Valve devices

Claim 1

WHAT I CLAIM IS: 1 A valve device for discharging a fluid enclosed in a chamber, the device including: said chamber; a pipe having an interior portion which in use of the device communicates in fluid-tight manner with the interior of said chamber, an opening being provided in said pipe and 1,566,308 communicating said interior portion with the exterior of said pipe; and a hollow valve member attached to an inclined surface of the exterior of said pipe in such a manner that said opening is normally closed by said valve member, said valve member being capable of being rolled up on itself along said pipe into a ring-shaped configuration whereby said opening is exposed to permit discharge of said fluid, said valve member being formed of an elastic material whereby said valve member normally resists being rolled up on itself and is elastically and automatically restored by its elastic force to its original state to close said opening when rolling force is removed; said chamber comprising an envelope connected to said pipe, said envelope being capable of expanding and contracting elastically, said envelope being expanded by forcibly supplying said fluid through said pipe, and said envelope contracting by the action of its elastic force so that said fluid in said envelope is discharged through said pipe and, when said valve member is rolled up, through said exposed opening. 2 A valve device according to claim 1 wherein a means for supplying said fluid into said chamber is attached to said pipe. 3 A valve device according to claim 2 wherein said fluid is air and said means for supplying said air is a bulb pump and a nonreturn valve associated with said bulb pump; in use said bulb pump being repeatedly expanded and contracted to force air from said bulb pump into said pipe through said non-return valve to expand said chamber. 4 A valve device according to claim 3 wherein said non-return valve is cylindrically attached to an inner pipe fixed to an inner surface of said pipe and is forcibly opened by the air pressure resulting from said bulb pump being contracted and is closed by its own elastic force and another non-return valve is provided in a wall of said bulb pump to enable external air to be sucked into said bulb pump. A valve device according to claim 1 wherein said envelope is insertable into a nasal cavity together with said pipe and can be expanded tightly to contact a wall surface of said nasal cavity whereby said nasal cavity is plugged and outflow of a nosebleed can be prevented. 6 A valve device according to claim 1 wherein said envelope is attached to an end of a trachea cannula to enable gas to be supplied into the lung and said pipe is attached along said trachea cannula, said envelope being expandable to plug the trachea to prevent a counterflow of said gas. 7 A valve device according to claim 1 wherein said envelope is formed around a supporting device for an element for detecting an impedance in an organic passage of a living body, said element being inserted into an aperture formed at the centre of said supporting device. 8 A valve device according to claim 7 wherein said supporting device with said 70 element is insertable into the ear passage and said envelope is expandable tightly to contact a wall surface of said ear passage so as to plug said ear passage and to support said element therein. 9 A valve device forming part of an instrument for preventing outflow of a nosebleed and substantially as described with reference to Figures 2 to 6 of the accompanying drawings 80 A valve device forming part of a trachea cannula and substantially as described with reference to Figures 8 and 9 of the accompanying drawings. 11 A valve device forming part of a sup 85 porting device for a detecting element for measuring an impedance in the middle ear and substantially as described with reference to Figures 10 to 12 of the accompanying drawings 90 Agents for the Applicant D YOUNG & CO Chartered Patent Agents 9 & 10 Staple Inn LONDON, WC 1 V 7RD Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office. by Croydon Printing Company Limited, Croydon, Surrey 1980. Published by The Patent Office, 25 Southampton Buildings, London, WC 2 A I AY, from which copies may be obtained.