KR20170043309A - Low Temperature Sterilizer Having Chamber Of Which Volume Is Variable - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a volume-variable sterilizer, which varies the volume of a chamber providing a sterilizing space so the degree of a vacuum inside the chamber is adjusted, thereby improving a sterilizing effect through an effective penetration and supply of a sterilizing agent. The volume-variable sterilizer comprises: a chamber for providing a sealed sterilizing space; a sterilizing agent supplying part for supplying a sterilizing agent into the chamber; and a volume varying means for varying the volume of the sterilizing space, thereby varying the pressure inside the sterilizing space.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a low temperature sterilization chamber having a variable volume chamber,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sterilization apparatus, and more particularly, to a sterilization apparatus capable of continuously varying the volume of a chamber providing a sterilization space, thereby adjusting the pressure therein, thereby improving the sterilization effect through effective infiltration and supply of the sterilization material The present invention relates to a sterilization apparatus.

Sterilization means completely eliminating all living microorganisms that are different from Cleaning or Disinfection. Sterilization is accomplished through a variety of physical and chemical actions, and is especially required in the medical device field.

When sterilizing various items, use heat provided by dry heat or steam, or use a sterile material made of a chemical substance such as ethylene oxide gas or hydrogen peroxide in a vapor state. However, there are many cases where high heat or steam can not be used depending on the type of goods. This case is also limited in the sterilization method.

On the other hand, various medical instruments such as tweezers, knives or scissors are sterilized while sterilized in a pouch. In this case, when the inlet of the pouch is sealed to sterilize, there is a merit that it is possible to prevent secondary contamination, but it is disadvantageous in that it is difficult to penetrate the sterilization material.

In addition, when the inlet of the pouch is opened and sterilized, there is an advantage in that it is advantageous in penetration of the sterilization material. There is a disadvantage that secondary contamination may occur after the sterilization is finished.

Since it is put in the pouch, it is very difficult to sterilize the sterilized material by supplying the sterilized material completely to the fine part of the medical instrument.

According to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0065359, in addition to a sterilization method in which a hydrogen peroxide vapor in a vacuum state is put into a sterilizing material, and a pressure rise in one end is dependent on the diffusion of the hydrogen peroxide gas, hydrogen peroxide gas And the method of supplying ozone by using plasma is used up to several times.

This is because the step of adjusting each pressure is to form a low vacuum using a vacuum pump, then to increase the pressure through the diffusion of the sterilizing material and to introduce sterilization to the inside of the elongated tube by injecting outside air to increase the penetration power. But. Vacuum, sterilization re-input, and pressure increase stage, and a considerable amount of sterilization material except for the sterilization material used for sterilization is discharged to the outside through a vacuum pump, resulting in waste of the sterilization material.

Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0023705, on the other hand, proposes a method of generating a flow of fluid in a vacuum-generated chamber to increase the temperature of a target of diffusion and sterilization of the sterilizing material. This has the advantage of rapidly raising the temperature of the internal sterilization to remove the remaining sterilization material after drying and sterilization, thus reducing the total sterilization time. In addition, in the case of a thin and long tube, it is possible to improve the difficulty in reaching the sterilizing material by diffusion of gas only.

However, there is also a loss in sterilization re-enrichment process, and there is a problem that it is difficult to fully expect the above advantages when packaged in a medical pouch, which seems to be a common problem in the above two prior arts.

More specifically, sterilization of medical devices and medical devices requires sealing of the pouches during sterilization to prevent secondary contamination and cross contamination. Therefore, the medical pouch is made of a transparent polymer material on the one side, and the sterile material can be passed on the other side by using a material such as a tie bag which is permeable to gas. The material of the permeable surface for the sterilizing material such as the tie bag is composed of minute pores so as to prevent the penetration of the bacteria, so that there is a part where the temperature rise of the object to be sterilized by transmission or blowing of the sterilizing material due to diffusion is difficult to exhibit sufficient performance.

As a result, it is very difficult to completely sterilize the medical instrument which is sealed in the pouch according to the above-described conventional art.

Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0065359 Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0023705

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide a sterilizing device that can increase the sterilizing effect by smoothly supplying sterilizing material to a medical instrument sealed in a pouch. More specifically, So that the sterilizing material can penetrate even a small gap. More specifically, to sterilize a medical device packaged with a sterile pouch to prevent secondary contamination, the volume of the chamber is continuously variable under basically a vacuum of from several torr to several tens of torr so that one side of the pouch The object of the present invention is to provide a sterilizing device capable of increasing sterilization performance and reducing the sterilization time by inducing a temperature rise and sterilization re-infiltration of the object to be sterilized by transmitting continuous heat and sterilization material.

