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Design and Development Drop: of A Unique Sensing Unit For Infusion Pump
Design and Development Drop: of A Unique Sensing Unit For Infusion Pump
In th e prese nt se t-up , th e prec ise assemb ly of dro p senso r unit has three IR -LED/detector pairs pl aced at differe nt planes
across drip chamber to de tec t the fa llin g drop. The pris mati c effec t. due to drops sticking to the wa lls in front o f o ne pa ir of
transmitter/detec to r. is com pe nsated by o the r two pa irs. This in creases a re li abi lity and dependability o f the overa ll system. Mo st
importantl y. the un it ca n accom modate varia ble s izes o f drip c ha mbe rs ava il ab le in the market. This pape r g ives detail s of the
above unit and a lso di sc usses abou t the overa ll pe rfo rm a nce improve me nt th at has occ urred by the int rod ucti o n o f thi s dev ice.
Introduction
Drop type Dru g Infusion Pump & Co ntroller is used
to in fuse the drug prec isely, drop-by-drop into the patient, at a predetermined rate, by peri stalti c type of p mping ac tion o n the intravenous (IV ) set tube. The Drug
Infusion pump has several advantages, like accuracy and
precision in drug infusion and initiati on of vario us alarms
so as to attract the atte nti on of operator in th e case of
malfun ctioning. Since the required infusion rate is in
mL/h , it can be converted into drop rate/min ' for a parti cul ar set as :
ber du e to condensatio n in the chamber. These tiny droplet' act like tiny pri sms and deflect the li ght rays from
the source IR-LED away from the detector. Thus the light
does no t fall on the detector and it misses to register the
drop count. Al so, so metimes these co nde nsed liquid
dropl ets on the wall are wrongly sensed as drops fa lling
dow n. Both the above conditions res ult in wrong cou nting of number of drops actuall y fallin g and infused into
the patient 's body. Thi s can generate false alarms . These
problems were taken care of in o ur mod ifi ed desig n .
Design Requirements
Vo lu me 10 be infused (mL)
Drop rate (drop/m in)
799
LED!
LEDl
DETECTDR3
DETECT DR2
DETECT DR4
Figure I -
System Design
Th e a rran ge me nt of vari o us LEO s and d e tecto rs
around the drip cha mbe r is show n in Fi g ure I and 2 .
Isometri c view of co mpl ete drop sensor unit is represented in Figure 3. Fi g ure 4 represents the path follow ed
by the dro p, as it fall s down . It a lso shows the path of
li ght as it trav erses from LED to the detector. Figure 5
re presents how th e pul ses se nsed by three detectors a,b,c
are processed and resultant found 3 .
Our drop sensor unit (Fi g ure 3) is a multi-leve l, multidirec tional , and self centering device. It is to be connected with th e Dru g Infus io n Pump 4 A lever loaded
with sprin gs he lps to o pe n and c lose the space for in serting the drip chamber o f IV set. The drip chamber after
in serti on in its pl ace, gets c lamped automaticall y by th e
re lease of the lever. The motion of th e lever is tran sfe rred to LED/detec to r ho lde r thro ug h two cams and a
pos iti o ne r . LED/detecto r ho lde r slides in th e slo ts of
the pos iti o ner. Top cover he lps to e limin ate the effec t of
ambient li ght. As the drop fa ll s, it obstructs the bea m of
li ght travelling from the transmitter (LED) towards th e
rece iver (detector)on the o ppos ite side. The LED/de tector gives a chan ge in voltage leve l as the drop fa ll s. Thi s
c h a nge in voltage is se n se d by the ph o totran sistor(detecto r) and is converted to a pul se and is
electronically processed further for controlling the peri -
Figure 2 -
800
Figure 3 -
Voltage
Drug Frof'l
drug chal"1ber
<At lind
b
<At Illrd
Resultant .aFter
process1ng
--, <600
Figure 4 -
Figure 5 -
...sec
u
r-
Tine
80 1
vari ation of the cham ber diameter the drop ax is and beam
axes always intersect. The performan ce of the system
has been found to be better as compared to other simil ar
types of system avai lab le commercially because of the
better design of the drop sensing assembl y with multipl e se nso rs at different angles and planes whi ch mini mi zes th e false alarms and counts drop acc urately. The
technology of the system has been transferred to the four
Indian i nclustries.
Acknow ledgement
The projec t was sponsored by Departm ent of Science
and Tec hno logy, ew Delhi as part of Drug In fusion
Pump & Co ntroll er.
References
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