Compressible Axial Pump Rotor With Web-Connected Blades
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing axial flow pumps for medical applications require a balance between being compact for transport through the body and expandable for effective fluid conveyance, while also needing to be lightweight, inexpensive, and simple to manufacture.
Innovation Solution
A compressible rotor design featuring an impeller blade with webs that connect marginal regions, allowing for radial compression and expansion, and potentially using shape memory alloys like nitinol for enhanced flexibility, eliminating the need for a neck to transfer torque and maintain stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the rotor is designed to be radially compressible for transport through blood vessels, then the adaptability is improved, but the structural integrity and conveying capacity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The impeller blade is divided into multiple marginal sections connected by webs, creating a segmented structure that can compress radially while maintaining overall integrity. The webs act as structural elements that connect the segments, allowing compression without complete collapse of the blade structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The impeller blade surface extends beyond the axis of rotation in the radial direction, creating a three-dimensional structure that can compress radially while maintaining its functional surface area. This dimensional extension allows the blade to achieve a compressed state for transport while preserving its conveying capacity when expanded.
2Weight of moving object
If the impeller blade is made lightweight with extensive surface area, then the weight is reduced, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The impeller blade is constructed as a network of webs connecting marginal sections, creating a segmented framework that is inherently lightweight. This segmentation allows the blade to achieve extensive surface area with minimal material, reducing weight while providing a clear manufacturing template for fabrication.
Solution Approach 2:
The impeller blade utilizes a thin-walled or film-like structure for the blade surface, which minimizes material usage and weight. The thin-film approach allows the creation of extensive surface area without proportionally increasing mass, while the structure can be manufactured using techniques suitable for thin-walled components.
3Productivity
If the impeller blade is designed with extensive surface area beyond the axis of rotation, then the conveying capacity is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The blade surface is divided into marginal sections that extend beyond the axis of rotation, creating multiple contributing surfaces for fluid conveyance. This segmentation allows the extensive surface area to be achieved through a modular pattern of sections and webs, which simplifies the overall structural logic compared to a monolithic complex blade design.
Solution Approach 2:
The webs serving as structural connectors also function as part of the conveying surface, multi-functioning as both support elements and fluid-interacting surfaces. This universality reduces the need for separate structural and functional components, thereby reducing device complexity while maintaining extensive conveying surface area.
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
This design enables a lightweight, cost-effective, and easily manufacturable rotor that can be compressed for introduction into the body and expand for efficient fluid conveyance, maintaining structural integrity and conveying capacity without damage.
Implementation Method 1
potentially using shape memory alloys like nitinol for enhanced flexibility
Implementation Method 2
The impeller blades can be radially applied to the shaft so that the rotor is compressible in this manner. In operation, the individual impeller blades become erect, inter alia due to the fluid counterpressure
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a rotor for an axial flow pump for conveying a fluid having an axis of rotation and having an impeller blade which has at least one part surface which extends transversely to the axis of rotation and beyond it, wherein the impeller blade has throughgoing webs or a network of webs which connect a different marginal regions of the impeller blades to one another. A good compressibility is hereby achieved in the radial direction with high stability during operation.