RU2768168C1 - Method of making tampon for collecting and applying chemical or biological materials - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: medicine.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to medicine and relates to a method of making a tampon for collection, application, storage and transportation of chemical or biological materials, made from a polymer material, comprising a rod consisting of a holder in the form of a thickened lower part and a thinner upper part ending with a tip on which the fibres are applied, where the manufacturing process consists of the following steps: the rod is placed in a nitrogen or inert gas medium; rod tip is vertically placed in a zone of intense heat exposure, wherein the thermal effect - heating is carried out until the tip melts and a liquid drop of the polymer is formed; at the moment of formation of a drop, the thermal effect is terminated and the tip of the rod is immediately immersed into the fluidised layer of the fibres of the polymer material; when immersed, a static charge is supplied to the rod; after immersion, the rod moves from the chamber into an air atmosphere and cools down at room temperature or lower; excess fibre is removed from the surface of the rod tip by blowing with compressed air.

EFFECT: invention provides a reduction in the labour input of the flocking process.

1 cl, 3 dwg

Description

The present invention relates to methods for the production of tampons having fibers of various polymeric materials at their working end, intended for the collection and application of chemical or biological materials. The use of the claimed technical solution is applicable and eliminates the need to use special adhesive compositions required in the manufacture of swabs for collecting chemical or biological materials by flocking.

The swab obtained as a result of this manufacturing method for collecting (applying), storing and transporting chemical and biomaterials is made of a polymeric material.

Traditionally, in medical fields such as diagnostics and clinical analysis, swabs have been widely used to collect samples from a patient's mouth, nasal cavity, or examination surfaces. At the same time, known swabs have the problem of taking a sufficient volume of material for its (sample) analysis, safe storage and transportation of chemical, biomaterial to the place of analysis.

The technical solutions identified by the applicant from the studied prior art do not fully solve this problem.

An invention is known according to JP patent No. 2011234666 "Tampon", the essence is a cotton swab, in which a cotton piece is provided at one or both ends of the shaft, and there is also a flocculent layer obtained by coating short fibers in the form of a brush on the surface of the cotton piece.

The disadvantage of the known technical solution is that the cotton swab does not allow the collected bio- and chemical material to be released efficiently enough, which leads to an insufficient volume of chemical-, biomaterials released into the nutrient medium, as a result of which it has low consumer properties compared to the claimed technical solution.

In this regard, the known invention does not provide a sufficient amount of taken and, accordingly, applied, chemical, biomaterials, as well as their storage, fast and safe transportation to the place of analysis and has low consumer properties compared to the claimed technical solution.

An invention is known according to patent RU No. 2735989 "A swab for collecting and applying chemical, biomaterials", the essence of which is a swab for collecting and applying chemical, biomaterials, made of polymer powder material, containing a rod consisting of a holder in the form of a thickened lower part and of a thinner upper part ending in a tip, characterized in that the thinner upper part ending in a tip can additionally be equipped with both an attached spring part, curled around the thinner upper part and directed towards the thickened part - the holder, and flocked at the same time, polyamide is used as a polymer powder material, having a porosity of up to 20% of the material volume after printing.

The disadvantages of the prototype is that the porous structure of the material takes a long time to effectively release the collected bio - and chemical material, which leads to consumer properties.

An invention is known according to patent ES No. 2714712, "Flocked tampon and method for collecting and transferring samples of biological material", the essence is a flocked tampon for collecting and transferring samples of biological material, and the tampon contains at least: a support body having an elongated conformation and having, at least a first end portion and at least a gripping portion, and at least a flocked layer defined by a plurality of fibers attached and positioned on the first support body portion by flocking technology, so as to realize a flocked collection portion , aimed at absorbing the amount of a sample of biological material, characterized in that the first part of the support body is provided with at least the first weakening part, designed to ensure and facilitate the selective destruction of the tampon in the first part and separation from at least the first part of the accumulated collecting part, at least at least from the second part of the accumulated collecting part and from the gripping part.

The disadvantage of the known technical solution is that the flocking operation requires a specialized adhesive, which is applied to the first part of the support body, and which has a long polymerization time necessary to fix the fibers. This greatly complicates the technological process, since the flock fibers can be separated from the support body before the fixing process as a result of any contact with an external object. It also requires a specialized drying process, which also complicates the production process and increases the production time. As a result, the method used in this invention has low productive properties.

