Ampule for needleless injection
AssigneeBioject, Inc.
InventorsCharles M. McKinnon, Takaaki Nakagawa, Carl E. Wilcox
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A needleless injection device has a housing containing a pilot valve connectable to a compressed gas source. A two stage power amplifying valve includes a main valve operatively connected to the pilot valve. The pilot valve and main valve form a two-stage valve with the pilot valve activatable to open the main valve utilizing gas pressure. Compressed gas in a reservoir flows through the open main valve to drive a plunger into an ampule to inject an injectant through a patient's skin. Interlocks are provided to resist inadvertent actuation of the device and a indicator indicates whether there is sufficient gas pressure in the device for another injection.
Claims18
In an ampule of the type used with an injector to provide a needleless injection, and having an ampule body forming an injectant chamber and a nozzle section adjoining the ampule body and forming a nozzle opening, the improvement comprising:
- a tubular shroud attached to the ampule body and concentric with the nozzle section;
- and
- a Luer fitting on the nozzle section and substantially within the shroud, the Luer fitting having a minimum diameter of approximately 0.15 inch adjacent to the nozzle opening and tapering linearly outwardly to larger diameters towards the injectant chamber.
In an ampule of the type used with an injector to provide a needleless injection, and having an ampule body forming an injectant chamber and a nozzle section adjoining the ampule body and forming an nozzle opening, the improvement comprising:
- a nozzle section having a nozzle bore of length L;
- a throat section adjoining the nozzle section and having inner throat walls leading and tapering substantially conically outwardly from the nozzle bore, the throat section having a length a plurality of times greater than the length of the nozzle bore L;
- a cylindrical ampule body adjoining the throat section and containing an injectant chamber;
- a tubular shroud attached to the ampule body and extending substantially over the entire throat section;
- and
- a Luer fitting on the nozzle section substantially within the shroud.
In an ampule of the type used with an injector to provide a needleless injection, and having an ampule body having a front and a back end and containing an injectant chamber and a nozzle section forming a nozzle and adjoining the ampule body, the improvement comprising:
- a tubular shroud attached to the ampule body, concentric with the nozzle section;
- a Luer fitting on the nozzle section and substantially within the shroud;
- a conical throat section adjoining the ampule body and the nozzle section and forming a conical throat for connecting the injectant chamber to the nozzle;
- and
- a plurality of lugs at the back end of the ampule body radially spaced apart from each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.