Abstract:
An oxygen concentrator system includes at least one oxygen concentrator sub-system and a plenum subsystem. The at least one oxygen concentrator sub-system produces oxygen-enriched air which is outputted to both the oxygen concentrator system output and to a plenum chamber within the plenum subsystem. The plenum chamber is trickle charged with the oxygen-enriched air when the at least one oxygen concentrator sub-system produces an excess amount of oxygen-enriched air. Should the demand for oxygen-enriched air exceed the capability of the at least one oxygen concentrator sub-system, additional oxygen-enriched air is provided by the plenum chamber until such time that the capability of the at least one oxygen concentrator sub-system exceeds the demand for oxygen-enriched air. At that time, oxygen-enriched air is no longer provided by the plenum chamber but rather the plenum chamber is again trickle charged.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    The present application is related to co-pending application, entitled “OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR SYSTEM WITH ALTITUDE COMPENSATION”, Ser. No. ______, filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office concurrently with the present application. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to oxygen concentrator systems, and more particularly, to a patient ventilator oxygen concentrator system in which a plenum is used to provide a sufficient flow of oxygen-enriched product under various conditions. The plenum may be selectively bypassed to improve the transient response of the concentrator system. Furthermore, the plenum may be trickle charged when needed so as to maintain the reserve capacity of the plenum.  
           [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0005]    Many medical applications exist that require either oxygen-enriched product or medical grade air. Both are widely used in respiratory care treatments, for example. Furthermore, both oxygen-enriched product and medical grade air are used to power various pneumatically driven medical devices.  
           [0006]    Hospitals and other medical care facilities have a need for both oxygen-enriched product and medical grade air. In military hospitals and in hospitals in Europe, for example, these needs may be met by using oxygen concentration systems to provide oxygen-enriched product and by using a filtration system for providing medical grade air. On the other hand, hospitals and other medical care facilities in the United States often use high-pressure gas systems or liquid oxygen to gaseous conversion systems to provide oxygen-enriched product.  
           [0007]    Commonly used oxygen concentration systems often employ a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process to remove nitrogen from a given volume of air to produce oxygen-enriched product. Such a process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,391 to Noguchi and this patent is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.  
           [0008]    In such oxygen concentration systems, for example, as the plenum pressure is increased, the product flow output, that is, the oxygen-enriched product output, is decreased and the oxygen concentration increased. Accordingly, at low plenum pressures, the oxygen concentration of the oxygen-enriched product output may be insufficient and at high plenum pressures the product flow output may be insufficient.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0009]    It is an object of the present invention to provide an oxygen concentrator system which utilizes at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem and a plenum to provide an oxygen-enriched product output.  
           [0010]    It is a further object of the present invention to provide an oxygen concentrator system as above and including a plenum charging system to meter and to control the flow of product between the at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem and the plenum and to allow the flow of oxygen product only from the at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem to the plenum. The plenum is trickle charged when needed to maintain its reserve capacity.  
           [0011]    It is another object of the present invention to provide an oxygen concentrator system as above and further including a discharging check valve to selectively allow the plenum reserve capacity to flow out only during a high demand oxygen flow.  
           [0012]    It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an oxygen concentrator system as above and further including a plenum bypass valve to make the transient response faster and to avoid overdrawing the at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem so as to keep the oxygen concentration of the oxygen-enriched air above a predetermined minimum value.  
           [0013]    These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by an oxygen concentrator system comprising: a system air inlet to receive supply air; at least one system outlet to output oxygen-enriched product; at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem including an input to receive supply air from the system air inlet and an output to output oxygen-enriched product to the at least one system outlet; a plenum and a plenum charging system located between the output of the at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem and the at least one system outlet, the plenum charging system selectively enabling oxygen-enriched product to flow from the at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem to the plenum; and an optional plenum bypass valve to selectively bypass the plenum so as to enable oxygen-enriched air to flow from the at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem to the at least one system outlet.  