The above object is also achieved by a sterilizing apparatus comprising: a chamber for providing an enclosed sterilization space; A sterilizing material supply unit for supplying a sterilizing material into the chamber; A vacuum pump for bringing the inside of the chamber into a vacuum state; And a volumetric variable means for varying the pressure of the sterilization space by varying the volume of the sterilization space.

According to a feature of the present invention, the volume varying means comprises:

A cylinder installed at one side of the chamber to communicate with an internal space of the chamber; A piston coupled to the cylinder to vary a volume of the chamber interior space; And a driving unit for varying the volume of the sterilizing space by activating the piston.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the volume varying means comprises:

A corrugated tube fixed to one side of the chamber; And a driving unit coupled to the other end of the bellows tube and varying the volume of the sterilizing space by varying the length of the bellows pipe.

According to another aspect of the present invention,

The volumetric means may be a cyclic maneuver in the form of a pulse in vacuum.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the volume-

A cylinder separately provided outside the chamber; A piston installed in the cylinder so as to be able to move in a piston; And a driving unit for starting the piston.

A main pipe (201) connected to the cylinder; A main injection pipe 202 connected between the main pipe 201 and the chamber, and a plurality of branch pipes 203; A recovery main pipe 204 connected between the main pipe 201 and the chamber, and a plurality of recovery pipes 205; And a check valve installed in the injection branch pipe (203) and the recovery branch pipe (205), respectively, so that fluid flows in opposite directions to each other;

The sterilizing material is simultaneously sprayed and fed at a plurality of locations in the chamber; So that the sterilizing material is absorbed simultaneously from several places of the chamber.

In the present invention, the sterilizing material is hydrogen peroxide vapor;

The sterilizing material supply unit includes a sterilizing material supply tank 31 for supplying hydrogen peroxide, a vaporizer 32 for vaporizing the supplied hydrogen peroxide and connected to the chamber, and a sterilizing material supply unit 32 for supplying pressure to the sterilizing material And a sterilizing material supply pump 33 installed between the tank 31 and the vaporizer 32. [

According to the above configuration, a sterilizing apparatus is provided that can adjust the pressure and temperature by varying the volume of the chamber interior space that provides the sterilization chamber and increase the fluidity of the sterilization material. If the pressure of the sterilization chamber is controlled, the sterilization material is smoothly supplied to the inside of the pouch, and recovery and exchange are facilitated when the sterilization reaction is completed. By such an action, a sterilization function satisfactorily applied to the medical instrument put in the sterilization chamber while being sealed in the pouch can be performed.

1 is a sectional view of a sterilizing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a graph showing sterilization process of a sterilization apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention and showing pressure change according to the process. FIG.
3 is a schematic perspective view of a sterilizing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a chamber of a sterilizing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a sectional view of a sterilizing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings attached hereto. 1, and an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the remaining drawings where necessary.

The chamber 10 provides an enclosed sterile space S. The chamber 10 is provided with an opening / closing door (not shown) to facilitate access to the inside thereof. A tray on which the sterilizing target W is placed may be installed in the chamber 10. According to an aspect of the present invention, the sterilizing space S of the chamber 10 can be varied in volume by the volume varying means. The variable volume means is for varying the pressure by varying the volume inside the chamber 10, and various methods can be used. Hereinafter, the volume varying means will be described.

The first embodiment uses a piston type as shown in Fig.

According to the present embodiment, one side of the chamber 10 is open, and a cylinder 12 is installed on one opened side of the chamber 10 to communicate with the internal space of the chamber 10. The cylinder 12 is preferably cylindrical and has an inner surface smooth. The chamber 10 may be in the form of a hexahedron box or may be cylindrical like the cylinder 12.

The cylinder (12) is movably coupled to the piston (20) to adjust the pressure of the inner space by changing the volume of the space inside the chamber (10). The piston 20 may be in the form of a disk, and a packing 23 may be interposed between the cylinder 12 and the piston 20 for maintaining the hermeticity.

The driving portion 22 applies force to the piston 20 to cause it to move along the cylinder 12, that is, in the direction of the arrow K. [ As a result, the volume of sterilization space S of the chamber is variable and the pressure is variable. It is clear that the volume and the pressure will change in inverse relationship based on the basic formula of the ideal gas equation. An operating rod (21) is connected between the driving part (22) and the piston (20). The driving unit 22 (actuator) may be a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder. However, the driving unit 22 may be a system in which various motors are used.

