Jo urn a l o f Sc ie ntifi c & Industri a l Resea rc h

Yol.61 , Octobe r 2002, pp 798-80 l

Design and Development of a Unique Drop Sensing Unit

for Infusion Pump
K K Thariyan *, Sanj eev Verm a, S R Taneja, R C Gupta and S S Ahluwalia
Ce nt ra l Scientifi c Instrume nt s Orga nisati o n. Sec to r 30,
Cha ndi g arh 160 030
Rece ived : 27 Marc h 2002 ; accep ted: 20 June 2002

In th e prese nt se t-up , th e prec ise assemb ly of dro p senso r unit has three IR -LED/detector pairs pl aced at differe nt planes
across drip chamber to de tec t the fa llin g drop. The pris mati c effec t. due to drops sticking to the wa lls in front o f o ne pa ir of
transmitter/detec to r. is com pe nsated by o the r two pa irs. This in creases a re li abi lity and dependability o f the overa ll system. Mo st
importantl y. the un it ca n accom modate varia ble s izes o f drip c ha mbe rs ava il ab le in the market. This pape r g ives detail s of the
above unit and a lso di sc usses abou t the overa ll pe rfo rm a nce improve me nt th at has occ urred by the int rod ucti o n o f thi s dev ice.

Introduction
Drop type Dru g Infusion Pump & Co ntroller is used
to in fuse the drug prec isely, drop-by-drop into the patient, at a predetermined rate, by peri stalti c type of p mping ac tion o n the intravenous (IV ) set tube. The Drug
Infusion pump has several advantages, like accuracy and
precision in drug infusion and initiati on of vario us alarms
so as to attract the atte nti on of operator in th e case of
malfun ctioning. Since the required infusion rate is in
mL/h , it can be converted into drop rate/min ' for a parti cul ar set as :

ber du e to condensatio n in the chamber. These tiny droplet' act like tiny pri sms and deflect the li ght rays from
the source IR-LED away from the detector. Thus the light
does no t fall on the detector and it misses to register the
drop count. Al so, so metimes these co nde nsed liquid
dropl ets on the wall are wrongly sensed as drops fa lling
dow n. Both the above conditions res ult in wrong cou nting of number of drops actuall y fallin g and infused into
the patient 's body. Thi s can generate false alarms . These
problems were taken care of in o ur mod ifi ed desig n .

Design Requirements
Vo lu me 10 be infused (mL)
Drop rate (drop/m in)

Following are the requirements which have been taken

care of in our drop sensor unit :

Time for in fusion (h) x drop size (mL) x 60

The drop sensor unit is used for acc urate detectio n o f

drops in such a instrument. The accuracy in drop detection plays an important role in such type of instruments.
The TV set ava il able in market consists of liquid container, drip chamber, PVC tube and inj ecting need le . Th e
drip chamber is clamped inside th e drop sensor unit. In
the prese ntl y avai la ble imported in s trum e nts ( lik e
Diginfusa-Swiss make and Dragger-German make, etc. ),
the drop sensor unit has o nly one pair of IR-LED and
detector2. After operating the Infu sion pump for so metime, tiny droplets get stuck to the walls of the drip cham* Au thor fo r co rrespo nde nce

The instrument should be ab le to handl e drop

rate from I dro p/min to 99 drops/min \ i.e. it
should be compatible with th e Infusion Pump
requirements .
The instrument should provide reli ab le detection
of the fa lling drop in the drop chamber. The reliable funct ioning of Drug Infusion Pumps depends
on reli able drop detection and accurate drop count
will provide accurate information about number
of drops infused to the patient 4
The device should be able to handl e all types/
sizes of IV sets avail able in "he market for infusing drugs to neonates and adults.

THARIYAN et a /.: UN IQUE DROP SENSING UN IT

799

LED!

LEDl

DETECTDR3
DETECT DR2
DETECT DR4
Figure I -

Elevati on show ing posi ti on of 4 LEOs

The devic e should give signal for act ivati ng

a larm in the case of ri se in the level of liquid
above a parti c ul ar leve l in the drip c hamber
due to any obstruction in patient's vein o r in
PVC tube.

System Design
Th e a rran ge me nt of vari o us LEO s and d e tecto rs
around the drip cha mbe r is show n in Fi g ure I and 2 .
Isometri c view of co mpl ete drop sensor unit is represented in Figure 3. Fi g ure 4 represents the path follow ed
by the dro p, as it fall s down . It a lso shows the path of
li ght as it trav erses from LED to the detector. Figure 5
re presents how th e pul ses se nsed by three detectors a,b,c
are processed and resultant found 3 .
Our drop sensor unit (Fi g ure 3) is a multi-leve l, multidirec tional , and self centering device. It is to be connected with th e Dru g Infus io n Pump 4 A lever loaded
with sprin gs he lps to o pe n and c lose the space for in serting the drip chamber o f IV set. The drip chamber after
in serti on in its pl ace, gets c lamped automaticall y by th e
re lease of the lever. The motion of th e lever is tran sfe rred to LED/detec to r ho lde r thro ug h two cams and a
pos iti o ne r . LED/detecto r ho lde r slides in th e slo ts of
the pos iti o ner. Top cover he lps to e limin ate the effec t of
ambient li ght. As the drop fa ll s, it obstructs the bea m of
li ght travelling from the transmitter (LED) towards th e
rece iver (detector)on the o ppos ite side. The LED/de tector gives a chan ge in voltage leve l as the drop fa ll s. Thi s
c h a nge in voltage is se n se d by the ph o totran sistor(detecto r) and is converted to a pul se and is
electronically processed further for controlling the peri -

