Breath actuated inhaler

Abstract

A breath actuated metered dose inhaler including a housing, a mouthpiece positioned at one end of the housing, and a mechanical release mechanism positioned at another end of the housing. The release mechanism is triggered by a diaphragm and the inhaler is configured such that the air inhalation pathway is unimpeded by the release mechanism.

1 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler, comprising: 
 a housing;    a mouthpiece positioned at one end of the housing; and    a mechanical release mechanism positioned at another end of the housing;    whereby the release mechanism is triggered by a diaphragm and the air inhalation pathway is unimpeded by the release mechanism.    
   
   
       2 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the release mechanism comprises a spring that is compressed to store energy for the purpose of providing the metered dose.  
   
   
       3 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the release mechanism further comprises a rocker, and wherein the spring is nested within the rocker and the rocker is operable to pivot to allow compression and decompression of the spring.  
   
   
       4 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 3 , further comprising a spring cup that provides an interface between the rocker and the spring.  
   
   
       5 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 3 , wherein the release mechanism further comprises a release arm for impeding the rocker prior to triggering of the inhaler.  
   
   
       6 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the rocker does not bear on the release arm in a rest state and does bear on the release arm in a ready-to-fire state.  
   
   
       7 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the inhaler is triggered upon movement of the release arm by the diaphragm.  
   
   
       8 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 3 , further comprising a mouthpiece cover and a sleeve, wherein the sleeve contacts the mouthpiece cover and the rocker, and wherein the rocker is pivoted to compress the spring in response to movement of the sleeve which is caused by movement of the mouthpiece cover.  
   
   
       9 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 8 , wherein the sleeve includes slots for allowing make-up air to enter the housing.  
   
   
       10 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 3 , further comprising a mouthpiece cover, a lower sleeve and an upper sleeve, wherein the lower sleeve contacts the mouthpiece cover and the upper sleeve contacts the lower sleeve and the rocker, and wherein the rocker is pivoted to compress the spring in response to movement of the upper sleeve which is caused by movement of the lower sleeve produced by movement of the mouthpiece cover.  
   
   
       11 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 10 , wherein the upper sleeve includes slots for allowing make-up air to enter the housing.  
   
   
       12 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising an event counter for indicating the number of sprays remaining in the reservoir as well as the number of sprays taken during a dose sequence.  
   
   
       13 . A breath actuated metered does inhaler as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the housing comprises a separable upper and lower section thereby allowing for manual press and breath operation to facilitate priming or to use in the in the event of release mechanism failure.  
   
   
       14 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler, comprising: 
 a housing;    a mouthpiece positioned at one end of the housing;    a mechanical release mechanism positioned at another end of the housing;    whereby the release mechanism is triggered by a diaphragm and the air inhalation pathway is unimpeded by the release mechanism; and    a vortex nozzle positioned within the mouthpiece.    
   
   
       15 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 14 , wherein the vortex nozzle comprises: 
 a nozzle housing including an inlet which opens into a swirl chamber having an outer circumference, a diameter and a first swirl chamber end having a diameter, the inlet being tangential to the outer circumference and set at an angle to the first swirl chamber end, an exit passage positioned at a second swirl chamber end having a diameter, the diameter of the first swirl chamber end having a diameter greater than the diameter of the second swirl chamber end, the exit passage communicating with a nozzle face through which an aerosol is discharged.    
   
   
       16 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 15 , wherein the nozzle face is flat.  
   
   
       17 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 15 , wherein the nozzle face has a conical shaped.  
   
   
       18 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 15 , wherein the nozzle face has a parabolic shaped.  
   
   
       19 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 14  further comprising an event counter for indicating the number of sprays remaining in the reservoir as well as the number of sprays taken during a dose sequence.  
   
   
       20 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler, comprising: 
 a housing;    a mouthpiece positioned at one end of the housing;    a mechanical release mechanism positioned at another end of the housing;    whereby the release mechanism is triggered by a diaphragm and the air inhalation pathway is unimpeded by the release mechanism; and    an event counter for indicating the number of sprays remaining in the reservoir as well as the number of sprays taken during a dose sequence.    
   
   
       21 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 20 , wherein the event counter comprises: 
 a display;    a battery to provide power necessary to operate the dose counter;    an event counter switch trigger; and    a printed circuit board for mounting all or substantially all of the said dose counter components.    
   
   
       22 . A breath actuated metered dose inhaler as recited in  claim 20  further comprising a vortex nozzle.