| Administering apparatus comprising a service life timer -> Monitor Keywords |
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Administering apparatus comprising a service life timerRelated Patent Categories: Pumps, With Signal, Indicator, Or Inspection MeansAdministering apparatus comprising a service life timer description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060153693, Administering apparatus comprising a service life timer. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims the benefit of German Application No. DE 10 2004 063 648.6, filed on Dec. 31, 2004, the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND [0002] The invention relates to medical devices and methods of using and making such devices. More particularly, it relates to an administering apparatus for administering a fluid product. It is preferably used in an injection apparatus in the form of an injection pen. Injection apparatus and/or infusion apparatus may be used for diabetes therapy, administering growth hormones or osteoporosis preparations. In particular, in cases in which a user self-administers a product or substance, the user has to be able to rely on his/her apparatus operating reliably. In principle, however, this requirement also applies in the out-patient, clinical and veterinary fields, which also represent areas of application for the invention. [0003] Proposals for increasing service safety of administering apparatuses, in general, tend towards measures for preventing operational errors which can lead to damage to the apparatus. In some cases, when operating errors go undetected, an incorrect dosage may be administered and also be undetected. Providing a user interface that allows a user to set the product dosage to be administered may increase service safety. WO 03/057285 A2 is an example of an injection apparatus that includes a weekday display which is adjusted when setting the dosage. According to this example, when a dosage is to be administered daily, a user may check that he/she has administered the intended dosage. SUMMARY [0004] It is an object of the invention to increase the reliability of an administering apparatus, so that when in use, the desired amount of the product is also administered. [0005] In one embodiment, the present invention comprises an administering apparatus, such as an injection apparatus or an infusion apparatus, having a service life timer. The administering apparatus includes a casing with a reservoir for a container for a product to be administered, a conveying member for the product, an adder for recording and adding a change in the state of the apparatus, and an output coupled to the adder providing a perceptible signal in response to a change in state of the apparatus. [0006] In one embodiment, the present invention comprises an administering apparatus, such as an injection apparatus or an infusion apparatus, comprising a service life timer, the administering apparatus comprising a casing comprising a reservoir for a container for a product to be administered, a conveying member for the product, an adder for recording and adding a change in the state of the apparatus, wherein the adder is incremented upon administering the product, and an output means coupled to the adder, the output means outputting a signal perceivable by the senses, in accordance with the addition result. [0007] In accordance with the invention, the apparatus is equipped with a service life timer which provides the user with an indication of when the apparatus has reached its service life, after which it is no longer certain that the apparatus will function reliably. The service life timer includes an adder, preferably a mechanical adder (although any suitable combinational component, whether mechanical, electrical, analog or digital, may be used), for recording and adding a change in the state of the apparatus which results from repeated administration of the product. In this way, changes to the state of the apparatus due to normal wear and tear are tracked. Such changes in state occur when setting a product dosage to be administered and when delivering said dosage. Over the total period of use of the apparatus, these changes in state are constantly repeated, often several times per day, and accumulatively lead to a gradual loss of reliability. The service life timer also includes an output means which is connected to the adder and outputs a signal which can be perceived by the senses, in accordance with the addition result. The display may include an acoustic, tactile, and/or optical display. In one preferred embodiment, the service life timer operates without electrical energy. [0008] In one exemplary embodiment, as partially or completely emptied containers are exchanged for more completely or completely filled containers, the adder counts the number of container changes. The number of container changes may be regarded as an integral value for the number of deliveries and/or dosage setting processes if the apparatus is equipped with a dosing means. If the number of container changes has reached or exceeded a predetermined critical value, the output means may indicate to the user that the apparatus has reached the end of its service life. The apparatus may also be equipped with a blocking (or locking) means which is coupled to the service life timer such that when the end of the service life is reached, the service life timer automatically places the blocking means in a blocking state preventing product delivery. Such a blocking means preferably operates after a warning indication is signaled by the output means. This allows sufficient time for the user to acquire a new apparatus. [0009] In another embodiment, the adder only counts the number of container changes as changes in state. Alternatively, the