Figure 2 -

Plan show ing arrangement o f LED and

Detector holders around the drip chamber.
(Multi LED I Detector pair)

sta lti c action and for actuatin g a larms in the case of

ma lfuncti oning. The LED/detector pairs are placed at
diffe re nt levels and different direction s a lo ng the drip
chamber (Figure 1 and 4) . The design is such that the
axes of a ll the three pairs are directed towards the ax is
of the fallin g drop in the drip chamber, as shown in Figure 2. TheIR-LED/detector pairs are located at 50 angle
to each other at different levels along and aro und th e
drip chambe r.
The fo urth LED, show n in Figure I , is for level detec tion. In so me makes of JV sets, drip chamber shows a
leve l mark . Ri se of liquid , above thi s mark , indi cates
that there is so me obstructi on in the path of dru g de li very flowin g into the pati ent 's vein . This is a n alarming
co nditi o n.
Waveforms corresponding to two consec uti ve drops
fa lling in the drip chamber are shown in Fi g ure 5. Pulses
are ge nerated at tl, t2, t3 times corresponding to I''
drop and T I , T2, T 3 times corresponding to th e next
fa lling drop . These are de tected , shaped by comparators
and log ic c ircui ts, to g ive a sing le pulse of < 600 ms
durati o n o ut of multipl e pul ses from multipl e de tecto rs
(3 eac h in o ur case). Th is in creases the re li ability of the
sys te m when the co ndensati o n has take n place as every
drop is se nsed re li ab ly. The main pa rts a re inj ec ti o n
mo ulded with g lass filled Nylon to pro vi de dime nsional
stability, durability, and the required streng th.

Results and Discussion

In e ve ry drop type Dru g In fus ion Pump, a drop sens in g unit is used for accurate and re liable detection or

800

J SC I IN D RES VOL 6 1 OCTOBER 2002

Figure 3 -

Isometri c view of drop sensor asse mbly

Voltage
Drug Frof'l
drug chal"1ber

<At First pair )

(l

Drip cha f'l ber tip - r T = , _ J - - - LED-a

Path Followed by light
LED-o
LED-c
Path followed by drop
LED For level

<At lind
b

<At Illrd

Liquid level f'lark

a+b + c

Resultant .aFter
process1ng

--, <600
Figure 4 -

LED/Detector arrange ment

Figure 5 -

...sec

u
r-

Tine

Pulse processing fo r three LED/Detector pa ir~

THARIYAN et a!.: UN IQUE DROP SENS ING UN IT

drops falling in the drip chamber. Signal fro m thi s unit

helps in the feedback co ntrol, meas ureme nt of number
of drops infused and controlling alarm conditions in the
system. In the existing Infusion pumps, drop sensing unit
consists of an IR -LE D as transmitter and matc hed
phototransistor as detec tor, fixed across the drip chamber for detect ion of fa lling drops. After operatin g for
sometime, due to co ndensati on on the drip chamber wa ll s
and formation of drop lets. pri smatic effect takes place
and detector is not able to sense th e fallin g drops. res ulting in malfuncti onin g of the sys tem. In our des ign th e
pri smati c effect du e to drops sticking to the wa ll s in front
of single transmitter/detector gets compensated by oth er
two pairs. Thi s resu lts in a reliable and dependable overall system. The limited space in th e drip chamber forbids us to put more sensors for further reliabi lity. In ad diti on th e alarm indi cating rise in th e level of liquid above
the mark in th e drip chamber du e to obs tru ctio n in
pati ent 's ve in or in PVC tube further helps doctors/attendants to take timely action. Various makes of IV sets,
ava il ab le in th e market, whose drip chamber diam . varies between 14.5- 19 mm, can be used. The des ign of th e
drip chamber clamping mechani sm is such that even with

80 1

vari ation of the cham ber diameter the drop ax is and beam
axes always intersect. The performan ce of the system
has been found to be better as compared to other simil ar
types of system avai lab le commercially because of the
better design of the drop sensing assembl y with multipl e se nso rs at different angles and planes whi ch mini mi zes th e false alarms and counts drop acc urately. The
technology of the system has been transferred to the four
Indian i nclustries.
Acknow ledgement
The projec t was sponsored by Departm ent of Science
and Tec hno logy, ew Delhi as part of Drug In fusion
Pump & Co ntroll er.
References
2
3
4

Hillman M R, Th e prediction of drop size from intravenou s

infu sion contro llers. J M ed Eng Tec!lllol. 13 ( 1989) 166.
Crass R E & Vance J R, In vivo accuracy of grav ity fl ow I V
infusion sys tems, Am J Hosp Pharm, 42 ( 1985) 328.
Franetzk i M, Drug deli very by program or sensor comrolled
infusion devices. P/wnn Res. 6 ( 1984) 237.
Taneja S R. Gupta R C, T hari yan K K & Verm a S. CS IR,
India Pat N F /75199 , Patent applied for a device usefu l for
controlled drug infu sion, September 1999.