|Publication number||US7472701 B2|
|Application number||US 11/094,561|
|Publication date||Jan 6, 2009|
|Filing date||Mar 30, 2005|
|Priority date||Apr 7, 2004|
|Also published as||DE102004016985A1, DE102004016985B4, US20050224076|
|Publication number||094561, 11094561, US 7472701 B2, US 7472701B2, US-B2-7472701, US7472701 B2, US7472701B2|
|Inventors||Andreas Pfichner, Gerhard Pumm|
|Original Assignee||Pari Pharma Gmbh|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (12), Non-Patent Citations (1), Referenced by (14), Classifications (20), Legal Events (3)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
The invention relates to an aerosol generation device comprising an oscillatable membrane and an oscillation generating device, as well as an inhalation therapy device comprising such an aerosol generation device.
Aerosol generation devices are in particular known in the prior art, but not only for inhalation therapy devices, in which an oscillatable membrane is caused to oscillate by an oscillation generation device, and in which a liquid, which is applied to the one side of the membrane, passes through the oscillating membrane and is output on the other side of the membrane as an aerosol. It is known, e.g. from EP 0 084 458 A, to provide the oscillatable membrane with a curved region and to arrange holes in the membrane at locations where the oscillation pattern of the membrane has antinodes. It is known from EP 0 615 470 A that the oscillatable membrane can be caused to perform bending oscillations by the oscillation generating device.
In the known embodiments of the above-mentioned aerosol generation device, it is disadvantageous in particular for an application in inhalation therapy devices that greater amounts of liquid often adhere to the side of the membrane facing the aerosol which unify to droplets and close several of the holes in the membrane. The transport of liquid and the generation of a sufficient amount of aerosol in a desired region of droplet spectrum range is thereby impaired. Some of the droplets may also separate from the oscillating membrane which may have an adverse effect on the aerosol droplet spectrum. It is therefore required to prevent by additional measures that too great an amount of liquid can accumulate at the aerosol side of the membrane and that too large droplets separate.
To this end, it has proven to be expedient that the fluid used for the generation of droplets is stored in a reservoir under negative pressure, as is the case with a device described e.g. in WO 02/064265. This device has a lid for closing the fluid reservoir which builds up a negative pressure in the reservoir when being closed. Due to the negative pressure, the fluid does not accidentally escape from the perforated membrane. An unintentional and undesired droplet formation on the membrane can be prevented thereby which would impair an aerosol generation and lead to loss of fluid. However, this device is very complex and does not only require a fluid-tight, but also a gas-tight reservoir for maintaining the negative pressure. In addition, the proper operation of the device depends on a correct operation of the lid.
On this background, it is the object of the invention to provide an aerosol generation device which avoids the indicated problems, which is particularly suited for inhalation therapy devices and in which, without providing additional measures, the risk of adherence of liquid to the membrane on the side facing the aerosol is reduced.
This object is achieved by an aerosol generation device comprising an oscillatable membrane for nebulizing a liquid having a first curved region, and an oscillation generating device by which the membrane can be caused to oscillate such that a liquid disposed on one side of the membrane is nebulized through the oscillating membrane and is present on the other side of the membrane as an aerosol, wherein the membrane has at least a second region which is surrounded by the first region, and wherein the first region and the second region have different curvatures. Therein, the curvature of the second region can be advantageously also Zero, so that the second region is plane.
A transition edge is formed at the transition between the first region and the second region which defines an oscillation node line and, therefore, an oscillation can be generated in which an oscillation node line is present at the transition edge, when the oscillation generating device is driven in a suitable manner and the oscillatable membrane is thereby excited. The oscillation of the membrane is thereby influenced such that less liquid adheres to the aerosol side of the membrane.
The effect can be further enhanced when holes are only present in the first region and second region of the membrane through which the liquid can pass. A further enhancement is possible when the hole density in areas of a high oscillation amplitude is increased, for example, in that the holes have a greater density at a center line of the first region, or in that the holes have a greater density in the center of the second region. According to a preferred embodiment, the second region only has holes which are arranged in the center of the region. In connection therewith it is possible that the holes of zones having a higher hole density pass into zones having a lower hole density until there are no longer holes in a zone in the vicinity of the transition edge. However, the distribution of the holes can also abruptly pass from a zone having a constant hole density to a zone without holes extending until the transition edge. Based on a lower contribution to a nebulization by regions having a lower oscillation amplitude, the regions having a sufficiently high oscillation amplitude are advantageously only provided with holes, while regions having a low oscillation amplitude are not provided with holes. This allows that it is advantageously prevented that fluid passes through the holes in the membrane without being nebulized in regions which do not contribute to nebulization or which only have a low contribution to nebulization.
In order to be able to fasten the membrane according to the invention to the oscillation generation device, around the first region a third region is arranged, the curvature of which is Zero, i.e. which is plane.