apparatus may additionally count the number of deliveries and/or dosage setting processes and incorporate these in ascertaining the end of the service life. In alternative embodiments, the adder may count the number of deliveries, the number of dosage setting processes, or may counts these two changes in state in combination. Each type of action may be weighted according to the extent it wears on the apparatus. For example, delivery movements may wear more on the apparatus compared to the dosage setting process. When the adder increments for delivery, the increment may be larger compared to the increment corresponding to the dosage setting. [0010] In another embodiment according to the present invention, the output means, in addition to indicating that an "end of service life" event has occurred, the output means may also indicate the approaching expiration of the service life of the apparatus. For example, ten or twenty container changes before the expiration of the apparatus, the output means may sound a warning signal indicating the apparatus' status. The output means may also include an output structure for an optical display. The expiration of service life indication may be imparted by a colored marking. For example, a color which is characteristic of the non-critical range, for example green, may be displayed up until a critical service life is reached, and then a warning color such as red may be displayed. The colored marking may also include one or more transition regions, for example from green to red. The transition regions may be yellow, or yellow and orange in succession. The output structure may thus be provided with a colored strip which is colored continuously green in a first portion and then abruptly red, may be colored yellow in an adjoining second strip and then transition to red, or may be colored yellow, then orange, and then red. Accordingly, a colored strip may be used which continuously changes in color, or color graduations may form the optical display. In addition, an illuminated display such as a rear illumination may also be provided. The illuminated display may also be equipped with an energy source of its own and thus autonomous from the apparatus. [0011] In one embodiment, the adder cooperates with an actuator which is actuated in response to the change in device status or device state. For example, an actuator may be formed by an operable triggering element which performs a triggering movement which causes a delivery movement of the conveying member. By being coupled to such an actuator, the delivery processes may be counted. The conveying member also forms a preferred actuator, either as an alternative to the triggering element, or in a coupling with the triggering element which is established directly by the change in device status, or only when the change in device status is recorded. Both the coupling with the triggering element and the coupling with the conveying member enable the delivery processes to be counted. In another alternative, in which the apparatus allows the dosage to be set, a dosing member of the dosing means may form the actuator. In such an embodiment, the dosing movement of the dosing member is recorded. In embodiments in which the triggering element also simultaneously forms a dosing member which is moved when setting the dosage, the dosing movement of the triggering element may be recorded instead of or in addition to the triggering movement. [0012] In further embodiments, the adder for recording and adding the change in device status is coupled both to the triggering element and the conveying member. In particular, the conveying member or the triggering element can mount to the adder. In such a coupling, relative movements between the triggering element and the conveying member may be recorded. This type of coupling is particularly suitable for counting the container changes if, after a new filled container is inserted, the conveying member assumes a different position relative to the triggering element than after the container is emptied or partially emptied. Mounting the adder using the triggering element is particularly preferably combined with recording the change in state on the basis of a position which the conveying member assumes relative to the triggering element. Alternatively, container changes may also be determined solely on the basis of recording the position of the conveying member relative to the casing of the apparatus or to another structure. In another example, the adder may be coupled to casing parts of the casing such that the separating or connecting processes of the casing parts, to be performed for a container change, are recorded. While the number of separating and connecting processes does not have to exactly match the number of container changes, the number of separating and connecting processes may provide a useful indication. [0013] In another embodiment, the adder may be formed by a mechanical reducing gear. In addition, the reducing gear may operate pneumatically, hydraulically, or may operate by pneumatic and hydraulic components. [0014] A recorder for the individual changes in device status, for example, due to each exchange of the container, may form the input or trigger the drive member of the reducing gear. The recorder may thus be a movement recorder, or a contact recorder, which is itself moved by contact with the actuator cited. The movements of such a recorder caused by the changes in device status are reduced by other gear components and transferred to the output means, for example onto a display structure. The recorder may be coupled to a subsequent adding member, such that the changes in device status cause a movement of the adding member. If the recorder is moved by the change in device status, its