News

Jul 13, 2023

Control valves for home care devices must become more efficient

June 28, 2023 By MDO Contributors Network By Paul Gant, ASCO Analytical and Medical at Emerson A portable oxygen concentrator manifold solution with a credit card for scale [Photo courtesy of Emerson]

June 28, 2023 By MDO Contributors Network

By Paul Gant, ASCO Analytical and Medical at Emerson

A portable oxygen concentrator manifold solution with a credit card for scale [Photo courtesy of Emerson]

Medical devices such as oxygen concentrators, compression therapy devices, therapeutic support surfaces, and dialysis equipment utilize solenoid valves to automate control of the equipment. These devices must meet the requirements of the governing authorities — including the FDA and European Union Medical Device Regulation (MDR) — and accommodate the shift from a traditional setting, such as a hospital, to a step-down care facility or home setting.

However, each of the devices listed above has unique control challenges that must be overcome to better meet the needs of these new environments. The control valve solution must be more compact, highly durable, and easy to use and maintain, and it must also help the medical device improve the patient’s quality of life.

Miniature solenoid valves used for deep vein thrombosis devices [Photo courtesy of Emerson]

A growing number of solenoid valves are either designed specifically for or adapted to home-care or other portable devices. In these applications, the emphasis is on compact, lightweight valves that offer high rates of gas flow with minimal power usage. Some valve designs allow for use of a power reduction circuit, which serves to reduce the overall power level required to operate the valve. Since many portable devices must be powered by battery, innovations like the power-reduction circuit become quite important.

Among the most popular solenoid valves in medical devices are those that combine a small size and lightweight platform with the ability to easily customize the valve’s body so that it can precisely regulate flows in a variety of patterns while fitting into the envelope of the engineer’s overall device design.

Recently, these valves have been adapted to offer similar performance in a reduced footprint. Such adaptation is driven by the need of valve suppliers to give the design engineer an additional tool to enable optimal treatment, tailored to the patient’s condition, along with the key characteristics needed to perform in varied care environments, whether critical care, home care or something in between.

Manifolded valves in a single assembly, including efficient wiring, used in peritoneal dialysis machine [Photo courtesy of Emerson]

Solenoid and other miniature valves offer several technical advantages for home-care and portable medical devices. Valve suppliers are well versed in the design of miniature solenoid and similar control-valve solutions and are fully capable of navigating the regulatory requirements associated with medical device applications worldwide.

These capabilities combine to assist the medical device design engineer in configuration control while accelerating the design and development cycle to get the product into production and use as quickly as possible.

ASCO designed its Series 090 three-way miniature solenoid valve for lighter, more space-efficient solutions for gas control in oxygen therapy, compression therapy and gas analyzer devices [Photo courtesy of Emerson]

A capable supplier should also have the ability to design, customize, or deliver complete subassemblies to the medical device OEM that are fully assembled, tested, and ready to install and use in the medical device.

Many suppliers of miniature gas and liquid control valves have standard product portfolios. However, given the unique design challenges faced by medical device manufacturers — portability, energy efficiency, scalability, and use of digital data — it can be beneficial to work with suppliers that develop customized solenoid valve configurations that can meet unique requirements. This includes working with suppliers that:

The ASCO Series RB miniature solenoid valve [Photo courtesy of Emerson]

By combining the flexibility of new and proven flow-control products with the engineering expertise offered by the valve supplier, medical device OEMs can offer optimal solutions, from valves to complete subassemblies, to meet the needs of a fast-changing, fast-growing global market.

Paul Gant is the senior business development manager, ASCO Analytical and Medical at Emerson. [Photo courtesy of Emerson]

The opinions expressed in this blog post are the author’s only and do not necessarily reflect those of Medical Design & Outsourcing or its employees.