Rotor for a fluid pump, and method and mold for manufacturing same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12523233-B2
Application number	US-202418584217-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 22, 2024
Priority date	Apr 30, 2015
Publication date	Jan 13, 2026
Grant date	Jan 13, 2026

Abstract

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 ( 10 a, 11 a, 13 a ) 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.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A rotor for a compressible fluid pump configured to be introduced through a blood vessel into a patient's body, the rotor comprising:
one or more impeller elements, wherein the rotor is configured to be radially compressed and expanded between a compressed state and an expanded state, the rotor further comprising a plastic material reinforced by reinforcement elements, wherein the rotor is configured to rotate about an axis of rotation, and wherein at least one of the reinforcement elements comprises a two-dimensional elongate strip formed of at least first and second fibers each extending in a longitudinal direction and a plurality of third fibers, each of the plurality of third fibers extending transversely to the longitudinal direction and having a length that is less than a length of the first and second fibers, wherein, in the expanded state of the rotor but not when the rotor is in an operating state under load, internal material stresses of the rotor are produced selectively to cause the two-dimensional elongate strip to stretch.

2 . The rotor of claim 1 , wherein, in the expanded state of the rotor, a first proportion of more than 30% of the reinforcement elements each runs in a substantially stretched manner from a first portion disposed closest to the axis of rotation to a second portion disposed further away from the axis of rotation.

3 . The rotor of claim 2 , wherein, in the expanded state, each reinforcement element of the first proportion deviates by at most 45° in an axial direction or azimuthal direction from a position radially aligned with the axis of rotation.

4 . The rotor of claim 2 , wherein, in the expanded state, each reinforcement element of the first proportion runs substantially perpendicularly to the axis of rotation.

5 . The rotor of claim 2 , wherein, in the expanded state, each reinforcement element of the first proportion runs radially with respect to the axis of rotation.

6 . The rotor of claim 2 , wherein each reinforcement element of the first proportion runs along a longitudinal axis of an impeller element of the one or more impeller elements.

7 . The rotor of claim 2 , wherein a length of each reinforcement element of the first proportion is at least 10% of a radius of the rotor.

8 . The rotor of claim 1 , wherein a diameter of each of the fibers is less than 40 μm.

9 . The rotor of claim 1 , wherein the one or more impeller elements comprise a foam material.

10 . The rotor of claim 1 , wherein the two-dimensional elongate strip is a fabric strip.

11 . The rotor of claim 1 , wherein the reinforcement elements are surrounded by the plastic material from which the rotor is predominantly made, at least to a proportion of 90% of a surface of each reinforcement element.

12 . The rotor of claim 11 , wherein the plastic material in which the reinforcement elements are embedded has different properties, at least in regions, on a side of the one or more impeller elements not loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation compared to a side of the one or more impeller elements that are loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation, wherein the different properties produce the internal material stress of the rotor.

13 . The rotor of claim 1 , wherein the reinforcement elements in the expanded state of the rotor, without the fluid counter-pressure, are present in a form stretched to such an extent that when transitioning to a third state, which constitutes an operating state with the fluid counter-pressure, the reinforcement elements are lengthened by less than 5%, wherein the lengthening is measured based on a distance between first and second ends of a reinforcement element of the reinforcement elements.

14 . The rotor of claim 1 , wherein in the expanded state of the rotor and an operating state with the fluid counter-pressure at least a proportion of the reinforcement elements run in a stretched and straight manner in at least one region of an impeller element in which said impeller element is curved.

15 . The rotor of claim 14 , wherein the at least one region of the impeller element includes at least two proportions of reinforcement elements angularly offset from each other, wherein within each proportion a direction in which the reinforcement elements of the proportions run parallel with one another.

16 . The rotor of claim 11 , wherein the plastic material in which the reinforcement elements are embedded has different properties, at least in regions, on a side of the one or more impeller elements not loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation compared to a side of the one or more impeller elements that is loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation, wherein the plastic material is more heavily cross-linked on the side not loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation compared to the side that is loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation.

17 . The rotor of claim 11 , wherein the plastic material in which the reinforcement elements are embedded has different properties, at least in regions, on a side of the one or more impeller elements not loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation compared to a side of the one or more impeller elements that is loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation, wherein the plastic material is more heavily shrunk on the side not loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation compared to the side that is loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation, and wherein the side not loaded by the fluid counter-pressure during operation comprises a support shrunk on the one or more impeller elements, the support shrunk comprising of one or more fibers.

18 . The rotor of claim 1 , wherein the plastic material has a Shore hardness of <100 D.

Assignees

• Ecp Entw Mbh

Inventors

• Siess Thorsten

Classifications

• F04D29/181

  Axial flow rotors (F04D29/185 take precedence) · CPC title

• F04D3/02

  of screw type · CPC title

• B29L2031/7498

  Rotors (with blades B29L2031/08) · CPC title

• B29C45/7207

  of the moulded articles · CPC title

• B29C45/2708

  Gates (B29C45/2703 takes precedence) · CPC title