Patent Application
20220160566
Not applicable.
This invention is directed toward hyperbaric chambers that are used in oxygen therapy.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a well-established treatment for a variety of illnesses and aliments, such as therapy include serious infections, air bubbles in blood vessels, and tissue repair.
In a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, the air pressure is increased from two to three times higher than ambient air pressure. At this elevated pressure, a patient's lungs can exchange much more oxygen than would be possible breathing pure oxygen at normal air pressure. Better oxygenated blood carries this additional oxygen throughout the body, which helps fight bacteria and stimulates the release of growth factor substances and stem cells, to improve healing. For most conditions, hyperbaric oxygen therapy lasts approximately two hours. Additionally, oxygen concentrators are often used while the patient is in the hyperbaric chamber to enhance oxygen absorption.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be used to treat the following medical conditions including: Severe anemia, brain abscess, Bubbles of air in your blood vessels (arterial gas embolism), burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, crushing injury, sudden deafness, decompression sickness, gangrene, infection of skin or bone that causes tissue death, nonhealing wounds, such as a diabetic foot ulcer, radiation injury, skin graft, brain injury, and vision loss.
One difficulty with current designs of hyperbaric chambers is that they are very large in diameter and length; and are not easily installed in a facility. They are heavy, weighting approximately 1200-1400 lbs. for a typical commercial chamber that is 64″ long and 42″ in diameter. The weight and diameter make it impossible to maneuver through 36 inch doorways, that often only allow an opening of about 34″ without removing the door. Potential installation in many non-hospital medical facilities is difficult as it is not a matter of removing a door or a window. A chamber diameter more than 34″ will cause difficulty.
Consequently, there is need for the chamber to be reduced in size and weight for movement through a variety of facilities and provide easy assembly without overhead lifting equipment. Many medical facilities utilize existing commercial properties which are not designed to maneuver heavy and long equipment. For example, elevators are often not available when installing a chamber on a second floor.
Flange designs for piping, such as 150#, are too heavy for practical use in transporting. A single 42″ diameter slip on flange weighs 234 lbs. Since two flanges are needed for sealing, this would add nearly 470 lbs. to the total weight.
The design must also be weight improved so minimize the overall weight, and yet be strong enough to be leak free and pressure safe. It is desirable that the split chamber is separable into manageable sections that are easily moved manually throughout a facility without levers, winches, or pullies. Transportation and movement through a facility without use of a lifting crane or rented lifting equipment lift is most desirable, and the chamber parts are preferably pushed into position with little trouble for a one or two man crew. The ability to use casters or a simple cart with casters is highly desirable.
In the art, to get around transportation to a particular room in a facility, commercially available hyperbaric chambers have been produced with a smaller diameter that will fit through door openings, such as about 34″ wide or less. But this is less desirable due to claustrophobia by a patient in a smaller chamber, among other patient concerns.
It is highly desirable to have a larger diameter hyperbaric chamber with a standard length that provides easy installation and improved patient comfort during a one or two hour procedure. Patients prefer chambers that allow them to sleep, read, listen to music, or connect to the internet. Such chambers are longer and wider than is practical to maneuver in many non-hospital settings.
The embodied invention is a hyperbaric chamber that is designed to fit through a narrower dimension, such as a doorway, window, garage, or hallway by utilizing a multi-section design. The preferred embodiment is a split chamber design that allows two or three sections to be moved by caster wheels, either on the legs with casters or on a moving cart. The width of the separate sections is designed to fit through a 36″ wide doorway, and then are readily bolted together to a desirable length. Additionally, a safe and lightweight flange is needed that uses a rubber gasket or an O ring seal design to connect the individual vessel parts together provides the pressure needed at a very low weight.
The embodied invention is a hyperbaric chamber design that provides an improved and lower cost installation by creating the chamber in two or three parts which are assembled together. Either a horizontal or a vertical oriented flange is welded or otherwise joined to each part of the chamber. Preferably, the chamber is only broken down into two parts and is capable of withstanding 2 atmospheres of pressure.
In
Other important connections, such as oxygen and air pressurizing equipment are not shown in any figure.
For ease of transport, a specialized transportation cart can be employed with supports for the weight of the chamber, and also include tabs, supports, and clamps that will facilitate the movement through hallways and door openings of a building. The smaller design of
In
In general, the pressure test factor for typical 30 psi chamber pressure is 30 psi×1.4=39 psi, and a soapy water test is used to inspect for leaks around the assembly. The ½″ thick rubber gasket (such as Buna-N) is used for sealing to provide improved alignment tolerance.
Preferably, the flange material is a high strength steel such as ASTM A516 Grade 70 Plate (also called ASME SA516-70) with a tensile strength of at least 70,000 psi. The flange is preferably about ¾″ thick with an OD that is 4″ larger than the ID. For example, a 42″ diameter chamber will have a slip on flange with an ID of 42″ and an OD about 46″.
After initial assembly in the assembly plant, a center mark 303 is stamped on the top flange to aid in alignment and assembly. Bolting the sections by utilizing a suitable bolt hole alignment tool, such as an adjustable Spud Wrench (includes a tapered shaft), simplifies alignment and bolting during assembly. Due to the thick gasket, the assembly of the flanges do not have to be carefully aligned.
When transporting the chamber sections, the caster wheels 401 are used for transport and maneuvering into position (see
In an alternate embodiment, a short cart moves a chamber section, and the chamber section can be placed in position by removing the cart. In this case, strategic placement of lifting jacks can lift the section off a cart, the cart is removed, and then the sections lowered into place. In another alternate embodiment, a combination of chamber leg casters and a transportation cart is used.
By utilizing a split design, the pushing force needed to overcome a stair riser at an office entry is reduced as well, and a ramp with a low incline angle is utilized for pushing over higher obstacles, such as a front doorstep.
When the term ‘about’ is used, this is interpreted to mean plus or minus one significant digit indicated on a value. Thus, “about 0.21” indicates a range of 0.20 to 0.22.
While various embodiments of the present invention have been described, the invention may be modified and adapted to various operational methods to those skilled in the art. Therefore, this invention is not limited to the description and figure shown herein, and includes all such embodiments, changes, and modifications that are encompassed by the scope of the claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/176,531 filed on Feb. 16, 2021, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 63/118,479 filed on Nov. 25, 2020. Both applications are entirely incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63118479 | Nov 2020 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17176531 | Feb 2021 | US |
| Child | 17560764 | US |
