, the hollow fiber 11
The open end 3 of [2 will be closed with paraffin wax 1].

On the other hand, the temperature of the paraffin wax bath is 20℃ below the melting point.
If the temperature becomes higher than that, the heat of the paraffin wax l is absorbed by the hollow fiber membrane 2 and before it gels, the inside of the hollow fiber membrane 2 (
The positions of OB and B are determined after fixing the hollow fiber membrane 2 with a fixing agent.
This is the cutting position to open the end of the hollow fiber 1112. 0°C is the portion where the hollow fiber membrane 2 is covered with the fixative. ), which may make it impossible to open the ends of the hollow fiber membranes, which is not preferable.

Therefore, it is preferable to adjust the temperature T of the paraffin bath so that T≦(t+20)'C, where t is the melting point of paraffin wax.

The hollow fiber membrane with its ends closed in this way.

It is loaded into a housing and fixed by injecting a fixing agent into the end of the housing while applying centrifugal force to the housing.

In the present invention, as various conditions for fixing the hollow fiber membrane in the housing, the viscosity of the fixing agent is 800 to 2.0 OOC.
PS, centrifugal cuff If the speed is 00 rpm or more, the lifting of the hollow fiber membrane can be adjusted to within 1 mm.

In the present invention, since the open ends of the hollow fiber membranes are reliably closed and fixed in advance, even if a large centrifugal force is applied to the hollow fiber membranes, the ends of the hollow fiber membranes will not bend during centrifugation. (, lifting can be minimized.

Thereafter, the ends of the hollow fibers III are cut and opened, and a cap having a fluid inlet and outlet is attached to the end of the housing to complete the assembly of the fluid treatment device.

15.00 hollow fiber membranes made of cellulose with an inner diameter of 200 μm and a M thickness of 8 μm cut into predetermined dimensions are bundled together, and the open end of the hollow fiber membrane bundle is heated to 70°C to 80°C. It was immersed in molten paraffin wax, and the paraffin wax was cooled and solidified to seal it.

These hollow fiber membrane bundles were loaded into a housing, and the housing was installed in a fixed case of a centrifuge.

While applying centrifugal force to the housing at a rotation speed of 70 rpm, polyurethane was injected into the end of the housing and solidified.

Thereafter, the hollow fiber membrane was cut and the open state of the hollow fiber was examined.

The body fluid treatment device manufactured according to the present invention did not cause any clogging of hollow fiber membranes, residual paraffin wax, or leakage due to sticking of hollow fibers.

In addition, as shown in Table 1, Comparative Example 1 (Special Publick Publication No. 62-31
It can be clearly seen that the body fluid treatment device obtained by the present invention is superior in terms of performance, such as a large effective area and excellent ultraviolet filtration performance, even when compared with the method of No. 962.

This is considered to be because, in the body fluid treatment device manufactured in Comparative Example 1, the effective area was reduced by the amount of the hollow fiber membrane near the fixative being lifted up, and the ultimate filtration rate was reduced.

A melting point of 70 made by bundling s, ooo hollow fiber membranes made of polysulfone of 200 um and 40 μm cut into specified dimensions, and heating and melting the open ends of the hollow fiber membranes at 70 to 90°C.
It was immersed in paraffin wax at a temperature of 0.degree. C., and the paraffin wax was cooled and solidified to seal it.

Thereafter, the hollow fiber membrane bundle was mounted and fixed in a housing in the same manner as in the first example, and the ends of the hollow fiber membranes were cut to examine the clogging state.

The results are shown in Table 2.

According to the results shown in Table 2, the fluid treatment device manufactured according to the present invention (Example 2), Comparative Example 2 (method of JP-A-58-3772), Comparative Example (method of hollow fiber membrane made of polysulfone) It can be seen that there is no clogging rate compared to the method of melting and clogging).

Inner diameter 175 um, I [l thickness 25
A bundle of 10,500 hollow fiber membranes made of ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer of 100 mm is immersed in paraffin wax having a melting point of 60°C, which is heated and melted at 60°C to 80°C. The paraffin wax was then cooled and solidified to seal it.

Thereafter, the hollow fiber membrane bundle was mounted and fixed in a housing in the same manner as in the first example, and the ends of the hollow fiber membranes were cut to examine the clogging state.

The results are shown in Table 3.

From the results in Table 3, the fluid treatment device manufactured according to the present invention (
Example 3) is compared with Comparative Example 4 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-3772) and Comparative Example 5 (composed of ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer. A method of clogging the ends of hollow fiber membranes by melting them). It can be seen that there is no clogging occurrence rate.

(Margin below) Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 [Effects of the Invention] As explained above, in the present invention, it is possible to seal the open end regardless of the material, shape, or configuration of the hollow fiber membrane, and There is no deterioration in membrane performance due to clogging at the end of the thread membrane or lifting near the fixative, and a high-quality body fluid treatment device can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the process of closing the open end of a hollow fiber membrane with paraffin wax. In the figure, numeral 2 indicates paraffin wax and 2 indicates a hollow fiber membrane. Patent applicant: Kawasumi Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. Procedural amendment (method) 1. Indication of the case: 1999 Patent Application No. 75995 2. Title of the invention: Method for manufacturing a hollow fiber fluid treatment device 3. Relationship with the person making the amendment Patent applicant address: 3-28-15-4, Minami-Oi, Parts Ward, Tokyo 140 Date of amendment order: June 12, 1999 July 4, 1999 (Shipping mortar)

Claims (1)

Claims: A method for manufacturing a fluid treatment device in which a housing is filled with a hollow fiber membrane, including: [1] solidifying and closing the open end of the hollow fiber membrane with paraffin wax. [2] A step of loading the hollow fiber membrane of [1] into the housing. [3] A step of filling the end of the housing with a fixing agent and solidifying it while applying centrifugal force to the housing of [2]. [4] A method for manufacturing a hollow fiber fluid treatment device, characterized by comprising the steps [1] to [3] above.