WO2011095615A1

WO2011095615A1 - Application device for atomizing a liquid

Info

Publication number: WO2011095615A1
Application number: PCT/EP2011/051697
Authority: WO
Inventors: Dieter Gulik
Original assignee: Meddrop Technology Ag
Priority date: 2010-02-06
Filing date: 2011-02-05
Publication date: 2011-08-11
Also published as: EP2531246A1; DE102010007063A1; DE102010007063B4

Abstract

The invention relates to an application device for atomizing a liquid by means of a gas flow, in which the liquid is received in a liquid container (6) and can be atomized by means of a gas flow on a nozzle head (31) of the application device that contains a nozzle needle (36), wherein the application device contains a rearward valve unit (3) having at least one gas check valve for controlling the gas supply to the application device. According to the invention, the valve unit (3) can be connected to the first end of a cuvette holder (2) for receiving a cuvette (6) containing the liquid, wherein the valve unit (3) contains at least one release vale (5, 7) which is opened by connecting the cuvette holder (2) with the inserted cuvette (6) to the valve unit (3) and thereby releases a gas flow from the valve unit (3) via the cuvette holder (2) to the nozzle head (31), which can be fastened to the second end of the cuvette holder (2), wherein the at least one release valve can be actuated by the cuvette (6).

Description

Application device for atomizing a liquid

The invention relates to an application device for atomizing a liquid by means of a gas stream according to the preamble of claim 1.

In human and veterinary medicine, it is often desirable to deliver drug substances directly to a location to be treated in order to treat the localized as possible body site and avoid side effects on other body parts. In order to avoid the administration of an active substance via locally applied syringes, under certain conditions it is possible to apply active substances locally only by application to the skin. For many active ingredients, however, the skin is an obstacle that prevents or hampers the transmission of the active ingredients in sub-skin areas. To improve the penetration of the skin, so-called penetration enhancers, such as alcohol, fatty acids and the like, are frequently used, which reduce the transmission resistance of the skin. However, lower-lying places under the skin can rarely be reached.

Another possibility is to disperse drugs in microemulsions that are easier for the skin to penetrate. The penetration effect can be significantly increased if the microemulsion is applied under high pressure to the skin and if this is effected with simultaneous supply of gases, in particular oxygen. This method allows the incorporation of an active substance in areas of the body that are not just under the skin, such as bone joints, etc.

The formation of a microemulsion takes place in particular by means of an application device by atomizing a liquid by means of a gas flow, in which the liquid is taken up in a liquid container and is atomized via a nozzle head. The atomization is carried out in the manner of a paint spray gun, in which exploiting the Ventu effect, a gas stream, especially oxygen, liquid, ie the active substance, finely atomized and the active ingredient is thus applied to the skin surface to be treated. A corresponding method and the basic principle of a corresponding application device are known from WO 2006/0401 19 A2. It describes in detail how and which medicaments can be administered in this way. The application system specified there contains a drug reservoir which is atomized via a venturi nozzle with a surrounding gas jet at the nozzle leading end. The drug is delivered to the application system via a tubing connection from an external source. There is also a connection for a gas supply, wherein inside the application system, a gas deflection takes place, which makes it possible to use the gas supplied on the one hand to generate the gas flow to the venturi and on the other hand exert pressure on the rear end of the liquid column via a bypass.

The disadvantage of such an application system is that on the one hand at least two hose connections are to be provided and on the other hand the system can only be held so that the liquid in the drug reservoir retains a substantially vertically oriented orientation. Another disadvantage is due to the fact that the use of different drug liquids each requires a complete cleaning of the application system of previously used drug liquids.

The invention is therefore based on the object to provide an application system for atomizing a liquid by means of a gas stream, which is particularly suitable for the percutaneous administration of drugs that allows easy and flexible handling in almost any spatial position and that a rapid interchangeability with administering drug allows.

This object is achieved by the invention defined in claim 1. Advantageous developments of the invention are specified in subclaims.