           [0014]    The foregoing and other objects of the present invention are achieved by a method of increasing oxygen concentration, the method comprising: receiving supply air from a system air inlet at an input of at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem and outputting oxygen-enriched product to at least one system outlet; selectively enabling oxygen-enriched air to flow from the at least one oxygen concentrator subsystem to the plenum; and selectively bypassing the plenum to enable oxygen-enriched product to flow from the at least one oxygen concentrator system to the at least one system outlet.  
           [0015]    The foregoing and a better understanding of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of an example embodiment and the claims when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, all forming a part of the disclosure of this invention. While the foregoing and following written and illustrated disclosure focuses on disclosing an example embodiment of the invention, it should be clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and that the invention is not limited thereto. This spirit and scope of the present invention are limited only by the terms of the appended claims. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0016]    The following represents brief descriptions of the drawings, wherein:  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 1 is a pneumatic diagram of a patient ventilator oxygen concentrator system in accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 2 is a simplified pneumatic diagram of the patient ventilator oxygen concentrator system of FIG. 1.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 3 is a timing diagram illustrating the timing cycles for the oxygen beds of FIG. 1.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating the synchronization between the oxygen beds and air beds of FIG. 1. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0021]    Before beginning a detailed description of the subject invention, mention of the following is in order. When appropriate, like reference numerals and characters may be used to designate identical, corresponding, or similar components in differing drawing figures. Furthermore, in the detailed description to follow, example sizes/models/value/ranges may be given, although the present invention is not limited thereto. Still furthermore, any clock or timing signals in the drawing figures are not drawn to scale but rather, exemplary and critical time values are mentioned when appropriate. When specific details are set forth in order to describe example embodiment of the invention, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art that the invention can be practiced without, or with variations of, these specific details. Lastly, it should be apparent that differing combinations of hard-wired control circuitry and software instructions may be used to implement embodiments of the present invention, that is, the present invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.  
         [0022]    An oxygen concentrator system in accordance with the present invention provides a plenum which is used to provide a sufficient flow of oxygen-enriched air under various conditions. The plenum may be selectively bypassed to improve the transient response of the concentrator system. Furthermore, the plenum may be trickle charged when needed so as to maintain the reserve capacity of the plenum:  
         [0023]    A charging circuit is provided to trickle charge the plenum when the output pressure of the oxygen PSA sub-systems is higher than the plenum pressure, thereby maintaining the reserve capacity of the plenum.  
         [0024]    The plenum reserve capacity can be used to augment the oxygen PSA sub-systems output when there is a high oxygen flow output demand.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 1 is a pneumatic diagram of a patient ventilator oxygen concentrator system in accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention and FIG. 2 is a simplified pneumatic diagram of the patient ventilator oxygen concentrator system of FIG. 1. The following discussion refers both to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.  
         [0026]    As illustrated in FIG. 1, the oxygen concentrator system  100  includes three main elements, namely, a plenum system  30 , a front panel assembly  40 , and a bed module  50 . A fourth element of the oxygen concentrator system  100  includes a monitor/controller  200  and input/output electrical panel  210  having switches and indicators and a display. For simplicity, the fourth element of the oxygen concentrator system has been omitted from FIG. 1 but is illustrated in FIG. 2.  
         [0027]    As illustrated in FIG. 1, supply air is input into the plenum system  30 . Relief valve RV 1  is provided to protect the system from overpressures. Similarly, relief valves RV 2 -RV 4  are also included in the system to protect against overpressures. After passing through filters FLTR 1  and FLTR 2 , and pressure regulator REG 1 , the supply air is fed to solenoid valves SV 1 , SV 2 , and SV 7 .  
         [0028]    The three two-way solenoid valves SV 1 , SV 7 , and SV 2  respectively control the inputting of the supply air to the medical air modules AIR- 1  and AIR- 2  and to the oxygen PSA modules O 2 - 1  and O 2 - 2 , O 2 - 3  and O 2 - 4  of the bed module  50 . Each of the medical air modules AIR- 1  and AIR- 2  includes its own three-way solenoid valve SV 12  and SV 13  which allows the supply air to selectively enter and exit respective air beds  1  and  2 .  
