Magnetic bearing in blood pump systems

Since the eighties years of the last century, scientists of the Department of Electrical Machines, TUB with cooperation of Brno University Medical Faculty tried to developed a mechanical device to temporarily supplant heart action. During these years the first artificial heart (made from polyurethane) was implanted inside a goat and consequently inside a calf body. Blood pump development continued and devices became smaller, lighter and more acceptable. A number of plastic pumps of long life time were also developed. During nineties new political administration cut financial sources and imposed more restrictive rules to the medical devices standards, also leading to higher development costs. The extensive research program was in Medical Faculty reduced and consequently also in our department only to the electromechanical part of the artificial heart. In cooperation with the Victor Kaplan Department of Fluid Engineering we have continued in the field of mechatronic drive destined for centrifugal and whirling blood pump. Some of these mechatronic systems were manufactured and tested in laboratory conditions and published in the previous papers. The paper presented deals with the test experiences of the magnetic active bearings used in the mechatronic system of the total artificial heart and presents some new proposal and discussion in the different types of the magnetic passive bearings, which could be in some cases more suitable than magnetic active ones