Rigid-vane artifical heart
AssigneeU.S. Philips Corporation
InventorMichael P. Goldowsky
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A rigid-vane artificial heart pump includes a vane shaft which extends from the gear box into the blood pumping chamber and a torsion seal for hermetically sealing the gear box from the pumping chamber so as to prevent contamination of blood. Check valves are provided to control the blood flow direction and to determine the pump's mode of operation.
Claims15
An artificial heart pump comprising:
- a rigid housing having walls defining a pumping chamber with at least one intake port and one outlet port;
- a vane shaft, having two ends and a longitudinal axis therethrough, pivotally mounted in the housing about its longitudinal axis, and having one end thereof extending into the pumping chamber through an opening in a wall of the pumping chamber;
- a rigid vane, mounted on the vane shaft in the pumping chamber so that the vane will pivot with the vane shaft about the longitudinal axis;
- and
- a torsion seal, for effecting a fluid-tight seal between the vane shaft and the wall of the pumping chamber through which the vane shaft extends, said torsion seal comprising a tube-shaped resilient material having two ends and being mounted substantially coaxially around the vane shaft, one end of said tube being sealed fluid-tight to the vane shaft and the other end being sealed fluid-tight to the wall of the pumping chamber through which the vane shaft extends, thereby hermetically sealing the pumping chamber.
A torsion seal for effecting a fluid-tight seal between a longitudinal member and a wall surrounding such member, where the member and the wall are moving in relative pivotal motion through only a limited angular displacement, comprising a tube-shaped resilient sealing material having two ends, said tube being mounted substantially coaxially around the longitudinal member, and having one end of said tube being sealed, fluid-tight, and fastened to the longitudinal member, and the other end being sealed, fluid-tight, and fastened to the surrounding wall, said tube ends being fastened such that the tube-shaped resilient sealing material twists as the longitudinal member pivots relative to the surrounding wall.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.