Motor-crank VFP for the small and high efficiency blood pump system

The vibrating flow pump is driven by the electro-magnetic linear actuator up to this time. The linear actuator is good for the control of the vibrating frequency and the driving stroke independently. But it has problems as the weight and the heat generation. To make the more advanced small size and high efficiency VFP system, the motor-crank structure is utilized for the actuator. The stroke of crank is fixed in this system. So the setting of the conditions as crank stroke and driving r.p.m. are carefully important, because the pumping performance is directory influenced by the setting of the crank stroke especially for the VFP. In this study, the VFP system was aimed to the use of left ventricular assistance. The plans of the new VFP are as follow; 15-25 [Hz] driving, approx. 5 [l/min] against 100 [mmHg], approximately 1.5 [cm] of diameter of the central tube. Following these items, the new type motor- crank VFP was produced as a prototype. 10 × 7 × 5 [cm] and 320 [g] are the dimension of this new pump. The pumping performance almost satisfies the plans as above. The anti-thrombus performance and hemolisis performance are the next step for the new VFP. These subjects may be solved in the next revision, since the VFP is one of the inertial blood pumps.