Oxygen concentrator with a product pump
An oxygen concentrator comprises a vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) gas separator for producing oxygen rich gas, and includes a reservoir for storing the product gas and a product pump for delivering the product gas from the separator to reservoir. The pump is driven by a vacuum from the gas separator.
1 . An oxygen concentrator comprising:
a vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) gas separator for producing product gas;
a reservoir for storing the product gas; and
a product pump for delivering the product gas from the separator to reservoir, the pump being driven by a vacuum from the gas separator.
2 . The oxygen concentrator of claim 1 and further comprising:
an accumulator casing within which the product pump and the reservoir are housed.
3 . The oxygen concentrator of claim 1 wherein the product pump is a piston pump having a piston movable in a first direction in a pumping chamber to draw product gas into the chamber, and movable in a second direction to pump product gas out of the chamber into the reservoir.
4 . The oxygen concentrator of claim 3 wherein the piston is driven in the first direction by the vacuum.
5 . The oxygen concentrator of claim 4 wherein the piston is driven in the second direction by a spring.
6 . An ambulatory oxygen concentrator comprising:
a vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) gas separator for producing product gas;
an integral accumulator, the accumulator comprising:
a reservoir capable of storing the product gas at or above 1.0 atm; and
a product pump for delivering the product gas from the separator to reservoir, the pump being driven by a vacuum from the gas separator.
7 . The oxygen concentrator of claim 6 wherein the product pump is a piston pump having a piston movable in a first direction in a pumping chamber to draw product gas into the chamber, and movable in a second direction to pump product gas out of the chamber into the reservoir.
8 . The oxygen concentrator of claim 7 wherein the piston is driven in the first direction by the vacuum.
9 . The oxygen concentrator of claim 7 wherein the piston is driven in the second direction by a spring.
10 . The oxygen concentrator of claim 6 wherein the piston is contained within a pumping chamber.
11 . The oxygen concentrator of claim 10 wherein the reservoir has a volume of at least four times the volume of the pumping chamber.