In a pump housing having an interior for accommodating a pump rotor, which may be transferred from a radially compressed state into a radially expanded state, and comprises a housing skin revolving in circumferential direction, as well as at least one reinforcement element, a stretch-resistant element revolving in circumferential direction is provided, which is stretched less than 5% in the expanded state as opposed to the force-free state in circumferential direction, and which limits any further expansion of the pump housing in radial direction.

A regenerative pump includes a housing defining a cavity having a fluid inlet arrangement and fluid outlet arrangement, and a channel having an open volume extending between the fluid inlet arrangement and the fluid outlet arrangement. A rotatable shaft extends into the housing. An impeller is mounted to the shaft within the cavity and has a plurality of vanes spaced circumferentially around the axis and opening into the channel. An arm arrangement at least partially defines walls of the channel. The arm arrangement is radially movable to vary the volume of the channel. Enlarging the volume of the channel inhibits regenerative circulatory flow during pumping and limits the pressure generated.

A regenerative pump includes a housing defining a cavity having a fluid inlet arrangement and fluid outlet arrangement, and a channel having an open volume extending between the fluid inlet arrangement and the fluid outlet arrangement. A rotatable shaft extends into the housing. An impeller is mounted to the shaft within the cavity and has a plurality of vanes spaced circumferentially around the axis and opening into the channel. An arm arrangement at least partially defines walls of the channel. The arm arrangement is radially movable to vary the volume of the channel. Enlarging the volume of the channel inhibits regenerative circulatory flow during pumping and limits the pressure generated.

A blood pump is described that includes an impeller having proximal and distal bushings, at least one helical elongate element, a spring that is disposed inside of the helical elongate element and along an axis around which the helical elongate element winds, and a film of material supported between the helical elongate element and the spring. A frame is disposed around the impeller. A flexible elongate element extends radially from the spring to the helical elongate element, and maintains the helical elongate element within a given distance from the spring, to thereby maintain a gap between an outer edge of a blade of the impeller and an inner surface of the frame, during rotation of the impeller. Other applications are also described.

A convector for cooling a microprocessor includes a volute-shaped housing, a stator, and a rotor, and can be mounted to a CPU board of a computing device for thermal coupling with the microprocessor. The volute-shaped housing of the convector encapsulates the stator and the rotor, and has a radially outer casing which defines a single exit port for guiding a fluid out of the housing. The stator has a plurality of plates configured to conduct heat. The rotor has a plurality of disks and a shaft extending longitudinally along the housing. Together, the housing, the stator, and the rotor define a spiral flow path through the volute-shaped housing, in both radially outward and longitudinal directions, to the single exit port. A motor may be provided to impart rotational motion to the rotor.

A convector for cooling a microprocessor includes a volute-shaped housing, a stator, and a rotor, and can be mounted to a CPU board of a computing device for thermal coupling with the microprocessor. The volute-shaped housing of the convector encapsulates the stator and the rotor, and has a radially outer casing which defines a single exit port for guiding a fluid out of the housing. The stator has a plurality of plates configured to conduct heat. The rotor has a plurality of disks and a shaft extending longitudinally along the housing. Together, the housing, the stator, and the rotor define a spiral flow path through the volute-shaped housing, in both radially outward and longitudinal directions, to the single exit port. A motor may be provided to impart rotational motion to the rotor.

A process for optimizing the design of a semi-open centrifugal pump impeller involves the steps of, reducing the number of long blades and adding a medium length splitter blade and a short length splitter blade having varying circumferential distances between any two optimized long blades. Each medium length and short length splitter blade have the same outlet position, profile and thickness as the optimized long blade; however, the medium length and short length splitter blades have different inlet positions relative to the optimized long blade. The long blade, medium length splitter blade and short length splitter blade are arranged in circumferential sequence along the direction of rotation of the impeller. This optimization improves various problems arising from the original semi-open centrifugal pumps, including low efficiency, significant loss at the inlet, inlet cavitation, separation of boundary layers at the blade inlets, narrow lift range of the dead point and excessive noise.

An impeller for centrifugal pump comprising: a disc, a succession of vanes which extend from the disc around the rotation axis, a central body, adapted for connection to a rotating shaft, the vanes having a profile with a double curvature: a first curvature with respect to a sectional plane that is parallel to the disc, a second curvature with respect to a sectional plane that is perpendicular to the plane of the disc, each one of the vanes comprising an inside curve and an outside curve with different curvatures: the inside curve having an angle of curvature chosen between zero and one quarter of a round angle, and/or the outside curve has an angle of curvature chosen between zero and one quarter of a round angle.

An inducer and a submersible pump for pumping a slurry comprising solids and viscous fluids, the inducer mountable to the pump's drive shaft adjacent to and immediately upstream of an impeller mounted on said shaft. The inducer comprises a hub, two to four inducer blades extending outwardly from and wrapping helically around the hub, the hub and the inducer blades defining a plurality of channels A trailing edge of each inducer blade is positioned snugly adjacent to and in fluidical alignment with a leading edge of a corresponding impeller blade when the inducer is mounted on the drive shaft of the pump, such that a velocity curve of the slurry is smooth as the slurry travels from a leading edge of the inducer blades to the leading edge of the impeller blades.

In a rotor for a fluid pump which is made radially compressible and expandable and has a hub and at least one conveying element which has a plurality of struts and at least one membrane which can be spanned between them, provision is made for a design in accordance with the invention which is as simple and inexpensive as possible that at least one first group of struts is pivotable in a pivot plane, starting from a common base, and can thus be spanned open in the manner of a fan, wherein the conveying element lies along the hub and contacts it over its full length in the expanded state to avoid a pressure loss at the margin of the conveying element between it and the hub and thus to realize an optimum efficiency.