The invention is based on an application system for atomizing a liquid which can be atomized by means of a gas flow with a nozzle head contained in a nozzle needle. The application device contains a valve unit with at least one gas barrier valve for controlling the gas supply to the application device. According to the invention, a valve unit can be attached to the first end of a cuvette holder for receiving a cuvette containing the liquid, the valve unit containing at least one release valve which is opened by attaching the cuvette with inserted cuvette to the valve unit and thus a gas flow from the valve unit via the cuvette holder releases to the nozzle head. This is attached to a second end of the cuvette holder. The at least one release valve in the valve unit is operable by a side wing of the cuvette.

The application device according to the invention therefore consists essentially of three parts, namely a valve unit for controlling the gas supply, a cuvette holder for receiving a cuvette containing the liquid to be administered and a nozzle head which can be fastened to the front end of the cuvette holder. The cuvette holder may be fitted with a syringe-like cuvette configured at the rear end to actuate one or more release valves in the valve unit such that the valve unit releases a gas flow only if a cuvette is actually present in the cuvette holder.

The valve unit of the application device preferably has a central pressure channel for the supply of compressed gas to the rear end of a cuvette inserted into the cuvette holder. In this case, at least two release valves arranged diagonally opposite one another in respective side channels of the valve unit are preferably provided, which can be actuated by at least two side wings attached to the cuvette when the cuvette is inserted into the cuvette holder.

The valve unit thus branches a gas flow supplied via a connection of the valve unit into a central gas flow, which is applied to the rear end of the cuvette, and in particular two side flows, which flow via the release valves, which can be actuated by a cuvette inserted into the cuvette holder. The sidestreams are led via the cuvette holder to the nozzle head where they form the gas jet, which causes atomization of the liquid contained in the cuvette at the nozzle leading end by means of the venturi effect. The located on the cuvette wings ensure that only one properly designed cuvette actuates the release valves. In a further embodiment, it can also be provided that the gas flow guided through the release valves can be controlled as a function of the actuation depth of the release valves. If the thickness of the side wings is therefore designed differently, so that the volume flow of guided through the side channels gas flow can be adjusted. In this way, cuvettes can be used for different active substance fluids whose side wings have different strengths, so that an automatic adjustment of the volume flow of the gas flows guided via the side channels can be achieved by selecting the thickness of the side wings and thus the setting of the operating depth of the release valves.

In particular, the release valves are preloaded by spring force, so that opening of the release valves takes place only when a suitable cuvette with a suitable thickness of side wings is inserted into the cuvette holder.

The application device according to the invention further preferably comprises at the front end of the valve unit a centering mandrel provided with a central passage which forms an annular gap at the front end of the valve unit into which an annular axially directed projection of a cuvette inserted into the cuvette holder can be inserted.

This makes it possible to achieve a very precise centering of an inserted cuvette, which is required in particular if control of the release valves is provided by variable thicknesses of the side wings of a cuvette. Furthermore, the cuvette's approach prevents overflow of the gas streams of the side channels and the central gas stream directed towards the rear end of the cuvette. Finally, in a further embodiment, the approach of the cuvette can also act on an additional central valve in the valve unit, which can then additionally shut off the central gas flow.

For the radial alignment of the side wings of the cuvette inserted into the cuvette holder in the valve unit, this is provided in particular with recesses for axially receiving the side wings. Even if the cuvette holder with a provided receptacle for the side wings, cuvette holder and valve unit can be connected with inserted cuvette only in a certain orientation with each other, so that only in this orientation a flow connection can be produced from the valve unit via the side channels to the nozzle head.

Valve unit and cuvette holder are preferably connectable to each other by means of a screw ring, wherein during screwing the side wings of a cuvette inserted in the cuvette holder actuate the head ends of the release valves to open and a passage of the gas flow from the valve unit to the front end of the cuvette holder and the nozzle head of the application device to enable.