         [0029]    Similarly, each of the oxygen and PSA modules O 2 - 1  to O 2 - 4  includes its own three-way solenoid valve SV 8 -SV 11  which allows the supply air to selectively enter oxygen beds  1 - 4 . The other connection of all of the three-way solenoid valves SV 8 -SV 13  are connected together to a muffler MUF whose output is connected to an exhaust output of the plenum system  30 . Orifices ORF 5 -ORF 7  are respectively disposed between oxygen beds  1  and  2  and between oxygen beds  3  and  4  and between air beds  1  and  2 . Check valves CV 1 -CV 6  are respectively connected to the air beds  1  and  2  and the oxygen beds  1 - 4 .  
         [0030]    The output of air beds  1  and  2  are connected via check valves CV 1  and CV 2  to serially connected filters FLTR 3  and FLTR 4  whose output is in turn connected via solenoid valve SV 6  and regulator REG 4  to a medical air line which is connected to the front panel assembly  40 . A source of backup medical air, for example, a compressed air tank, is connected to the solenoid valve SV 6  so as to provide a continuous source of medical air should the oxygen concentrator system fail.  
         [0031]    Various monitoring devices, such as: a carbon monoxide monitor  120  connected to the medical air line via the orifice ORF 4  and having an output connected to a vent, a dewpoint monitor  130  connected to the medical air line, the relief valve RV 2  connected to the monitor air line, a pressure switch PSW 2  for detecting a low-pressure in the medical air line, and a gauge G 3  located on the front panel assembly  40  to indicate the actual medical air line pressure, have been provided.  
         [0032]    The medical air line is connected to a solenoid valve SV 5  so as to be selectively connected to an oxygen sensor  140  which includes a regulator REG 5  to control the pressure therethrough. The medical air line is also connected to a manifold having  4  valves V 5 -V 8  whose outputs are respectively connected to AIR OUT  1 - 4 .  
         [0033]    The outputs of oxygen beds  1  and  2  are connected together to orifice ORF 1  while the outputs of oxygen beds  3  and  4  are connected together to orifice ORF 2 . The outputs of orifice ORF 1  and orifice ORF 2  are connected together to the plenum  110  via regulator REG 2  and filter FLTR 5 . The output of the plenum  110  is connected via solenoid valve SV 4  and regulator REG 3  to an oxygen line on the front panel assembly  40  and via a filter FLTR 6  and regulator REG 5  to a low-pressure oxygen line on the front panel assembly  40 .  
         [0034]    The oxygen line on the front panel assembly  40  is connected to a manifold having four valves V 1 -V 4  whose outputs are respectively connected to O 2  OUT  1 - 4 . A gauge G 2  is located on the front panel assembly  40  and is connected to the oxygen line so as to indicate the actual oxygen line pressure. A plenum pressure gauge G 1  and a pressure switch PSW 4  as well as orifice ORF 3  are also connected to the output of the plenum  110 .  
         [0035]    The output of the orifice ORF 3  is connected via solenoid valve SV 3  and valve V 9  to the exhaust of the system so as to allow the purging of the contents of the plenum  110 . A source of backup oxygen, such as a tank of compressed oxygen, is connected to the solenoid valve SV 4  to provide a continuous source of oxygen should be oxygen concentrator system fail. Low pressure warning switch PSW 1  and relief valves RV 3  and RV 4  are also provided.  
         [0036]    Lastly, the low-pressure oxygen line is respectively connected via check valves CV 1  and CV 2  to flow meters FLM 1  and FLM 2  whose outputs are respectively connected to LOW P O 2  OUT  1 - 2 .  
         [0037]    Referring to FIG. 2, which is a simplified pneumatic diagram of the patient ventilator oxygen concentrator system of FIG. 1, some elements have been consolidated for simplicity and other elements, such as the relief valves, have not been shown so as not to obscure the features of the system. Similarly, other elements, such as the monitor/controller  200 , were not shown in FIG. 1 but are shown in FIG. 2.  
