Patent ID: 9370636
Filing Date: 2016-06-21
CPC Classification: A61M

Claim Text:
1. An anesthesia vaporizer for vaporizing an anesthetic agent liquid, said vaporizer comprising an evaporation unit for evaporating an anesthetic agent liquid, a delivery unit for intermittently adding a volume of said anesthetic agent liquid to said evaporation unit, a heat energy storage unit comprising a phase change material (PCM), said heat energy storage unit being thermally coupled to at least a portion of said evaporation unit, and wherein said PCM changes from a first phase to a second phase as heat energy is applied to the PCM, and has a phase change temperature that is higher than a temperature at which said anesthetic agent liquid evaporates and a heater in thermal communication with said heat energy storage unit, said heater applying heat energy to said PCM in said heat energy storage unit to maintain at least a portion of said PCM in said second phase during operation of said vaporizer, and thereby maintaining said at least a portion of said evaporation unit at a temperature above said temperature at which said anesthetic agent liquid evaporates.