On the other hand, the sterilization space S can be divided into a full sterilization space in which the sterilization target W is located and a variable space in which the cylinder 12 is installed. Since the inside of the sterilization space (S) must maintain the sterilization environment as a whole, the wider the space, the more difficult it is to manage. Therefore, an elastic membrane such as silicon may be installed between the sterilizing space and the variable space. The piston may push the elastic membrane to reduce the volume of the full sterile space.

On the other hand, although the cylinder 12 and the piston 20 are illustrated as being used in the above-described volumetric method, a bellows 25 as shown in FIG. 5 may be used. In this case, the method of driving the corrugated pipe 25 may be a motor or a hydraulic (or pneumatic) cylinder. The actuating plate 24 and the actuating rod 21 are continuously connected to the end of the corrugated tube 25 and the actuating rod 21 is braked by the actuating part 22. [

It goes without saying that the volume varying means may be various ways other than the exemplified manner.

Hereinafter, various accessory devices attached to the sterilizer will be described with reference to FIG. The sterilizing space S is heated to a desired temperature by radiating the heater 47 for heating the inside space of the chamber 10 toward the inside of the chamber 10. [ The heater 47 may be installed inside the chamber 10 to directly heat the outer wall of the chamber 10 or to heat the sterilization space.

The sterilizing material supply unit 30 is for supplying the sterilizing material to the sterilizing space S. In the present invention, hydrogen peroxide vapor is used as the sterilizing material, but it is not necessarily limited thereto. The sterilization material supply unit 30 includes a sterilization material supply tank 31 for supplying a sterilization material such as hydrogen peroxide, a vaporizer 32 connected to the chamber 10 for vaporizing the supplied sterilization material, And a sterilization material supply pump 33 interposed between the sterilization material supply tank 31 and the vaporizer 32 for applying pressure.

The vacuum pump 41 is connected to the chamber 10 to bring the sterilization space S into a vacuum state. The vacuum pump 41 is provided to keep the sterilizing space S in a vacuum state. More specifically, it is intended to remove impurities such as water, which may be present in the interior, by discharging the harmful substances in the interior and lowering the pressure, and ultimately to ideally realize the vaporization of the hydrogen peroxide water.

 The pressure of the sterilization space S can be measured and controlled by a pressure sensor (not shown) installed on the side wall of the chamber 10. The pressure sensor will alert you to dangerous pressure or generate an alarm if there is a pressure fault.

Further, the plasma generator 42 and the sterilization rehabilitation catalytic device 43 may be further connected to the chamber 10. The plasma generator 42 causes the hydrogen peroxide, which is a sterilizing material, to be decomposed into water and oxygen. The material inside the chamber can be exhausted 44 to the outside through the exhaust valve 40 and the vacuum pump 41. [

In the course of operation, the material inside the chamber 10 is discharged and the outside air is introduced. The outside air flows into the chamber 10 through the outside air inflow filter 46 and the outside air inflow valve 45.

The temperature of the chamber 10 can be maintained at a temperature of, for example, about 60 DEG C by the signal given by the temperature sensor (not shown). According to the present invention, it is possible to increase the temperature of the sterilization target W by actively flowing the fluid inside the chamber 10.

The sterilizing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, in particular, the chamber and the volume varying means, may have a configuration as shown in Figs. 3 to 4.

In the illustrated embodiment, the volume varying means provided on one side of the chamber includes a cylinder 12 separately provided outside the chamber 10, a piston 20 mounted on the cylinder so as to allow the piston 20 to move, and a driving unit 22). A main pipe (201) is connected to the cylinder (12). A spray main pipe 202 and a plurality of spray nozzles 203 are connected between the main pipe 201 and the chamber 10 so that the sterilizing material can be sprayed and supplied simultaneously in various places in the chamber 10. A recovery pipe for recovering the sterilizing material is installed between the main pipe 201 and the chamber 10 and comprises a recovery main pipe 204 and a plurality of recovery pipe 205. The sterilization material is also simultaneously absorbed from several places in the chamber 10 simultaneously. Although not shown, a check valve is provided in each of the injection branch pipe 203 and the recovery branch pipe 205 so as to form only one-way flow of the fluid. That is, the fluid containing the sterilizing material is injected to one side through the change of the vacuum degree, and the fluid containing the sterilizing material is recovered from the other side to the outside of the chamber. The reference numerals not described will be referred to the above description.

The sterilization apparatus of the present invention can be operated in the following manner. Hereinafter, description will be made mainly with reference to Fig. 2 is a graph showing the pressure change during the process.

