Peristaltic pump and pumping method, in particular for use as implant
AssigneeETH Zurich
InventorsWendelin Jan STARK, Christoph SCHUMACHER, Roland FUHRER, Michael LOEPFE
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Abstract
A pump having at least a fluid pump chamber (11) and a first driver chamber (12) separated from the fluid pump chamber (11) by an elastic wall (13, 13-1, 13-2) is described with the first driver chamber (12) expanding after a chemical reaction between fuel and oxidant and driving through deformation of the elastic wall fluid out of the fluid pump chamber (11), with the main parts of the pump being made of an elastic material to be used for example as a body implant.
Claims17
Peristaltic pump driven by a chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant comprising
- at least a fluid pump chamber and
- a first driver chamber separated from the fluid pump chamber by a first at least partly elastic wall,
- wherein the first driver chamber comprises one or more ports for fuel or oxidant containing fluids to enter and for exhaust fluids to leave the chamber,
- wherein the first driver chamber expands after a first chemical reaction between fuel and oxidant in said first driver chamber.
A method of operating a pump comprising the steps of
- supplying a fuel/oxidant mixture to a driver chamber;
- igniting a fuel/oxidant mixture in said driver chamber to cause a reaction generating a reaction product;
- using said reaction product to expand a volume of said driver chamber and compressing a volume of a pump chamber by deformation of a deformable wall between the driver chamber and the fluid pump chamber to pump out fluid from the pump chamber;
- restoring the driver chamber and the pump chamber to their volume prior to the expanding of the volume of the driver chamber;
- and
- re-supplying the fuel/oxidant mixture to repeat the above steps.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.