         [0038]    The operation of the concentrator system illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 is as follows. Air is supplied to the supply air inlet where it is received by the inlet pressure regulator and filter assembly REG 1 , FLTR 1  and FLTR 2 . The pressure regulator REG 1  regulates the air pressure of the air supplied to the air inlet so as to be at a constant value, for example, 80 PSIG. The filters FLTR 1  and FLTR 2  remove particulate matter and water which may be present in the air supplied to the air inlet. A line labeled DRAIN is used to convey the remove water to the EXHAUST via an element labeled EXHAUST SUM which may be a manifold, for example.  
         [0039]    The oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  respectively include oxygen beds  1  and  2  and oxygen beds  3  and  4 . Each bed comprises a molecular sieve bed which generates an oxygen product gas by the pressure-swing-adsorption method. Quantitatively, each subsystem may be designed to generate up to 10 liters per minute of oxygen product at an oxygen concentration of 93+/−3%.  
         [0040]    The medical air sub-system consists of air beds  1  and  2  which may each include an activated alumina air dryer bed which operates in the pressure-swing-adsorption mode, a micron filter to remove particulates and an odor removal filter, such as activated charcoal. Quantitatively, the medical grade air sub-system may be designed to generate up to 150 liters per minute of medical air, for example.  
         [0041]    As illustrated in FIG. 3, oxygen beds  1 - 4  are each cycled between a charging cycle and a flushing cycle. PSA beds typically have a charging cycle equal to 55% of the total cycle time and a flushing cycle equal to 45% of the total cycle time. As illustrated in FIG. 3, beds  1  and  2  have an overlap and beds  3  and  4  also have an overlap. As an example, the total cycle time may be on the order of 12 seconds with the overlap time being on the order of 0.5 seconds. By having two sets of oxygen PSA sub-systems, it is possible to operate one oxygen PSA sub-system when the demand for oxygen is below a preset amount and to operate both PSA sub-systems when the demand for oxygen exceeds the preset amount.  
         [0042]    In a similar fashion, air beds  1  and  2  also cycle between a charging cycle and a flushing cycle. As an example, the total cycle time for the air beds may be four times that of the oxygen beds. Accordingly, the total cycle time may be on the order of 48 seconds and the default overlap time may be on the order of 3 seconds with the PSA time being 21 seconds.  
         [0043]    [0043]FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating the synchronization between the air beds and the oxygen beds. While it is not absolutely necessary for the sets of air beds and oxygen beds to be in synchronization with each other, the synchronization therebetween can simplify the monitor controller/ 200 .  
         [0044]    The monitor/controller  200 , in conjunction with the input/output panel  210 , is used to activate and switch the various valves utilized in the system. Furthermore, in conjunction with the carbon monoxide sensor  120 , dewpoint sensor  130  and oxygen sensor  140  and self-test valve SV 5 , the monitor/controller monitors the oxygen concentration in the oxygen product gas, as well as monitoring the dewpoint level and carbon monoxide level and the oxygen concentration in the medical grade air. Based on the status of the system, as a monitored by the monitor/controller  200 , status indications may be displayed on the input/output panel  210  utilizing a digital display or LED indicators, for example.  
         [0045]    Since the oxygen sensor  140  output the varies with altitude, the absolute pressure regulator REG 5  is provided to keep the pressure of the oxygen sensor&#39;s chamber at a relatively constant value, for example, 16 PSIA so as to allow the system to operate at various altitudes without requiring the recalibration of the oxygen sensor  140 .  
         [0046]    The muffler MUF has been provided to reduce the noise caused by the exhausts from the oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  and the medical air sub-system since it is common to utilize oxygen concentrator systems in hospital environments requiring low noise levels.  
         [0047]    Initially, during startup of the system, and particularly when there is no pressure in the plenum  110 , the monitor/controller  200  opens the dump valve SV 3 , that is, allows gas to flow therethrough, and closes the plenum bypass valve BPV, that is, prevents gas from flowing therethrough, so as to flush the plenum  110  of any residual gas contained therein.  
