Gear pump for microvaporizer cartridge

A pump configured to pressurize fluid in a microvaporizer, the pump comprising:

• a chamber bounded by a chamber wall with an inlet opening configured to receive fluid and an outlet opening configured to discharge fluid, the chamber having a circular cross-section;
• and
• a rotatable impeller positioned within the chamber, the impeller having a plurality of flexible arms radiating outwardly from a central core, each pair of neighboring flexible arms forming a sub-chamber with the chamber wall, the inlet opening, the outlet opening, and a center of rotation of the impeller being centered on a line extending through the chamber;
• wherein the center of rotation of the impeller is offset from the center of the chamber toward the outlet opening and away from the inlet opening so that the center of rotation of the impeller is closer to the center of the outlet opening than to the center of the inlet opening, and
• wherein the flexible arms are configured so that each sub-chamber continuously changes in volume as the impeller rotates.

A pump configured to pressurize fluid in a microvaporizer, the pump comprising:

• a chamber bounded by a chamber wall with an inlet opening configured to receive fluid and an outlet opening configured to discharge fluid, the chamber having a circular cross-section;
• a rotatable impeller positioned within the chamber, the impeller having a plurality of flexible arms radiating outwardly from a central core;
• and
• a shaft extending through a center of the impeller, the impeller being configured to rotate around the central longitudinal axis of the shaft, the inlet opening, the outlet opening and the shaft being centered on a line extending through the chamber,
• wherein the shaft is offset from the center of the chamber toward the outlet opening and away from the inlet opening so that the axis of rotation of the impeller is offset from the center of the chamber and is closer to the center of the outlet opening than to the center of the inlet opening, and
• wherein each flexible arm is configured so that an extent to which each flexible arm is bent gradually increases as the flexible arm approaches the outlet opening.