KR101121222B1 - Peristaltic Pump - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a metering feed pump, which forms a buffer guide to support a tube and buffers the pressing force of the conveying roller against the tube, thereby reducing frictional heat and deformation amount on the tube, thereby improving durability of the tube and maintaining it accordingly. Not only does it reduce maintenance costs, but it also provides a metered feed pump that maintains the same performance over long periods of use, and also allows multiple tubes to be squeezed simultaneously by the same feed rollers, allowing for variations in feed rate under the same operating conditions via a single device. Provided is a metering pump capable of metering multiple liquids without the need.

Metering pumps, tubes, buffer guides and feed rollers

Description

Peristaltic Pump

The present invention relates to a metering pump. More specifically, by forming a buffer guide to support the tube and buffer the pressing force of the conveying roller against the tube, the frictional heat and deformation amount on the tube can be reduced, thereby improving the durability of the tube and thus reducing the maintenance cost. In addition, the same performance can be maintained even for long time use, and by mounting multiple tubes to be crimped simultaneously by the same transfer roller, the metering transfer pump can quantitatively transfer a large number of liquids without variation in the amount of transfer under the same operating conditions through a single device. It is about.

Generally, a pump is a device for transferring a fluid through a pipe by a pressure action, and there are a wide variety of types, depending on how it is distinguished. Among these, a quantitative pump is a device for pumping and transporting a certain amount of liquid per unit time. .

These metering pumps have been developed and widely used in various ways, such as tubular metering pumps mainly used in hospitals or laboratories, impeller type metering pumps with large capacity, and high pressure liquids. And a cylindrical metering pump for conveying water.

The tubular metering pump is a device for automatically transferring a sample or a solution to analyze a substance component present in a specific solution such as blood in a hospital or a laboratory, and is configured to transfer a certain amount of liquid through a tube.

A conventional tubular metering pump according to the prior art has a housing, a roller unit in which three feed rollers are arranged along the circumferential direction, a drive motor for rotationally driving such a roller unit, and a housing and a roller unit to be compressed by a feed roller. It consists of a tube that is inserted into the insertion. The liquid to be conveyed is introduced into the tube, and is configured to repeatedly and quantitatively convey the liquid introduced into the tube as the conveying roller rotates in the compressed state.

According to this configuration, the tubular metering pump is configured so that the conveying roller compresses the tube and continuously conveys the quantity of liquid, so that the tube is repeatedly compressed by the conveying roller during the operation of the metering pump. Therefore, when it is used for a long time, the friction heat is generated by the repeated pressing by the feed roller, and at the same time the deformation occurs due to this. When deformation occurs in the tube as described above, the tube is not completely compressed by the transfer roller or the inner diameter of the tube is changed, resulting in a problem such that the amount of liquid transferred by the metering pump is reduced. In addition, if frictional heat is generated in the tube to change the elasticity of the tube, the tube may be torn during use, resulting in a solution leakage phenomenon. There was a problem. In particular, when the liquid used in the hospital or laboratory is a highly corrosive liquid such as a chemical agent, the above-mentioned problem should be considered more seriously in that the deformation of such a tube becomes worse.

On the other hand, the conventional tubular metering pump according to the prior art is configured so that one tube is mounted on one roller unit, it is possible to transfer only one type of liquid through one metering pump. Therefore, when several liquids need to be mixed, a plurality of metering pumps must be separately provided. In this case, the independent metering pumps provided separately have variations in the amount of liquid transfer due to manufacturing tolerances and the like, so that the correct ratio In the case where the liquid must be mixed, it is difficult to accurately maintain the mixing ratio of the liquid.

The present invention has been invented to solve the problems of the prior art, an object of the present invention, by forming a buffer guide to support the tube and the pressing force of the conveying roller to the tube can be buffered, so that the frictional heat and deformation amount of the tube This reduces the durability of the tube, thereby reducing maintenance costs and providing a metering transfer pump that maintains the same performance over long periods of time.

