Technology that other vendors couldn’t supply was developed by EAM. Here’s what we did to provide the solution…
Medical applications can be some of the most demanding magnet design challenges. Precision and consistency are of primary importance when dealing with systems that will be counted on to perform when someone’s life is on the line.
The Problem: Heart and lung machines are used to keep the patient’s blood and oxygen supply flowing during certain types of surgery. A manufacturer of these machines wanted to create a magnetic system to drive the blood-pump on their equipment. Using this type of design, the part on the pump that actually comes into contact with the blood would be disposable, however the main console that drives the motion of the pump would be re-useable. The pump would have to work with no physical contacts between the driving mechanism and the pump itself, preventing any possible contamination.
The Solution: For the pump to work as designed, EAM created two separate magnetic assemblies. A sintered neodymium assembly with eight poles was designed to be mounted in the console and drive the pump on a permanent basis. A more cost effective ceramic magnet with multiple poles would be mounted in the disposable pump that moves the blood. Care had to be taken to ensure the optimal coupling strength so that the system would move smoothly in order to pump the blood without casing damage to the platelets.
The design worked perfectly, and the pump is currently in use in operating rooms across the country.
