The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 07, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 31, 1997
NTN Corporation, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A centrifugal blood pump assembly according to one aspect of the invention includes a housing, an impeller adapted to rotate within the housing for feeding blood, an impeller position control device, and an impeller rotation torque generating device. The impeller rotates without contacting the inner surface of the housing when the position control device and torque generating device are operative. Even when the position control device is inoperative, operation of the torque generating device enables rotation of the impeller while a blood flowpath is defined between the surface of the impeller facing the torque generating device and the inner surface of the housing. A centrifugal blood pump assembly according to another aspect of the invention involves a pump including a housing having blood inlet and outlet ports and an impeller adapted to rotate within the housing for feeding blood. The assembly also includes an uncontrolled magnetic bearing arrangement for the impeller, and controlled magnetic bearing arrangement for the impeller. The bearing arrangements are removably mounted to the pump.