Another object of the present invention can be driven by mounting a larger number of transfer rollers without reducing the life of the tube as the durability of the tube, and accordingly the metering transfer pump that can more precisely control the quantitative flow rate of the liquid To provide.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a metered feed pump capable of quantitatively feeding a plurality of liquids without variation in the amount of feed under the same operating conditions by mounting a plurality of tubes simultaneously by the same transfer roller. .

Another object of the present invention is to form a plurality of buffer guides so that the pressing force of the conveying roller for each of the plurality of tubes to all act the same, so that all of the tubes have the same exchange period and thus easy maintenance To provide a pump.

The present invention, the roller unit is rotatably coupled to a plurality of transfer rollers spaced apart in the circumferential direction on one side of the rotating plate; A drive motor for rotationally driving the roller unit; A pump head unit disposed adjacent to the roller unit; And a tube interposed between the roller unit and the pump head portion so as to be compressed by the transfer roller and having a liquid introduced therein, wherein the tube is fixedly supported by the pump head and is connected to the tube. A buffer guide is formed to cushion the compressive force, and the liquid introduced into the tube is metered by the rotation of the roller unit.

In this case, the buffer guide is formed in a curved plate shape formed to be curved so that the surface facing the roller unit is concave, formed of an elastic material may be elastically deformed according to the pressing force of the transfer roller.

In addition, at least three transfer rollers may be disposed in the roller unit.

In addition, the tubes are provided in plural in parallel to each other to be simultaneously compressed by the same transfer roller, it may be configured to quantitatively convey the liquid through each tube.

In addition, the buffer guide may be formed in a plurality corresponding to each of the plurality of tubes so as to buffer the pressing force of the transfer roller for each of the plurality of tubes.

In addition, the plurality of buffer guides may have different surface heights of concave curved portions depending on the type of the tube.

According to the present invention, by forming a buffer guide to support the tube and buffer the pressing force of the conveying roller against the tube, frictional heat and deformation amount on the tube can be reduced, thereby improving durability of the tube and thus reducing maintenance costs. In addition, the same performance is maintained even for long time use.

In addition, as the durability of the tube is improved, a larger number of conveying rollers can be mounted and driven without shortening the life of the tube, and accordingly, there is an effect of more precisely controlling the quantitative conveying flow rate of the liquid.

In addition, by mounting a plurality of tubes to be simultaneously compressed by the same conveying roller, there is an effect that can be quantitatively convey a plurality of liquids without variation in the amount of conveyance under the same operating conditions through one device.

In addition, by forming a plurality of shock absorbing guides so that the pressing force of the conveying rollers to each of the plurality of tubes all act the same, all of the plurality of tubes have the same exchange period and thus there is an effect of easy maintenance.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First of all, in adding reference numerals to the components of each drawing, it should be noted that the same reference numerals are used as much as possible even if displayed on different drawings. In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the related well-known configuration or function may obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

1 is a perspective view schematically showing the configuration of a metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view conceptually showing an operating state of a metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention, 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line “AA” of FIG. 1 to show the internal structure of the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a pump head of the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a perspective view schematically illustrating the shape of the portion, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line “BB” of FIG. 4.

Metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention is a device for metering the liquid using the tube 600, the roller unit 200, the drive motor 400, the pump head 500 and the tube 600 These components are fixedly mounted in a separate case 100 as shown in FIG. 1 to form a separate independent metering pump or additionally mounted inside of another test apparatus and additionally It is also possible to configure a metering pump. For example, it may be installed as a blood analyzer used in a hospital or the like and may be utilized as a pump device for transferring blood and a sample solution to a separate measurement unit for analysis.