From the prior art studied by the applicant, an invention was revealed according to patent US No. 2019307433 "Swab for collecting biological samples", chosen by the applicant as a prototype, the essence of which is a swab for collecting biological samples of the type consisting of a rod ending at a tip coated with a fiber with hydrophilic properties, providing absorption of said samples, characterized in that said fiber covers said tip in the form of a layer applied using flocking technology.

The disadvantage of the known technical solution is that the flocking operation requires a specialized adhesive, which is applied to the first part of the support body, and which has a long polymerization time necessary to fix the fibers. This greatly complicates the technological process, since the flock fibers can be separated from the support body before the fixing process as a result of any contact with an external object. It also requires a specialized drying process, which also complicates the production process and increases the production time. As a result, the method used in this invention has low productive properties compared to the claimed technical solution. There is also a risk that the adhesive used will influence the properties of bio- and chemical materials to be collected and applied.

In this regard, the known invention does not provide a sufficient volume of taken and, accordingly, applied bio- and chemical materials, as well as their storage, fast and safe transportation to the place of analysis, and has low consumer properties compared to the claimed technical solution.

The task was to reduce the complexity of the flocking process.

The essence of the claimed device is a method for manufacturing a tampon for collecting, applying, storing and transporting chemical or biological materials, made of a polymeric material, containing a rod consisting of a holder in the form of a thickened lower part and a thinner upper part ending in a tip on which fibers are applied, characterized in that the manufacturing process consists of the following steps:

1.1) the rod is placed in a nitrogen or inert gas environment, the oxygen content should not exceed 5%;

1.2) the tip of the rod is vertically placed in the zone of intense heat exposure, so that the holder is on top, and the tip is on the bottom, heating is carried out due to local infrared exposure, laser radiation, high-temperature gas flow or electromagnetic radiation; in this case, the thermal effect - heating is carried out until the tip melts and the formation of a liquid drop of the polymer begins to stretch under the action of gravity, while the heating time depends on the type of polymer material and the method of thermal effect, and the thermal effect occurs in a nitrogen or inert gas environment, the oxygen content should not exceed 5%;

1.3) at the moment of drop formation, the thermal effect stops and the rod tip is instantly immersed in a fluidized layer of polymer material fibers, when immersed, a static charge is applied to the rod, thus, as a result of this operation, the polymer material fibers stick to the liquid surface of the rod tip at different angles, and the immersion operation lasts from 1 to 5 seconds, while the fluidized bed is formed due to the movement of gas upward through short fibers and this fluidization process is based on the action of forces: aerodynamic drag and gravitational forces;

1.4) after immersion, the rod moves out of the chamber into an air atmosphere and cools down at room temperature or below;

1.5), excess fiber is removed from the surface of the rod tip by blowing with compressed air.

The claimed technical solution is illustrated in Fig.1, Fig.2, Fig.3.

Figure 1 shows the design of the rod, which shows the claimed tampon and a diagram of the method of manufacturing a tampon:

1a - construction of the rod before applying the fiber layer to the tip of the rod.

1b is a diagram of a method for manufacturing a tampon.

On FIG. Figure 2 shows a photograph obtained using a scanning electron microscope, the tip of a swab rod for collecting and applying chemical or biological materials coated with a fibrous coating:

2a – SEM image of the fiber coating of the rod tip obtained with 25x magnification;

2b – SEM image of the fiber coating of the rod tip obtained with 100x magnification;

On FIG. Figure 3 shows a photograph, obtained using a scanning electron microscope, of a transverse section of the tip of a tampon rod for collecting and applying chemical or biological materials coated with a fibrous coating.

3a – SEM image of a transverse section of the tip of the tampon rod, obtained with a 25x magnification;

3b - SEM image of the cross section of the junction of the fibers with the surface of the tip of the tampon rod, obtained with a 300-fold increase;

Further, the applicant provides a description of the claimed technical solution.

The set goals and the claimed technical result are achieved in that a method for manufacturing a tampon for collecting, applying, storing and transporting chemical or biological materials, made of a polymeric material, containing a rod consisting of a holder in the form of a thickened lower part and a thinner upper part ending in a tip , on which the fibers are applied, consists of the following steps:

1) The rod (Fig. 1a) is placed in a nitrogen or inert gas environment, the oxygen content should not exceed 5%.

