Flow Meter Having a Valve

• US 20160131272A1
• Filed: 11/12/2015
• Published: 05/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deka Products Limited Partnership
• Original Assignee: Deka Products Limited Partnership
• Inventors: Yoo, Brian H.
• Granted Patent: US 10,718,445 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3306 Optical measuring means
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3334 Measuring or controlling the flow rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/50 with microprocessors or computers
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 39/284 Lever clamps
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/1411 Drip chambers A61M5/162, A61M5/1689, A61M5/40 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/16804 Flow controllers
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/16877 Adjusting flow; Devices for setting a flow rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/16886 for measuring fluid flow rate, i.e. flowmeters
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/1689 Drip counters
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/172 electrical or electronic A61M5/16804, A61M5/16831 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F16K 27/00 Construction of housing methods for welding housings B23K; Use of materials therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/661 using light
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 7/0635 by action on throttling means G05D7/0688, G05D7/0694 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20182 Noise reduction or smoothing in the temporal domain; Spatio-temporal filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20224 Image subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/18 Image warping, e.g. rearranging pixels individually
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 : using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 : Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 : Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 : Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/60 : Analysis of geometric attributes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/141 : Control of illumination
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/30 : Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/75 : Organisation of the matching processes, e.g. simultaneous or sequential comparisons of image or video features; Coarse-fine approaches, e.g. multi-scale approaches; using context analysis; Selection of dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/761 : Proximity, similarity or dissimilarity measures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 : for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A flow control apparatus includes a body, a door, a drip chamber holster, and a valve. The door is pivotally coupled to the body. The drip chamber holster is coupled to one of the body or the door to retain a drip chamber. The valve is disposed within the body and is configured to receive a fluid line coupled to the drip chamber when the door is in an open position. The valve is operatively coupled to the door to secure the fluid line within the valve when the door is in a closed position.

Claims

1. A flow control apparatus, comprising:

a body;

a door pivotally coupled to the body;

a drip chamber holster coupled to at least one of the body and the door, the drip chamber holster configured to retain a drip chamber; and

a valve disposed within the body and configured to receive a fluid line coupled to the drip chamber when the door is in an open position,

wherein the valve is operatively coupled to the door to secure the fluid line within the valve when the door is in a closed position.

2. The flow control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the valve includes first and second casing clamshell.

3. The flow control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first casing clamshell is configured to latch onto the second casing clamshell.

4. The flow control apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a closing arm pivotally coupled to the door and coupled to the first casing clamshell, wherein the closing arm closes the first casing clamshell when the door is moved to the closed position.

5. The flow control device according to claim 4, wherein the closing arm is further configured to latch the first casing clamshell when the door is moved to the closed position.

6. The flow control device according to claim 4, further comprising a latch component coupled to the closing arm to thereby allow the first casing clamshell to latch onto the second casing clamshell.

7. The flow control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the latch component is a female latch component.

8. The flow control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the closing arm is coupled to the first casing clamshell via a latch component.

9. The flow control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image sensor, wherein the drip chamber holster is configured to position the drip chamber within a field of view of the image sensor.

10. The flow control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the valve includes first and second casing clamshell, wherein the flow control apparatus further comprises:

a closing arm pivotally coupled to the door;

a first latch component coupled to the closing arm and to the first casing clamshell; and

a second latch component coupled to the second casing clamshell.

11. The flow control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein when the door is opened, the closing arm is configured to pull on the first latch component thereby causing the first latch component to rotate up and away from the valve to thereby release pressure place on the valve from the first latch component.

12. The flow control apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the flow control apparatus is configured such that once the first latch component disengages from the second latch component, the closing arm pulls open the valve casing clamshells as the first latch component is pulled away from the valve.

13. The flow control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a safety cutoff configured to receive the fluid line.

21. The flow control apparatus according to claim 1 or 14, wherein the valve comprises:

a filler disposed within the first and second valve casing clamshells;

a plunger configured to engage the filler within the housing through a hole of one of the first and second valve casing clamshells to thereby operatively deform the fluid line within the first and second valve casing clamshells when engaging the filler; and

an actuator operatively coupled to the plunger and configured to actuate the plunger.

22. The flow control apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the filler has at least two differing stiffness layers.

14. A flow control apparatus, comprising:

a body;

a door operatively coupled to the body;

a drip chamber holster disposed in spaced relation to the body, the drip chamber holster configured to retain a drip chamber;

a valve disposed within the body and configured to control fluid flow through a fluid line coupled to the drip chamber, the valve having first and second casing clamshells;

a closing arm operatively coupled to the door;

a first latch component coupled to the closing arm and to the first casing clamshell; and

a second latch component coupled to the second casing clamshell.

15. The flow control apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the closing arm closes the first casing clamshell when the door is moved to a closed position.

16. The flow control apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the closing arm is further configured to latch the first casing clamshell when the door is moved to the closed position.

17. The flow control device according to claim 14, further comprising a latch component coupled to the closing arm to thereby allow the first casing clamshell to latch onto the second casing clamshell.

18. The flow control apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising an image sensor, wherein the drip chamber holster is configured to position the drip chamber within a field of view of the image sensor.

19. The flow control apparatus according to claim 14, wherein when the door is opened, the closing arm is configured to pull on the first latch component thereby causing the first latch component to rotate up and away from the valve to thereby release pressure place on the valve from the first latch component.

20. The flow control apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the flow control apparatus is configured such that once the first latch component disengages from the second latch component, the closing arm pulls open the valve casing clamshells as the first latch component is pulled away from the valve.