The roller unit 200 includes a plurality of feed rollers 210 and a rotating plate 220 coupled to both ends of the feed rollers 210, and the plurality of feed rollers 210 are rotatable on one side of the rotating plate 220. And spaced at equal intervals along the circumferential direction. That is, the conveying roller 210 is formed to extend in one direction long and the engaging projection 211 is formed at both ends in the longitudinal direction, the rotating plate 220 is formed in a circular plate shape and the engaging projection of the conveying roller 210 ( A plurality of coupling holes 221 are formed corresponding to the number of the transfer rollers 210 along the circumferential direction so that 211 may be inserted and coupled. Accordingly, the rotary plates 220 are coupled to both ends of the transfer roller 210 through the coupling protrusion 211 and the coupling hole 221, respectively. At this time, the transfer roller 210 is coupled to the rotating plate 220 so as to be rotatable about the coupling protrusion 211 in a state in which the coupling protrusion 211 is inserted into the coupling hole 221.

The driving motor 400 is mounted to rotationally drive the rotating plate 220 as shown in FIG. 1, and the motor shaft 410 of the driving motor 400 is connected to the center of the rotating plate 220 to be connected to the rotating plate 220. It is configured to rotationally drive the roller unit 200 in a manner to rotate the. Therefore, the conveying roller 210 coupled to the rotating plate 220 rotates along the circumferential direction of the rotating plate 220 as the rotating plate 220 rotates by the drive motor 400, and simultaneously combines the conveying roller 210. The protrusion 211 is configured to be rotated around the central axis.

The pump head 500 is disposed adjacent to the roller unit 200 to fix and support the tube 600, and the tube 600 is compressed by the feed roller 210 so that the roller unit 200 and the pump head portion ( It is inserted between the 500) and the liquid is introduced inside. At this time, the tube 600 is disposed in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the conveying roller 210 so that the liquid inside the tube 600 is conveyed along the revolving direction of the conveying roller 210 by the revolving of the conveying roller 210. It is preferable that it is comprised so that.

On the other hand, the pump head 500 serves to support the fixed fixing the tube 600 so that the feed roller 210 can compress the tube 600, such a pump head 500 is an embodiment of the present invention According to the exemplary embodiment, the base plate 510 includes a flat base plate 510 and a buffer guide 520 protruding from the base plate 510 in a substantially "C" shape. The buffer guide 520 is formed to buffer the pressing force of the conveying roller 210 against the tube 600, the base plate 510 has a through hole 511 through which the tube 600 can penetrate the buffer guide. It is formed on both sides of the (520). Accordingly, the tube 600 passes through the through hole 511 and is fixed to the buffer guide 520 in the form of being wound around the buffer guide 520. At this time, the buffer guide 520 may be formed with guide protrusions 521 protruding on both sides to guide the fixed state of the support of the tube 600.

Looking at the operating state of the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention according to this structure, in the state in which the liquid in the tube 600, the tube 600 is shown in Figure 2 the roller unit 200 and the pump Interposed between the head portion 500 is pressed by the conveying roller 210. At this time, the point at which the tube 600 is compressed is formed at at least two adjacent points, and the space between the points compressed by the two adjacent conveying rollers 210 is an independent space separated from other spaces in the tube 600. (C) is achieved. When the rotating plate 220 is rotated by the drive motor 400 in this state, the feed roller 210 is rotated and rotated to move the independent space (C) in the rotation direction. As the roller unit 200 rotates as described above, the independent space C is transferred, and the liquid filled in the independent space C is also conveyed together. Then, when the feed roller 210 continues to revolve, the tube 600 is moved. Since it is spaced apart from the tube 600 without being squeezed, the free space C is released and the liquid filled in the free space C continues to the next section in the tube 600 along the conveying direction. In addition, the independent space C formed by two adjacent conveying rollers 210 is continuously generated by the next conveying roller 210 in accordance with the rotation of the roller unit 200, and through this process, liquid is transferred to the tube ( Through 600). At this time, since the independent space C is formed to have the same volume at all times in structure, a constant amount of liquid is continuously transferred.

The metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention operated as described above buffers the pressing force of the feed roller 210 against the tube 600 as described above in the pump head 500 supporting and fixing the tube 600. Since the buffer guide 520 is formed, the deformation of the tube 600 is relatively reduced, and thus the overall durability is improved.