Cell holder and valve unit can thus be very easily assembled and separated, so that a simple and quick exchange of a cuvette against another cuvette or after emptying a first cuvette against a filled cuvette is possible.

A cuvette which can be inserted into the application device according to the invention is in particular formed as a hollow cylinder with a nozzle-like end provided at the outlet opening and a rear end with at least one radially projecting side wing. Such a cuvette is designed in the manner of a syringe barrel, but neither a hand-operated piston nor a needle unit are present. For centering the cuvette in the cuvette holder and with respect to the valve unit, the rear end of the cuvette has an axial cylindrical projection which is sealingly inserted into the valve unit.

To squeeze out the liquid from the cuvette, this contains a pressure piston, which can be moved forward by the gas flow centrally applied via the valve unit. The plunger may also include means for preventing retraction or back-up in the cuvette to prevent an empty cuvette from being refilled improperly. This type provides security against incorrect use of the application device according to the invention. One For this purpose usable means for preventing the retraction of the pressure piston is known for example from DE 40 34 673 A1.

The application device according to the invention can be used both in the field of human medicine and veterinary medicine. There is a high level of protection against incorrect use, the application is simple and the cuvette system used allows a flexible use, with manipulation possibilities are essentially excluded.

The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to an embodiment. Show it:

Fig. 1 is a side view of a disassembled application device, partially in

Cut,

2 shows the transition region between the valve unit and cuvette holder in a lateral axial section in two positions,

3 shows the transition region between valve unit and cuvette holder in a second axial sectional view,

Fig. 4 is a cuvette in sectional view, and

Fig. 5 is a cuvette in supervision.

The application device according to the invention essentially contains three functional units, namely a valve unit 3, a cuvette holder 2 and a nozzle head 31.

The valve unit includes at its rear side a gas port 30, via the gas, in particular oxygen, under a pressure of z. B. 2 bar can be supplied. By means of an actuating lever 1, the gas supply can shut off and control. The oxygen stream supplied to the gas connection 30 is divided via the valve unit 3 into two side streams and one central stream. The central stream leads over a centering mandrel 4 on the back of the cuvette 6 inserted into the cuvette holder 2. The side streams are also introduced via the release valves 5 and 7 in the cuvette holder 2, but on the outside of the cuvette 6 along to the front end of the cuvette holder 2. The actuation of the valves 5 and 7 takes place via the side wings 32 and 33 of the cuvette 6 by the side wings acting on the head ends of the valves 5 and 7.

On the front end of the cuvette holder 2, the nozzle head 31 can be screwed into the screwed-in nozzle head 31, a needle 36 projects, which is anchored in the cuvette holder 2, wherein the tip of the needle 36 together with the nozzle head 31 forms a spray nozzle. The needle 36 is mounted in the cuvette holder 2 such that the rotational position of the nozzle head 31 relative to the cuvette holder 2 influences the position of the needle tip in the cuvette holder 2 and thus both the spray pattern and the spray strength are adjustable in a conventional manner.

The cuvette holder is designed such that the side streams fed from the back of the cuvette holder 2 from the valve unit are guided along the outside of a cuvette inserted or along separate side channels into the nozzle head 31. The cuvette 6 has a front spout which is sealed against the side channels so that the liquid exiting the cuvette only contacts the side channel streams at the tip of the needle 36.

The sealing of the cuvette holder with respect to the spray head 31 is accomplished by means of an O-ring 38. The nozzle head further includes a filter 37 inserted into a window of the nozzle head to reduce the spray pressure and to collect excess spray that would otherwise be distributed in the environment ,

Fig. 2 shows a sectional view of the connecting portion between the valve unit 3 and the cuvette holder 2. The lower half of the figure shows a view in which the screw ring 29 firmly connects the valve unit and the cuvette holder, while the upper half of the view shows a state in the valve unit and Cuvette holders are not yet connected. The valve unit 3 has two diagonally opposite side channels 19 and 20, in which a first release valve 5 and a second release valve 7 are held axially. The first valve spring 9 and the second valve spring 8 hold the release valves 5 and 7 in the unloaded state in the closed position, wherein the closure of the valves is ensured by the O-rings 13 and 14. The release valves 5 and 7 have at the front end valve tappets 15 and 16 which are actuated by the side wings 32 and 33 of the cuvette 6.