The pressure of the sterilizing space S is lowered to a vacuum close to, for example, 5 to 50 torr by the vacuum pump 40, and the drying process is performed in this state. During the drying process, the volume of the sterilization space is varied in a pulsed manner (K '), i.e., pulsating, using volume modifying means to induce flow of material within the sterilization chamber. Accordingly, the fluid in the sterilization space S can be continuously exchanged, and the temperature of the sterilization target can be increased and the moisture can be discharged.

Thereafter, the sterilizing material is supplied through the sterilizing material supply unit 30 to perform the sterilization process. The volume modifying means is operated in the form of a pulse (K ') with the pressure of the sterilization space (S) being maintained at 50 to 100 torr on average, thereby inducing a strong penetration of the sterilization material so that the sterilization material penetrates into the pouch.

After the primary sterilization process, the secondary sterilization process can be performed in the above-described manner while introducing the outside air while returning the pressure to the atmospheric pressure by evacuating to the atmospheric pressure, and then forming a vacuum using the vacuum pump 40 again. In order to remove the residual sterilization material after the secondary sterilization process, the sterilization material removal process is performed in a similar manner to the above-described drying process.

As a result, by activating the volume modifying means in the form of a pulse (K ') in a vacuum or similar low pressure state, the sterilized material in the vaporized state is strongly flowed into the pouch to penetrate the sealed medical device completely and quickly And sterilization can be performed.

The above-described pulse shape (K ') can be formed by repeatedly actuating the volume varying means at intervals of several times to several hundred times per minute. Of course, this cycle is an example and the sterilization process can be dynamically performed by changing the pattern in various ways.

The volume modifying means of the present invention may be adapted to perform the process of waiting for sterilization re-reaction time and expanding the volume after volume reduction in a vacuum under subatmospheric pressure. And the process can be set to be repeated several times as needed.

The above description is only an example based on the technical idea of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize that various modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. For example, all embodiments described above may be freely combined and practiced by those skilled in the art, and any combination thereof should be construed as being included within the scope of the present invention.

10: chamber 12: cylinder
20: piston 21: working rod
22: driving part (actuator) 25:
30: Sterilization material supply part 31: Sterilization material supply tank
32: Carburetor 33: Sterile feed pump
41: Vacuum pump 42: Plasma generator
43: sterilization regenerating catalyst device 46: outside air inlet filter
47: heater 201: main pipe
202: injection main pipe 203: branch pipe branch
204: collection main pipe 205: collection pipe
S: Sterilization space W: Sterilization target

Claims (6)

A chamber for providing an enclosed sterile space;
A sterilizing material supply unit for supplying a sterilizing material into the chamber;
A vacuum pump for bringing the inside of the chamber into a vacuum state;
Volume varying means for varying the pressure of the sterilizing space by varying the volume of the sterilizing space;
Wherein the low temperature sterilization chamber has a volume variable chamber.
The method according to claim 1,
Said volume varying means comprising:
A cylinder installed at one side of the chamber to communicate with an internal space of the chamber; A piston coupled to the cylinder to vary a volume of the chamber interior space; A driving unit for varying the volume of the sterilizing space by starting the piston;
Wherein the sterilization chamber has a volume variable chamber.
The method according to claim 1,
Said volume varying means comprising:
A corrugated tube provided at one side of the chamber; And a driving unit coupled to the other end of the bellows tube to vary the volume of the sterilizing space by varying the length of the bellows tube.
The method according to claim 1,
Said volume varying means comprising:
Characterized in that it is repeatedly actuated in the form of a pulse in the vacuum state.
The method according to claim 1,
Said volume varying means comprising:
A cylinder separately provided outside the chamber; A piston coupled to the cylinder; And a driving unit for starting the piston.
A main pipe (201) connected to the cylinder;
A main injection pipe 202 connected between the main pipe 201 and the chamber, and a plurality of branch pipes 203;
A recovery main pipe 204 connected between the main pipe 201 and the chamber, and a plurality of recovery pipes 205;
And a check valve installed in the injection branch pipe (203) and the recovery branch pipe (205), respectively, so that fluid flows in opposite directions to each other;
The sterilizing material is simultaneously sprayed and fed at a plurality of locations in the chamber;
Wherein the sterilizing material is simultaneously and collectively absorbed from several places in the chamber. ≪ RTI ID = 0.0 > 8. < / RTI >
The method according to claim 1,
The sterilizing material is hydrogen peroxide vapor;
The sterilizing material supply unit includes a sterilizing material supply tank 31 for supplying hydrogen peroxide, a vaporizer 32 for vaporizing the supplied hydrogen peroxide and connected to the chamber, and a sterilizing material supply unit 32 for supplying pressure to the sterilizing material And a sterilizing material supply pump (33) installed between the tank (31) and the vaporizer (32).

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