Looking in more detail, the buffer guide 520 according to an embodiment of the present invention is formed to protrude from the base plate 510 in a substantially "c" shape that both ends are coupled to the base plate 510, as described above, The buffer guide 520 is formed in a curved plate shape formed to be curved so that the surface facing the roller unit 200 is concave, as shown in Figure 2, formed of an elastic material to the pressing force of the conveying roller 210 Can be configured to elastically deform accordingly. The shock absorbing guide 520 is a kind of leaf spring structure, and as the size of the pressing force increases according to the rotation state of the conveying roller 210, it is downwardly deformed as shown by the dotted line of FIG. 2, and the size of the pressing force is relatively reduced. If the lowering, the pressing force of the conveying roller 210 is buffered in such a way that the deformation up to the solid line or less than the section of FIG. Therefore, since the pressing force for revolving the feed roller 210 and compressing the tube 600 is buffered by the buffer guide 520 without excessively acting unlike the prior art, the amount of compressive deformation of the tube 600 is reduced. Heat generation due to excessive deformation is prevented, and frictional force due to compression of the tube 600 and the transfer roller 210 is reduced, thereby reducing the frictional heat.

Therefore, since the heat generation due to the compression of the tube 600 is reduced in the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention, the deformation of the tube 600 due to use is relatively reduced, so that it can be used for a longer time. In addition, since the deformation of the tube 600, for example, a decrease in the inner diameter of the tube 600, is reduced, even when used for a relatively long time, the transport amount of the liquid can be kept constant without decreasing.

On the other hand, in the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention, it is preferable that at least three or more feed rollers 210 of the roller unit 200 are arranged, for example, eight are arranged as shown in FIG. 2. Can be. In the case of the metering pump according to the prior art, it is common that three or four feed rollers 210 are mounted, but the metering pump according to the present invention may be mounted three or four, as well as more than one. have. When the number of the conveying rollers 210 is increased in this way, the separation distance of the conveying rollers 210 decreases, so that the volume of the independent space C of the tube 600 described above is reduced, and thus, through the independent space C. The amount of liquid to be transferred is reduced, which allows quantitative control of the amount of liquid transferred. The reason why the metering pump according to the present invention can mount more feed rollers 210 than in the prior art is that the shock absorbing guide 520 is mounted to improve the durability of the tube 600. That is, when the number of the conveying rollers 210 is increased, the number of times of crimping the tube 600 per roller of the roller unit 200 is increased, so that the deformation amount of the tube 600 is relatively increased. According to the metering pump according to the deformation amount of the tube 600 by the buffer guide 520, it is possible to mount a larger number of the transfer roller 210.

On the other hand, the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention may be provided so that a plurality of tubes 600 are arranged in parallel to each other. That is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the plurality of tubes 600 may be disposed parallel to each other in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the conveying roller 210, whereby the plurality of tubes 600 are all It is arranged to be pressed at the same time by the same feed roller 210. Therefore, the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention may meter the different liquids through the plurality of tubes 600, respectively.

The conventional metering pump according to the prior art is configured in the form of one tube is provided in one metering pump as described in the prior art, in order to transport a plurality of liquids must be provided with a plurality of metering pumps, in this case Each metering pump has a variation in the feeding amount due to manufacturing tolerances, etc., making it difficult to mix several liquids at an accurate mixing ratio. However, in the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention, since a plurality of tubes 600 into which a plurality of liquids are respectively injected is compressed by the same single roller unit 200, the liquid is metered and delivered under the same conditions. Deviation does not occur in the amount of liquid transport through each of the tubes 600, so that a plurality of liquids may be transferred at an accurate ratio, and thus may be mixed at an accurate mixing ratio.