In the upper half of Fig. 2, a state is shown in which the second release valve 7 via the second valve spring 8 and the O-ring 14 is held in the closed position, wherein the second valve stem 15 and the second release valve head 22 from the valve unit. 3 sticking out a bit. In the lower view of FIG. 2, the release valve 5 is already held in the open position by the first release valve head 21 of the release valve 5 was pressed by the side wing 33 in the cuvette 6 to the rear.

The cuvette holder 2 contains a central receiving space for receiving a cuvette 6. The cuvette holder is designed similar to a syringe body with a cylindrical receiving space for receiving active liquid. At the rear end of the cuvette 6 are the two side wings 32 and 33, which act on the release valves 5 and 7. In the axial direction is located at the rear end of a cuvette further a cuvette attachment 17 which is cylindrical and surrounds the centering mandrel 4 of the valve unit 3 with sealing on the O-ring 1 1. The gas pressure supplied to the central pressure channel 18 in the valve unit 3 can therefore act centrally directly on the rear side of the cuvette 6.

The side channels 19 and 20, which receive the release valves 5 and 7, supplied gas flow flows with open release valves via an annular channel 23 through the side channels 25 and 26 of the cuvette holder 2 (see Fig. 3) head to the nozzle. The O-ring 10 is used to seal the cuvette in the cuvette holder 2 and to ensure inadvertent falling out of a cuvette from the cuvette holder 2 in the separated state of the application device.

The connection of the valve unit 3 and cuvette holder 2 by means of the screw ring 29, the inner wall at the same time limits the annular channel 23 under sealing by the O-ring 28 to the outside.

The O-ring 12 serves to seal the centering mandrel 4.

Fig. 3 shows a rotated by 90 ° view of an application device with composite valve unit and cuvette holder. Through the screw ring 29 cuvette holder 2 and valve unit 3 are firmly connected to each other, at the same time the annular channel 23 is formed, in which the side channels 19 and 20 open. Via a frontal space 24 between the cuvette holder 2 and the valve unit 3, the gas guided via the side channels 19 and 20 flows into the diagonally opposite side channels 25 and 26 of the cuvette holder 2 and thus within the cuvette holder 2 to the front end of the application device.

At the outer front end of the cuvette holder 2 is an external thread 27, on which the nozzle head 31 can be screwed.

4 shows a sectional view of a cuvette 6 which can be inserted into the cuvette holder 2. This cuvette is of integral design and has a hollow cylindrical shape and has at the front end a spout 35, which is sealingly formed with respect to the injection head. At the rear end of the cuvette 6 are laterally two side wings 32 and 33. Furthermore, a sleeve-shaped cuvette shoulder 17 is provided axially. Inside the cuvette is a displaceable piston 34 which is pressurized by the central pressure channel 18 of the valve unit 3 and thus pushes the liquid located in front of the piston 34 forwards from the nozzle 5 into the spray head. To avoid a manipulative pushing back or pushing back of the piston 34 has this annular obliquely outwardly and rearwardly directed resilient lugs, which are in the back of the piston in Press the inner wall of the cylindrical cuvette 6 and thus prevent the pushing back of the piston 34.