         [0048]    The oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  are then operated so as to produce the output oxygen product which flows through the charging check valves CV 1 - 4  and charging control orifices ORF 1  and ORF 2  and the flow control regulator REG 2  into the plenum  110 . The oxygen concentration of the oxygen product leaving the plenum  110  is measured by the oxygen sensor  140 .  
         [0049]    When the oxygen concentration exceeds a predetermined amount, for example, 90%, as measured by the oxygen sensor  140 , the dump valve SV 3  is opened so as to allow the oxygen product from the oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  to charge the plenum  110  via a charging control circuit including the charging check valves CV 1 - 4 , the charging control orifices ORF 1  and ORF 2 , and the flow control regulator REG 2 . The charging control circuit limits the charging rate to a level which is less than a maximum output from the oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  when the plenum pressure is below the switch point of the plenum pressure switch PSW 4 , for example, 65 PSIG, so as not to overdraw the oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2 .  
         [0050]    When the plenum pressure switch PSW 4  changes state to indicate to the monitor/controller  200  that the pressure at the output of the plenum  110  is above its setpoint, the monitor/controller  200  opens the plenum bypass valve BPV to allow the oxygen product to flow directly to the various oxygen outlets. The direct flow of the oxygen product to the oxygen outlets rather than flowing through the plenum  110  enables the system to respond faster to transients such as line pressure changes or output flow changes.  
         [0051]    When the system is in a high oxygen flow mode, for example, a 65 liters per minute purge flow, the discharging check valve DCV opens due to the pressure drop downstream of the check valve DCV to discharge the plenum  110  and thereby allow the high-pressure purge. The reserve capacity of the plenum  110  is mainly used for purging for short periods of time, such as 18 seconds, for example. Upon the completion of the purging, the charging control circuit trickle charges the plenum  110  when the output pressure of PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  is higher than the plenum pressure. That is, excess capacity of the PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  are used to recharge the plenum to maintain its reserve capacity.  
         [0052]    An oxygen concentrator system in accordance with the present invention offers the following advantages:  
         [0053]    The charging circuit trickle charges the plenum when the output pressure of the oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  is higher than the plenum pressure.  
         [0054]    The discharging check valve allows the plenum reserve capacity to be used to augment the oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  output when there is a high oxygen flow output demand.  
         [0055]    The plenum bypass valve makes the transient response faster by allowing the output of the oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  to directly flow to the oxygen concentrator system output ports.  
         [0056]    The plenum pressure switch, in conjunction with the monitor/controller, controls the plenum bypass valve to avoid overdrawing the oxygen PSA sub-systems  1  and  2  so as to maintain the oxygen concentration of the oxygen concentrator system output above a predetermined minimum level.  
         [0057]    The dump valve allows the plenum to be flushed upon being emptied for long periods of time or when filled with air.  
         [0058]    The dump orifice allows sufficient flow to flush the plenum and allows sufficient back pressure to allow a flow through the oxygen sensor to allow the oxygen sensor to monitor the oxygen concentration during startup.  
         [0059]    The self-test valve allows for the self-testing of the oxygen sensor.  
         [0060]    The oxygen sensor absolute pressure regulator enables the oxygen sensor to operate at higher altitudes without recalibration.  
         [0061]    Lastly, the exhausts sum allows excess water removed from the supply air to be flushed out.  
         [0062]    This concludes the description of the example embodiment. Although the present invention has been described with reference to a number of illustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that numerous other modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art that will fall within the spirit and scope of the principles of this invention. More particularly, reasonable variations and modifications are possible in the component parts and/or arrangements of the subject combination arrangements within the scope of the foregoing disclosure, the drawings, and the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention. In additions to variations and modifications in the component parts and/or arrangements, alternative uses will also be apparent to those skilled in the art.  
         [0063]    For example, the number of oxygen beds and oxygen PSA sub-systems is not limited to the number shown in the illustrative embodiment. Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the exact arrangement of solenoid valves, check valves, relief valves, pressure switches, and pressure regulators shown in the illustrative embodiment. Still furthermore, the bypass valve and discharge check valve may be omitted in some configurations.