Suspension cleaning
AssigneeSaban Ventures Pty Limited
InventorsGavin Spargo, Ingeborg Kristina Palmer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of cleaning a contaminated surface, such as cleaning the elongate interior lumen of an endoscope contaminated with flesh, bone, blood, mucous, faeces or biofilm, said method comprising the steps of: providing a suspension of solid particles in a liquid to said contaminated surface, and flowing said suspension along said surface thereby to remove contaminant from the surface. The suspension is preferably an ice slurry, where the solid material is ice crystals. The slurry preferably has a solid fraction between 50-85% by volume. A freezing point depressant may be present.
Claims16
A method of cleaning a contaminated surface of an interior of an elongate lumen of an endoscope, the method comprising the steps of:
- cooling a liquid mixed with a freezing point depressant within a storage container to form ice particles;
- operating an auger to stir the liquid and the freezing point depressant in the storage container and to scrape the ice particles from sides of the storage container to provide the ice particles with a particle size of 1 to 250 microns to form an ice slurry comprising the ice particles, the liquid, the freezing point depressant, and an ice fraction of 80-85% by volume;
- and
- flowing the ice slurry into the elongate lumen and along the contaminated surface to remove contaminant from the contaminated surface.
A method, comprising:
- adding a liquid and a freezing point depressant into a storage container;
- cooling the liquid and the freezing point depressant to form ice particles;
- operating an auger to stir the liquid and the freezing point depressant in the storage container and to scrape the ice particles from sides of the storage container to provide the ice particles with a rounded profile and a particle size of 1 to 250 microns to form an ice slurry comprising the ice particles, the liquid, the freezing point depressant, and an ice fraction of 80-85% by volume;
- and
- flowing the ice slurry into an elongate lumen to remove contaminant from an interior surface of the elongate lumen.
A method, comprising the steps of:
- cooling a liquid mixed with a freezing point depressant within a storage container to form ice particles;
- stirring the liquid and scraping the ice particles from sides of the storage container via an auger to provide the ice particles with a particle size of 1 to 250 microns and with a rounded profile to form an ice slurry comprising the ice particles, the liquid, the freezing point depressant, and an ice fraction of 80-85% by volume;
- and
- flowing the ice slurry into an elongate lumen to remove contaminant from an interior surface of the elongate lumen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.