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US 5,707,218 AGranted
Implantable electric axial-flow blood pump with blood cooled bearing
AssigneeNimbus, Inc.
InventorsTimothy R. Maher, Lynn P. Taylor, Pieter W. J. C. le Blanc, Kenneth C. Butler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An axial-flow blood pump has a rotor suspended in ball-and-cup bearings which are blood-cooled but not actively blood-lubricated. The ball-and-cup structures are made of highly heat-conductive material and are in heat-transferring contact with heat-conductive stator blades that serve as heat sinks for the bearings. The ball-and-cup structures are radially much smaller than the stator blades. The ball-and-cup interface has so small a gap that the ball-to-cup structures present an essentially continuous surface to the blood flow.
Claims15
An implantable blood pump, comprising:
- a) a cylindrical blood conduit;
- b) a motor stator surrounding said blood conduit;
- c) a pump rotor having inlet and outlet ends and containing a motor rotor for motive interaction with said motor stator, said pump rotor being arranged to rotate in said blood conduit;
- d) inlet stator blades disposed in said blood conduit, said inlet stator blades supporting an inlet hub;
- e) outlet stator blades disposed in said blood conduit, said outlet stator blades supporting an outlet hub;
- and
- f) a non-hydrostatic ball-and-cup bearing structure interposed between each of said inlet and outlet ends of said pump rotor and the corresponding one of said hubs for supporting said rotor, said ball-and-cup structure forming ball-to-cup interfaces having a small enough gap to substantially prevent blood serum from entering into said interface, and said ball-and-cup structure being washed by the blood flow through said blood conduit;
- g) said stator blades at each end of said pump rotor being in heat-transferring contact with the corresponding one of said ball-and-cup structures, said ball-and-cup structures having an outside diameter substantially smaller than the radial extent of said stator blades between said hubs and said blood conduit.
5 more elements
An implantable blood pump, comprising:
- a) a cylindrical blood conduit;
- b) a motor stator surrounding said blood conduit;
- c) a pump rotor having inlet and outlet ends and containing a motor rotor for motive interaction with said motor stator, said pump rotor being arranged to rotate in said blood conduit;
- d) inlet stator blades disposed in said blood conduit, said inlet stator blades supporting an inlet hub;
- e) outlet stator blades disposed in said blood conduit, said outlet stator blades supporting an outlet hub;
- and
- f) a ball-and-cup structure interposed between each of said inlet and outlet ends of said pump rotor and the corresponding one of said hubs for supporting said rotor, said ball-and-cup structure being washed by the blood flow through said blood conduit;
- g) said stator blades at each end of said pump rotor being in heat-transferring contact with the corresponding one of said ball-and-cup structures, said ball-and-cup structures having an outside diameter substantially smaller than the radial extent of said stator blades between said hubs and said blood conduit;
- h) said inlet and outlet hubs being axially fixed with respect to said motor stator, said motor rotor having a shaft including a pair of shaft portions axially movable with respect to each other but non-rotatable with respect to said rotor, and a resilient element interposed between said shaft portions and arranged to bias said shaft portions axially away from each other.
6 more elements
An implantable blood pump, comprising:
- a) a cylindrical blood conduit;
- b) a motor stator surrounding said blood conduit;
- c) a pump rotor having inlet and outlet ends and containing a motor rotor for motive interaction with said motor stator, said pump rotor being arranged to rotate in said blood conduit;
- d) inlet stator blades disposed in said blood conduit, said inlet stator blades supporting an inlet hub;
- e) outlet stator blades disposed in said blood conduit, said outlet stator blades supporting an outlet hub;
- and
- f) a ball-and-cup structure interposed between each of said inlet and outlet ends of said pump rotor and the corresponding one of said hubs for supporting said rotor, said ball-and-cup structure being washed by the blood flow through said blood conduit;
- g) said stator blades at each end of said pump rotor being in heat-transferring contact with the corresponding one of said ball-and-cup structures, said ball-and-cup structures having an outside diameter substantially smaller than the radial extent of said stator blades between said hubs and said blood conduit;
- h) said ball-and-cup structures being composed of hard wear-resistant, machinable biocompatible materials which have a high thermal conductivity.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.