In addition, when the plurality of tubes 600 is disposed as described above, it is preferable that a plurality of buffer guides 520 are formed to correspond to each of the plurality of tubes 600 according to an embodiment of the present invention. That is, when three tubes 600 are provided as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the respective tubes 600 may be buffered so as to buffer the pressing force of the transfer roller 210 with respect to each tube 600. Preferably, three buffer guides 520a, 520b, and 520c are fixedly supported. In this case, the plurality of shock absorbing guides 520 are formed differently according to the type of the tube 600 fixedly supporting each, so that the pressing force of the feed roller 210 for each tube 600 acts the same.

For example, when three tubes 600 are provided and correspondingly three buffer guides 520 are formed as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, one tube 600 of the three tubes 600 is formed. If the diameter is small, the buffer guide 520c corresponding to the smaller diameter tube 600 of the three buffer guides (520a, 520b, 520c) is the tube 600 as shown in Figs. ) Is formed to have a height of the contact surface is higher by X distance than the other two buffer guides (520a, 520b). That is, the surface height of the concave curved portion of the buffer guide 520c is formed to be higher by X distance than the other two buffer guides 520a and 520b. By the height difference of the buffer guide 520, the pressing force of the conveying roller 210 for each tube 600 all acts the same. At this time, the height difference X of the buffer guides (520a, 520b, 520c) may be variablely formed according to the outer diameter, inner diameter or material of the tube 600.

By forming the heights of the plurality of shock absorbing guides 520 differently, the tubes 600 fixedly supported by the plurality of shock absorbing guides 520 are subjected to the same pressing force by the same feed roller 210, so that the liquid The conditions for conveying the same can be maintained, and the deformation or wear phenomenon caused by the pressing force of each tube 600 also proceeds at the same speed, so that the tube 600 is replaced at the same time, so that the tubes 600 are replaced one by one. It can be exchanged integrally without the need to do so, the maintenance work according to the tube exchange can be easily performed.

6 is an operation block diagram conceptually illustrating an example in which a metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention is used in a blood analyzer.

Metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention may be configured to be additionally mounted to the inside of the other test device as described above to form an additional device, such as the internal device of the blood analyzer used in hospitals, such as Figure 6 The configuration that makes up is shown.

The blood analyzer is quantitatively transported according to the present invention for quantitatively transferring a blood analysis device body 20, a blood analysis cartridge 30 coupled to the device body 20 to apply a blood measurement signal, and a sample solution. It may be configured to include a pump (10). At this time, the pump head 500 and the tube 600 of the metering pump 10 is coupled to the cartridge 30, the drive motor 400 and the roller unit 200 is coupled to the apparatus main body 20 It consists of. That is, when the cartridge 30 is coupled to the apparatus main body 20 in a state in which the tube 600 is fixedly supported by the buffer guide 520 of the pump head 500, the tube 600 is connected to the apparatus main body 20. The roller unit 200 is configured to be compressed. Accordingly, when the roller unit 200 is driven to rotate, a sample solution or the like is quantitatively supplied to the measuring unit 33 through the tube 600.

In more detail, when the roller unit 200 is rotated by the driving motor 400, different sample solutions are simultaneously supplied to the measuring unit 33 through the three tubes 600. The blood to be analyzed is injected into a separate sample injecting unit 32, and the measuring unit 33 is controlled by a pressure difference generated by supplying a part of the sample solution to the waste container 34 by the operation of the metering pump 10. It is configured to be supplied with. In this case, three liquids (blood and sample solution) may be configured to be simultaneously transferred under the same conditions by one metering pump 10 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Therefore, the supply ratios for the three liquids are maintained accurately to enable a more accurate blood analysis operation, and then the measurement signal for the blood and the sample solution supplied to the measurement unit 33 is applied to the instrument main body 20.

Meanwhile, the blood analyzer configured as described above may separately replace and replace only the cartridge 30 according to use. As described above, the pump head 500 and the tube 600 are coupled to the cartridge 30 and the driving motor 400. ) And the roller unit 200 are coupled to the apparatus main body 20, so that the pump head 500 and the tube 600 having a relatively short replacement cycle are integrally exchanged together with the replacement of the cartridge 30 so that the fixed quantity transfer pump ( Maintenance of the metering transfer pump 10 can be easily performed without a separate exchange operation for 10).

