Nimbus Water Systems, Inc.

Desalination Systems, Inc.

Mediscan Research Limited

Adam Robbins

A reverse osmosis water purification system for providing potable water from a municipal water or other source containing undesired impurities. A motor driven pump supplies a feed stream to a reverse osmosis unit resulting in the creation of a product water stream and a concentrate or brine stream. The inclusion of a product water holding tank may be optionally omitted by routing the product water outlet stream directly to the tap via a branched line. A pressure sensor causes a solenoid valve to open when the withdrawal of water from the tap is terminated, opening a valve in the branch line leading back to the pump. The pump then continues to run, recirculating the product water stream to a mixing unit where it is blended with a major part of the concentrate stream that is being recycled and with make-up fresh water to create a composite feed stream. As the system continues to run in this recirculation mode, the composite feed stream entering the purification unit becomes gradually purer, and once the quality reaches a desired level, the system is placed in shutdown mode. Because of the high quality of the water on the feed side of the membrane in the reverse osmosis unit, little contamination of the purified water on the product side occurs during shutdown.

Reverse osmosis purification system

Water purification unit

Cartridges for use in ultrafiltration or reverse osmosis separation devices are formed by injection molding a generally tubular, smooth, seamless shell about a spirally-wrapped semipermeable membrane assembly. These cartridges can be used within traditional separation devices having pressure vessels of precise interior diameter, for which the cartridges are uniquely suited because they have cylindrical surfaces of true circular cross-section and close tolerances. The cartridges can also be created so as to incorporate integral pressure vessels and thus permit their use in separation processes without the need for surrounding supporting pressure vessels. A reaction injection molding process is shown which provides for substantial efficiencies in the overall manufacturing of semipermeable membrane separation cartridges of the spirally-wound variety.

Semipermeable membrane cartridge and method of making

Hospital patient temperatures and heartbeat rates are monitored by providing each patient with a battery powered transmitter containing a reference resistance and to which two sensor electrodes are connected. The first electrode includes a thermistor and is positioned in thermal contact with the patient's skin over the axillary artery. The second electrode is positioned in contact with the patient's skin proximate to the fourth intercostal left parasternal area of the patient's chest. A receiver, carried by a nurse, includes a magnetic actuator for closing a reed switch in a transmitter unit to activate the generation of data signals from that transmitter. The transmitter, when actuated provides an output of modulated, sequential data signals. The data signals are of a duration corresponding to a reference temperature, actual patient temperature, transmitter battery level, and patient heartbeat rate. The receiver includes demodulator circuitry and a microprocessor to provide numerical indicia quantitatively indicative of actual patient temperature and heartbeat rate. The microprocessor compares the demodulated data signals to allowable limits associated with each signal.

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San Marcos, CA, United States of America

Adam Robbins