Guide element for a peristaltic pump

The present disclosure relates generally to peristaltic pumps, and more particularly to a guide element for a peristaltic pump.

Rotary-style peristaltic infusion pumps are often used to deliver fluid in a very controlled manner such as, for example, the intravenous delivery of medicine to a patient. These peristaltic pumps typically include a disposable pumping cassette and an assembly of radially arranged rollers received within a cavity of the cassette. The rollers revolve together in the cassette when rotationally driven by a drive shaft. A flexible tubing is disposed around a portion of the assembly of rollers and exerts a force against the rollers in contact therewith to generally hold the rollers against the drive shaft.

In response to rotational movement of the rollers, portions of the flexible tube that are in contact with the rollers compress or otherwise occlude against a wall of the cassette. As a result, fluid traveling through the tube is temporarily trapped in the tube between the occluded points. The trapped fluid is released from the tube when the occlusion force on the tube is released. In this manner, fluid is urged through the tube via peristaltic wave action.

In some instances, a roller may not directly contact the tubing. In this case, the roller(s) may undesirably move or shift and lose proper contact with the drive shaft, and/or a roller may undesirably contact an adjacent roller. These occurrences may cause errors in various pumping operations, thereby potentially diminishing the overall performance of the pump.

A guide element for a peristaltic pump including a plurality of rollers is disclosed. The guide element includes a base and a plurality of spindles established on a surface of the base. The plurality of spindles is positioned substantially normal to the surface of the base and projects outward from the surface of the base. Each of the plurality of spindles is configured to locate a journal formed in a respective one of the plurality of rollers.

Example(s) of the guide element and the method of guiding a plurality of rollers for a peristaltic pump including the guide element as disclosed herein advantageously guide and/or locate a plurality of rollers during rotational movement of a drive shaft to thereby maintain contact of the rollers with the drive shaft, and/or prevent a roller from contacting an adjacent roller. The guide element may also improve the overall performance of the peristaltic pump and enable the pump to achieve higher precision in fluid volume delivery. The guide element is also advantageously simple to fabricate and to incorporate into the pump assembly. Further, unlike previous guide elements where the guide element is attached to the drive shaft and is the only part that carries the rollers around, the guide element of the present disclosure is actually carried around by the rollers, which in turn are moved by the drive shaft. As such, the guide element of the present disclosure generally only carries a roller when a roller loses contact with the drive shaft (e.g., when a roller is not in contact with the tubing, such as in or adjacent to the 6 o\'clock position).