By preventing that liquid adheres to the aerosol side of the membrane, the aerosol generation device according to the invention can be advantageously used in an inhalation therapy device comprising a liquid storing means for storing a liquid to be nebulized, wherein the supply of the liquid can be performed from the liquid storing means to the membrane through the membrane according to the invention at environmental pressure. Additional measures for preventing that liquid droplets adhere, such as e.g. the generation of a negative pressure in the liquid storing means, are not necessary.
In the following, the invention is described in more detail by means of embodiments with reference to the Figures, wherein the Figures show:
The oscillation generating device 2, 3 comprises a support unit 2 and an electromechanical conversion unit 3, preferably a piezo-electrical conversion unit. The support unit 2 and the electromechanical conversion unit 3 of the embodiment example shown are flat annuli having concentrically aligned openings. The two units 2 and 3 are fixedly connected to each other. The dimensions of both units 2 and 3 of the oscillation generating device are preferably adapted to each other such that the oscillation generating device is caused to generate bending oscillations when excited by an electric drive signal.
The membrane 1 is concentrically arranged towards the openings of the support unit 2 and the electromechanical conversion unit 3 and fixedly connected to the oscillation generating device 2, 3 and, therefore, the oscillation generating device causes the membrane 1 to oscillate when the oscillation generating device 2, 3 itself is excited to oscillate by an electric drive signal. The excitation of the oscillation generating device 2, 3 is preferably performed such that the membrane 1 is caused to oscillate in a desired oscillation state, preferably also bending oscillations, at a desired frequency.
A liquid is typically present on the upper side of the aerosol generation device shown in
As may be taken from
In connection therewith, the curvature of the regions is to be understood as a curvature of space. For exemplification only, the curvatures of space are designated by the radii of a curvature of a line in order to show the principle of the invention by means of the drawings.
In the embodiment example shown in
However, according to the invention, the membrane can be also designed such that the second region 12 has a smaller curvature than the first region 11. The radius r2 must be therefor selected to be greater than the radius r1 shown in
In the embodiment example according to
In the embodiment examples shown in
A sectorial cut of a membrane 1 is shown by way of example for all membranes 1 according to the invention in
As indicated in
In the embodiment example shown in
The transition edges 14 and 15 are of particular interest for designing the membrane 1 according to the invention since they allow determination of oscillation node lines for the oscillations resulting in the membrane.
In particular for an embodiment, which is taken as a model here, in which the first region 11 extents to the edge of the opening in the oscillation generation device 2, 3 and which is shown in
The oscillation picture of
The oscillation behaviour of the membrane can be influenced in a targeted manner by providing the transition edges, in particular the transition edge 14, between the first region 11 and the second region 12. Further, the hole density can be increased in the middle of the second region 12, as explained above. Both measures together lead to a preferred design which allows an effective influence on the characteristics of the membrane.
In the aerosol generation device according to the invention, it is in particular achieved that extremely little liquid passes through the membrane without effective nebulization. The amount of liquid adhering to the membrane on the aerosol side is thereby considerably reduced and, therefore, the problem of the adhering liquid droplets and the adverse effect on the nebulization performance connected therewith is eliminated to a great extent. The effect of the design of the membrane according to the invention is so clearly recognizable that it can be dispensed with other measures, e.g. storing the liquid in a reservoir under negative pressure. This aspect is explained in more detail in the inhalation therapy device shown in
An inhalation therapy device 100 is shown in
When a membrane 1 according to the invention is operated, the liquid reservoir 101 can be designed such that environmental pressure is present in the interior, and that the supply of liquid to the membrane is effected at environmental pressure. Special measures for the generation of a negative pressure in the liquid reservoir 101 are not required. Nevertheless, an undesired accumulation of liquid on the membrane 1 will not take place.
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|U.S. Classification||128/203.12, 128/200.13, 128/200.14, 128/201.28, 128/200.11, 128/200.21, 128/200.22, 128/203.19, 128/205.24|
|International Classification||A61M11/00, B05B17/00, A61M15/00, B05B17/06, C12P21/06, A61M16/10|
|Cooperative Classification||B05B17/0646, A61M15/0085, A61M2202/04|
|European Classification||B05B17/06B5F, A61M15/00F|
|Jun 16, 2005||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: PARI GMBH SPEZIALISTEN FUR EFFEKTIVE INHALATION, G
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:PFICHNER, ANDREAS;PUMM, GERHARD;REEL/FRAME:016695/0552
Effective date: 20050525
|Oct 26, 2007||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: PARI PHARMA GMBH, GERMANY
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:PARI GMBH SPEZIALISTEN FUER EFFEKTIVE INHALATION;REEL/FRAME:020023/0084
Effective date: 20070830
|Jul 2, 2012||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4