Application of a Mechanical Filter to an Artificial Heart

A mechanical filter developed to improve the performances of an artificial heart whose electrical motor has a reciprocating motion is presented. The filter phases the mechanical load strongly reducing its inertial component (which is of the same order of magnitude as the useful load). The analysis reported for a prototype developed by us shows that when its rate is equal to the first resonant frequency of the filter, a reduction of about 50 percent for the maximum value of the torque due to inertial and friction forces is obtained.