Blood pump

An intravascular blood pump for percutaneous insertion into a patient's blood vessel, comprising:

• a pump casing having a blood flow inlet and a blood flow outlet,
• an impeller arranged in said pump casing so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation, the impeller having blades sized and shaped for conveying blood from the blood flow inlet to the blood flow outlet,
• a drive unit for rotating the impeller, the drive unit comprising a plurality of posts arranged about the axis of rotation and a back plate connecting rear ends of the plurality of posts, wherein the plurality of posts and the back plate form a magnetic core of the drive unit, and
• a coil winding disposed around each of the plurality of posts, the coil windings being controllable so as to create a rotating magnetic field,
• wherein the impeller comprises a magnetic structure arranged to interact with the rotating magnetic field so as to cause rotation of the impeller, and
• wherein at least one post of the plurality of posts comprises a discontinuous soft magnetic material which is discontinuous regarding electric conductivity in a cross-section of the at least one post, wherein at least one weld is provided at a surface of the discontinuous soft magnetic material, the at least one weld bridging at least one discontinuity regarding electric conductivity in the discontinuous soft magnetic material, wherein the discontinuous soft magnetic material comprises a plurality of electrically conducting wires disposed within the at least one post, the plurality of electrically conducting wires insulated from each other by an insulating material.