As such, the metering pump 10 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may be configured as an additional device to a separate experimental device such as a blood analyzer, and may be configured as a separate independent device as described above. It can be used in various ways.

7 is a view showing a graph comparing the performance of the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention with the prior art, Figure 7 (a) is a transfer according to the drive time of a conventional metering pump according to the prior art Measurement data for the change state of the flow rate is shown in a graph, Figure 7 (b) is a graph showing the measurement data for the change state of the transfer flow rate according to the drive time of the metering pump according to the present invention.

The measuring method proceeded by measuring the transfer flow rate for each 100 times for 2 weeks, with each metering pump continuously running simultaneously for 2 weeks. Time intervals for 100 measurements were performed in a random fashion, and measurements for each metered feed pump were performed at the same time.

As can be seen from the measurement data graph, the conventional metering pump according to the prior art reduces the flow rate of the liquid according to the increase in the number of driving, whereas the metering pump according to the present invention is the initial transfer flow rate even if the driving number is increased. This is kept constant. This is the result of the metering pump according to the present invention because the buffering guide 520 is formed so that the pressing force of the feed roller 210 against the tube 600 is buffered. That is, in the metering pump according to the present invention, since the excessive compressive force is not applied to the tube 600 and thus the frictional heat is reduced in the tube 600 and the chemical deformation is reduced by the frictional heat reduction, the tube 600 is reduced. The state of is maintained the same as when it was initially driven, so that the performance is maintained to have the same transfer flow rate as the original state even if it is driven for a long time.

The foregoing description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are not intended to limit the technical idea of the present invention but to describe the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The protection scope of the present invention should be interpreted by the following claims, and all technical ideas within the equivalent scope should be interpreted as being included in the scope of the present invention.

1 is a perspective view schematically showing the configuration of a metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention,

2 is a cross-sectional view conceptually showing an operating state of a metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line “A-A” of FIG. 1 to show an internal structure of a metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a perspective view schematically showing the shape of the pump head portion of the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention,

5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line “B-B” of FIG. 4;

6 is a flow chart conceptually showing an example in which the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention is used in the blood analyzer,

7 is a diagram showing a graph comparing the performance of the metering pump according to an embodiment of the present invention with the prior art.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

200: roller unit 210: feed roller

220: rotating plate 400: drive motor

500: pump head 520: buffer guide

600: tube

Claims (6)

delete A roller unit rotatably coupled to a plurality of transfer rollers spaced apart in a circumferential direction on one side of the rotating plate; A drive motor for rotationally driving the roller unit; A pump head unit disposed adjacent to the roller unit; And A tube is inserted between the roller unit and the pump head so as to be compressed by the transfer roller, and a tube into which liquid is introduced. It includes, The pump head portion is fixedly supported by the tube and the buffer guide is formed so that the pressing force of the conveying roller against the tube is buffered, the buffer guide is formed to be curved so that the surface facing the roller unit concave Is formed in a curved plate shape, is formed of an elastic material to elastically deform in accordance with the pressing force of the conveying roller, Metering pump, characterized in that the liquid injected into the tube by the rotation of the roller unit is metered. The method of claim 2, The roller unit is a fixed quantity feed pump, characterized in that at least three transfer rollers are arranged. The method according to claim 2 or 3, The tube is provided with a plurality in parallel to each other so as to be simultaneously compressed by the same transfer roller, the metering pump characterized in that the liquid is quantitatively conveyed through each tube. The method of claim 4, wherein The buffer guide is a fixed quantity transfer pump, characterized in that formed in a plurality corresponding to each of the plurality of tubes so as to buffer the pressing force of the transfer roller for each of the plurality of tubes. The method of claim 5, The plurality of buffer guide is a metering pump, characterized in that the surface height of the concave curved portion is formed differently depending on the type of the tube.

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