Nimbus, Incorporated

Other

Pieter W Le Blanc

Timothy R Maher

Kenneth C Butler

Lynn P Taylor

Tracy Vaughn Petersen

Elena Pinto

A lapping machine that can reproduce novel lapping patterns for generally spherical workpieces. The lapping machine replicates the motions commonly used in manual lapping, but with full reproducibility. The desired patterns of lapping are representative of roulette curves, and the present disclosure describes a novel means to produce roulette curve lapping of spherical workpieces by machine. The lapping machine may utilize a free rolling spherical lap arrangement in the lower unit and a telescopic rod and spherical lap in an upper unit. Different tools for holding the workpiece allow for easy adjustment to a variety of work piece sizes and shapes.

Spherical lapping machine

The invention provides an axial flow blood pump with slanting outflow components. Specifically, the invention provides a blood pump having an angling outer stator blade edge structure in combination with a blood flow conduit having a constricting inner diameter. After constricting, the blood flow conduit can expand such that the inner diameter of the conduit increases. In addition, the blood pump can have an angling inner stator blade edge structure and a tapering stator blade hub or tapering rotor element.

Blood pump with profiled outflow region

An axial-flow blood pump has a rotor suspended in ball-and-cup bearings which are blood-cooled but not actively blood-lubricated. The ball-and-cup structures are made of highly heat-conductive material and are in heat-transferring contact with heat-conductive stator blades that serve as heat sinks for the bearings. The ball-and-cup structures are radially much smaller than the stator blades. The ball-to-cup interface has so small a gap that the ball-to-cup structures present an essentially continuous surface to the blood flow.

Implantable electric axial-flow blood pump with blood-cooled bearing

An axial-flow blood pump has a rotor suspended in ball-and-cup bearings which are blood-cooled but not actively blood-lubricated. The ball-and-cup structures are made of highly heat-conductive material and are in heat-transferring contact with heat-conductive stator blades that serve as heat sinks for the bearings. The ball-and-cup structures are radially much smaller than the stator blades. The ball-and-cup interface has so small a gap that the ball-to-cup structures present an essentially continuous surface to the blood flow.

Implantable electric axial-flow blood pump with blood cooled bearing

An implantable electric blood pump has a motor stator defining a cylindrical blood conduit, and a pump rotor in which the motor rotor is embedded. The pump rotor is conical at each of its ends and terminates at each end in a ball-and-cup structure washed directly by the pumped blood stream. Grooves may be formed in the ball-and-cup structure to enhance the heat-removing washing action of the blood stream. The pump rotor is nested in the stator blades to shorten the pump and wash the outlet bearing with a partially circumferential blood flow. Titanium-titanium carbide facing alumina are the preferred materials for the rotary-stationary interface, and the gap of the rotary-stationary interface is kept so small that no significant amount of blood serum can penetrate between the mating surfaces of the interface.

Implantable electric axial-flow blood pump

A centrifugal blood pump features a pump assembly including a cylindrical barrel insertable into a motor stator. The barrel contains a motor rotor which is directly coupled to the pump's impeller. The barrel can be oriented and locked in the motor stator in many different angular orientations. Hemolysis is prevented in spite of high speed operation by reducing the clearance between the impeller and the impeller chamber, rounding the edges of the impeller blades, and providing a deflector to prevent blood from being impelled more than once around the impeller chamber periphery. An efficient releasable locking mechanism is also disclosed, as is a preferred method of assembling the pump assembly with close tolerances.

Blood pump with disposable rotor assembly

A Braille mouse uses a character-code carrying member such as a disc, belt or drum to selectively raise Braille pins with a single solenoid. The Braille pins are provided with eccentric fingers which interact with a character-code carrying member, so that the character codes can be arranged in straight radial lines to allow all possible six-pin Braille symbols to be provided on a member of minimum size.

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Pollock Pines, CA, United States of America

Pieter W Le Blanc