Fiber-Reinforced Compressible Pump Rotor for Geometry Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fluid pumps, particularly catheter pumps for medical applications, face challenges in maintaining a stable geometry and efficiency during compression and expansion, with a risk of material deformation and damage to blood constituents due to insufficient material relaxation and reproducibility of the rotor's geometry.
Innovation Solution
A plastic rotor reinforced by strand-like reinforcement elements, such as fibers, with a Shore hardness of <100 D, is designed to minimize relaxation and ensure precise geometry reproducibility. The fibers are oriented to run substantially stretched from the axis of rotation, with a sufficient proportion embedded in the plastic matrix to stabilize the rotor, and a method involving injection molding ensures their radial orientation and embedding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the rotor is made of soft plastic with Shore hardness <100 D to enable compression and expansion, then the rotor can be radially compressed and expanded between compressed and expanded states, but the rotor experiences material deformation and geometry instability during operation
Solution Approach 1:
The rotor is made from a composite material consisting of a plastic matrix (with Shore hardness <100 D) reinforced with strand-like reinforcement elements (fibers). This composite structure allows the rotor to maintain both compressibility (from the soft plastic matrix) and geometry stability (from the fiber reinforcement), resolving the contradiction between adaptability and stability.
2Stability of the object's composition
If reinforcement elements are added to the rotor to stabilize geometry, then the rotor maintains accurate geometry in expanded state, but the manufacturing process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The manufacturing process combines the plastic matrix and reinforcement elements into a single integrated component through injection molding. The reinforcement elements are embedded within the plastic matrix during the molding process itself, creating a unified structure that maintains geometry stability while avoiding complex assembly steps. This merging of materials and processes resolves the contradiction between geometry reproducibility and manufacturing simplicity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enhances the rotor's stability and reduces the risk of breakage, maintaining efficient operation and minimizing geometric changes during compression and expansion, ensuring reliable performance in medical applications like blood pumping.
Implementation Method 1
the material of the impeller elements is introduced into the volumes of the impeller elements in the radial direction with respect to the rotor axis in such a way that the injection molding material flows into the volume of each individual impeller element in the radial direction
Implementation Method 2
a first proportion of more than 30%, in particular more than 50% of the reinforcement elements/fibers in the expanded state of the rotor runs in a substantially stretched manner from their first end disposed closest to the axis of rotation to a second end disposed further away from the axis of rotation
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a rotor for a compressible fluid pump, in particular a blood pump that can be introduced into a patient's body through a blood vessel; said rotor comprises one or more impeller elements, is compressible and expansible between an expanded state and a compressed state, is made at least in part of a fiber-reinforced plastic material, is provided for rotating about an axis of rotation, and is characterized in that in the expanded state of the rotor, a first percentage, i.e. more than 30%, in particular more than 50%, of the fibers runs substantially straight between the first end (10a, 11a, 13a) thereof lying closest to the axis of rotation and a second end lying further away from the axis of rotation. According to the invention, the rotor retains its shape very well even when subjected to repeated mechanical stress.