Container for use in treating liquid

SWEDEN

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PATENTS AND REGISTRATION OFFICE

PUBLISHING LETTER NO 354 582 mtci B 04 b 11/00

Patent Application. No. 33θ9 / 71

Validity Day on

Ans. widely available on

Ans. published and the publication published the Priority_ej requested

Income 15 III 1971

III 1971

IX 1972

III 1975

AGA AB, LIDINGÖ

Inventoret Έ Weetberg, Lidingö, P Unger, Stockholm and S Schwartz, Lidingö Agents »S Moberg

Liquid detergent, spec. for use in treating blood

The invention relates to a liquid container, especially for use in batch processing, for example centrifugation, of a liquid such as blood, which container is made of flexible sheet material.

For storage and handling of blood, compressible (so-called collapsible) containers are often used, which consist of a thin, sheet-shaped plastic material and can have different shapes. These containers, which are usually intended to be used only once, are closed but provided with a hose, or means for connecting a hose through which they can be filled and emptied. In our co-pending patent application 3310/71 Cent rifug, a centrifuge is described, in which several such containers are interconnected during the mediation of hoses, which are included in so-called hose pumps, which serve to transport the liquid between the containers. Like the containers themselves, these hoses are used only once. The connection of the hoses and their insertion in the hose pumps can in some cases be difficult, and the hoses can also make the handling of the containers difficult.

The object of the invention is to remedy this inconvenience, and the container according to the invention has been given for this the design according to the claims, which is characterized in principle that at least the part of the hose included in the hose pump is, so to speak, integrated into the container itself and is formed by same sheet material

Dupl.kl. B 04 b 15/00 like this one. This will be more apparent from the following description of an exemplary embodiment shown in the accompanying schematic drawings. In this, Fig. 1 shows an axial section through a pumping device, which includes a container made according to the invention, while Figs.

is a plan view on a slightly smaller scale of the container itself, seen from the top of Fig. 1, wherein a line II in Fig. 2 marks a section corresponding to the section shown in Fig. 1.

The pumping device shown in Fig. 1 may constitute the rotor or part of the rotor for a centrifuge, in which case it is arranged to rotate in full at high speed in a stator. However, the invention is by no means limited to use in a centrifuge, and thus the pump device shown may also be stationary. For the following description, it does not matter whether or not the pump device rotates.

The pumping device of Fig. 1 has a circular, generally bowl-shaped bottom part 11, which together with a top part 12 forms an annular space for a circular, substantially disc-shaped liquid container 13. This liquid container 13 is made of a thin and easily flexible sheet-shaped plastic material. for example, polyethylene, and has an annular outer portion 14 which forms the actual container space and is intended to contain a liquid, for example blood or a liquid for treating blood. When the container is filled, the annular outer portion 14 has the shape shown in Fig. 1. The container 13 consists of two circular sheets of plastic material, which have been placed one on the other and joined together by heat sealing or welding. Thus, the container has an outer, circumferential weld 15 and a central pattern of welds 16.

The central circular portion 17 of the container 13 has a channel 18 formed by the welds 16, one end of which 19 communicates with the annular container portion 14 and the other end 20 of which communicates with a connection hose 21 which is connected to the center of the container. Through this hose 21, liquid can be supplied to or from the container portion 14. The channel 18 runs in a circle around the center of the container and forms the hose in a hose pump with a rotor 22, which is rotatably stored in the center of the bottom part 11 and can be rotated in the desired direction with respect to the bottom part and the container 13 by means of a drive device 23. The rotor 22 has three pressure rollers 24 which are rotatably mounted on the rotor at an angular space of 120 ° (see also Fig. 2) and abut against the channel 18 forming part of the container 13 so that they close the channel. A cloth or pad 25 of an elastic material is inserted between the upper portion 12 and the central portion 17 of the container 13, thereby forming a support or counterclockwise for the printing rollers 24. A similar cloth or pad may alternatively or additionally lie between the printing rollers and the central container portion.

As the rotor 22 rotates counterclockwise, as seen in FIG. from the underside of Fig. 1, liquid is conveyed through the connecting hose 21 and channel 18 into the annular outer container portion 14, as shown by solid arrows in Fig. 2, and as the rotor rotates clockwise, liquid is transported in the opposite direction as shown by dashed arrows. . If the rotor is stationary, the connection between the annular container portion 14 and the connecting hose 21 is blocked by the hose pump pressure rollers 24, which close to the channel 18.

Since the walls of the duct 18 are formed of a soft and easy-to-bend material, unlike the hoses normally used in hose pumps, they are hardly capable of opening the duct by themselves (i.e., adopting the cross-sectional shape indicated by dashed lines at the left printing roller 24 in Fig. 1), after being compressed by the pressure rollers, and normally it is therefore necessary to supply the liquid to the duct 18 under a certain pressure. This pressure can be achieved in various ways. In the case of pumping fluid out of the annular container portion 14, the pressure can be achieved, for example, by applying an external pressure to this container portion, as described in our preamble patent application, to which we refer.

The design of the channel 18 can, of course, vary and adapt to the conditions in each particular case. Thus, it is not necessary that the inner end 19 of the duct be adjacent to the circular path of the pressure rollers 24 of the hose pump, but it may also be spaced from this path, if appropriate. Also, it is not necessary that the channel 18 extend along the entire circular path of the printing rollers, as shown in FIG. 2, but it is sufficient if it is so long that it is always kept closed by the pressure rollers in at least one place. The shape of the actual container part may also vary; the disc form shown is only one example which has been selected to illustrate the possibility of applying the invention to centrifuges. For example, the container may have two or more separate spaces for fluid which are joined by one or more hose pump channels so that fluid can be transferred from one room to another.

In the drawing, only such details have been included which may be of importance for understanding the invention. Thus, the bearing and support elements and also the control or control means for the hose pump have been omitted. However, these parts are well known per se and therefore should not need to be shown or further described.