2) The tip of the rod is vertically placed in the zone of intense heat exposure, so that the holder is on top, and the tip is on the bottom (Fig. 1.b. Stage 1) Heating can occur due to local infrared exposure, due to laser radiation, due to local blowing with a high-temperature gas flow due to microwave electromagnetic radiation. Thermal effect - heating is carried out until the tip melts and a liquid drop of polymer begins to stretch under the action of gravity (Fig. 1.b. Stage 2). The heating time depends on the type of polymer material and the method of thermal exposure. Thermal exposure occurs in a nitrogen or inert gas environment, the oxygen content should not exceed 5%.

3) At the moment of drop formation, the thermal effect stops and the tip of the rod instantly immerses in a fluidized layer of fibers of a polymer (or other) material, when immersed, a static charge is applied to the rod (Fig. 1.b. Stage 3). As a result of this operation, the fibers of the polymeric (or other) material stick to the liquid surface of the tip of the rod at different angles. The dive operation lasts from 1 to 5 seconds. The fluidized bed is formed by the movement of a gas (nitrogen or inert gas, oxygen content must not exceed 5%) upwards through short fibers. This fluidization process is based on the action (opposition) of forces: aerodynamic drag and gravitational forces.

4) After immersion, the rod moves out of the chamber into an air atmosphere and cools down at or below room temperature (Fig. 1b, step 4).

5) Excess fiber from the surface of the tip of the rod is removed by blowing with compressed air. The tip of the fiber coated rod is shown in Fig. 2a, Fig 2b.

On FIG. 3a and 3b are SEM images of the cross section of the junction of the fibers with the surface of the tip of the tampon rod, which shows the fixation of the fibers directly to the surface of the tip without the use of glue.

Thus, from the foregoing, we can conclude that the applicant has achieved the set goals and the claimed technical result , namely, a method has been developed that eliminates the disadvantages of the prototype:

- eliminated the formation of marriage as a result of accidental contact of the tip of the tampon rod with an external object during the production process until the glue hardens;

- eliminated the need to use the process of thermal drying for the implementation of the process of polymerization and hardening of the adhesive to fix the fibers leads to an increase in the duration of the production process of a tampon for collecting and applying chemical or biological materials.

- eliminated the use of glue in the manufacturing process, thereby eliminating the possibility of interaction of the adhesive used for flocking with some bio- and chemical materials.

Thus, the use of a combination of all essential features of the proposed technical solution makes it possible to solve the technical problem and achieve the specified technical result - reducing the complexity of the flocking process.

The claimed technical solution complies with the "novelty" patentability condition for inventions, since the set of features given in the independent claim of the invention has not been identified from the prior art studied by the applicant.

The claimed technical solution complies with the "inventive step" patentability condition for inventions, since the totality of the features listed in the independent claim and the totality of the technical results obtained have not been identified from the prior art studied by the applicant.

The claimed technical solution complies with the "industrial applicability" patentability condition for inventions, since the claimed technical solution can be implemented in industry through the use of materials, equipment and technologies known from the prior art.

Claims (6)

A method for manufacturing a tampon for collecting, applying, storing and transporting chemical or biological materials, made of a polymeric material containing a rod consisting of a holder in the form of a thickened lower part and a thinner upper part ending in a tip on which fibers are applied, characterized in that the manufacturing process consists of the following steps: 1.1) the rod is placed in a nitrogen or inert gas environment, the oxygen content should not exceed 5%; 1.2) the tip of the rod is vertically placed in the zone of intense heat exposure, so that the holder is on top, and the tip is on the bottom, heating is carried out due to local infrared exposure, laser radiation, high-temperature gas flow or electromagnetic radiation; in this case, the thermal effect - heating is carried out until the tip melts and the formation of a liquid drop of the polymer begins to stretch under the action of gravity, and the heating time depends on the type of polymer material and the method of thermal effect, and the thermal effect occurs in a nitrogen or inert gas environment, the oxygen content is not must exceed 5%; 1.3) at the moment of drop formation, the thermal effect stops and the rod tip is instantly immersed in a fluidized layer of polymer material fibers, when immersed, a static charge is applied to the rod, thus, as a result of this operation, the polymer material fibers stick to the liquid surface of the rod tip at different angles, and the immersion operation lasts from 1 to 5 seconds, while the fluidized bed is formed due to the movement of gas upward through short fibers and this fluidization process is based on the action of forces: aerodynamic drag and gravitational forces; 1.4) after immersion, the rod moves out of the chamber into an air atmosphere and cools down at room temperature or below; 1.5), excess fiber is removed from the surface of the rod tip by blowing with compressed air.

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