movements are preferably mechanically transferred onto the adding member. In each case, the adding member is moved on from an initial position, which it assumes before the recorded change in device status, to a new position. The new position is the initial position when recording the next change in device status. In this sense, the changes in device status and consequently the change in the state of the recorder caused by them are transferred into a further movement of the adding member, added and thus counted. The adding member alone may therefore forms a counting member, and the recorder may operate as a switching member. [0015] The display structure on the device may be fixedly connected to the adding member, or may be formed integrally with the adding member. In preferred embodiments, however, the reducing gear is multi-staged with at least two reducing stages, such that a larger number of changes in state may be counted, with a compact design of the adder. Each of the stages may be formed as an adding stage. Thus, the movement of the adding member may for example be a rotational movement about a rotational axis or, as applicable, a back-and-forth linear movement, the path distance of which--in the case of rotational movement measured at the circumference--is transferred into a shorter path distance of a subsequent gear member. In the case of an optical display, as is preferred in one embodiment, the display structure may form an adding output member of the adder. The adding member forms an adding input member of the multi-staged embodiment of the adder. In the multi-staged embodiment, the adding input member and the adding output member are preferably coupled to each other via one or more intermediate members. [0016] The adder may be formed as a toothed wheel gear or include a toothed wheel, gear or the like as one stage or as a number of toothed wheel stages in which an input speed is reduced to an output speed. [0017] The recorder and the adding input member may be mounted and coupled to each other such that the recorder may be moved back and forth between two end positions and causes the adding input member to move further when moving in at least one of the two directions. In another embodiment, the coupling is formed as an adjusting engagement which the recorder passes into through its movement with the adding input member. The back-and-forth recording movement of the recorder is preferably converted in the adjusting engagement into a rotational movement of the adding input member. In alternative embodiments, the recorder may instead complete a rotational movement itself during recording and thus roll off on the adding input member, in order to rotate it in this way. Such an adjusting engagement is useful when dosage setting processes are counted by means of the recorder. In one example, the rotational movement of the adding input member may be reduced with respect to its speed in a multi-staged reducing gear, by the adding input member driving an adding intermediate member in another adjusting engagement, such that the adding intermediate member performs only a partial revolution per revolution of the adding input member. The adder may also have multiple recorders, one of which for example performs a rotational recording movement and the other a translational recording movement. The multiple recorders may act on the same adding input member, in succession. [0018] According to another embodiment of the present invention, an adder device for coupling to an administering apparatus for determining the status of the apparatus is provided that includes an adder casing, a recorder slidably coupled to the casing, an adding input member rotatably coupled to the casing, and an adding output structure coupled to that casing and the adding input member, where the adding output structure outputs a status indicator perceivable by the senses. According to the present embodiment, the recorder slidably shifts in response to a change in the apparatus and engages with the adding input member and rotatably shifts the adding input member from a first position to a second position. The display structure is rotatable in response to the adding input member shifting from the first position to the second position. [0019] In another embodiment, the recorder includes a restoring member such as a spring for tensing the recorder in an advancing position. [0020] In another embodiment, the adding output structure includes an annular disk mounted by the adder casing, and is rotatable relative to a portion of the apparatus. [0021] In yet another embodiment, a recorder is secured against rotating by the adder casing. According to another example of the present invention, the adder casing may further include rotational guide for guiding the adding input member. In some embodiments the adding input member includes a ring with one or more sets of toothings (which also may be referred to as teeth, and which may take the form of any suitable texturing or meshing structures). The sets of toothings may be situated opposite one or more toothings situated on a recorder. In one example, the recorder slides in a recording motion and the toothings of the recorder passes into a toothed engagement with one or more sets of adding input member toothings, where the adding input member is rotatable from a first position to a second position in response to the recorder recording motion. Continue reading about Administering apparatus comprising a service life timer... Full patent description for Administering apparatus comprising a service life timer Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Administering apparatus comprising a service life timer patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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