Fig. 5 shows a rear view of a cuvette with the two side wings 32 and 33 and the annular cuvette extension 17. The strength of the two side wings 32 and 33 is selected so that a cuvette inserted into the cuvette holder 2 releases the release valves 5 and 7. With a suitable design of the release valves, the thickness of the side wings 32 and 33 control the size of the pressure gas flowing through the release valves, so that there is a Kodiermöglichkeit a cuvette by depending on the strength of the side wings, the amount of gas flowing through the release valves can be adjusted ,

Reference numeral actuating lever 20 second side channel cuvette holder 21 first release valve köpf valve unit 22 second release valve head centering pin 23 annular channel

first release valve 24 free space

Cuvette 25 side channel

second release valve 26 side channel

second valve spring 27 thread

first valve spring 28 O-ring

O-ring 29 screw ring

O-ring 30 gas connection

O-ring 31 nozzle head

O-ring 32 side wings

O-ring 33 side wings

second valve stem 34 pistons

first valve tappet 35 grommet

Cuvette attachment 36 needle

Pressure channel 37 Filter

first side channel 38 O-ring

Claims

claims

1 . Anwendungseinnchtung for atomizing a liquid by means of a gas stream in which the liquid is received in a liquid container (6), and by means of gas stream with a nozzle needle (36) containing nozzle head (31) is atomized, wherein the application device with a rear valve unit (3) comprising at least one gas barrier valve for controlling the gas supply to the application device, characterized in that the first end of a cuvette holder (2) for receiving a cuvette (6) containing the liquid is attachable to the valve unit (3), wherein the valve unit (3) at least one Release valve (5, 7), which is opened by attaching the cuvette holder (2) with inserted cuvette (6) to the valve unit and thus releases a gas flow from the valve unit (3) via the cuvette holder (2) to the nozzle head (31), which is attachable to the second end of the cuvette holder (2), wherein the at least one fre igabeventil (5, 7) through the cuvette (6) is actuated.

2. Application device according to claim 1, characterized in that the valve unit (3) has a central pressure channel (18) for supplying compressed gas to the rear end of a cuvette holder (2) inserted cuvette (6) and at least two in respective side channels (19 , 20) of the valve unit (3) has diagonally opposite release valves (5, 7), which can be actuated by at least two side wings (32, 33) attached to the cuvette (2) when the cuvette (6) is inserted into the cuvette holder (2).

3. Application device according to claim 2, characterized in that the release valves (5, 7) are biased closing by spring force.

4. Application device according to claim 1, characterized in that the valve unit (3) at the front end connected to a central passage centering mandrel (4) which forms an annular gap at the front end of the valve unit (3), in which an annular axial directed approach (17) of a cuvette (6) inserted into the cuvette holder (2) is insertable.

5. Application device according to claim 4, characterized in that the annular projection (17) of the cuvette (6) is sealable in the gap.

6. Application device according to claim 2, characterized in that the front end face of the valve unit (3) is provided with recesses for axially receiving the side wings (32, 33) of a cuvette (2) inserted in the cuvette (6).

7. Application device according to claim 6, characterized in that by the side wings (32, 33) of the cuvette (6) operable release valves (5, 7) each have head ends (21, 22) in the unloaded state of the valves in the recesses the valve unit (3) protrude and through the side wings (32, 33) of the cuvette (6) are actuated.

8. Application device according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cuvette holder (2) and the valve unit (3) by means of a screw ring (29) are connectable to each other, wherein during assembly and screwing of the valve unit and cuvette holder the side wings (32, 33) of a cuvette (6) inserted into the cuvette holder (2) actuate the head ends (21, 22) of the release valves to open them and a passage of the gas flow from the valve unit (3) to the front end of the cuvette holder (2) and into the To allow nozzle head (31) of the application device.

9. cuvette for insertion into an application device according to one or more of the preceding claims 1-8, characterized in that the cuvette is hollow cylindrical with a front provided with an outlet opening spout-like end (35) and a rear end with at least one radially projecting side wing (32 , 33).

0. cuvette according to claim 9, characterized in that the rear end is provided with an axial cylindrical projection (17). 1 . A cuvette according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that the cuvette comprises a plunger (34) which is advanceable in the cuvette for expelling liquid from the outlet opening, and in that the plunger includes means for preventing retraction or back-up in the cuvette.