Patent ID: 8641594

Claim:
A rotor for a blood circulating pump, the rotor comprising a body having an upstream end, a downstream end and a rotational axis, the rotor body including a plurality of lobes, each of said lobes having a pressure surface facing in a forward circumferential direction and a suction surface facing in a reverse circumferential direction opposite to the forward circumferential direction, the pressure and suction surfaces of each lobe, as viewed in a sectional view looking in the direction of the axis, curving away from one another in opposite circumferential directions so that the circumferential extent of each lobe increases in a radially outward direction away from the axis, each of said lobes having a support surface facing generally radially outwardly, the rotor being adapted to pump blood downstream upon rotation in the forward circumferential direction, each said support surface including a hydrodynamic bearing region sloping radially outwardly away from the axis in the reverse circumferential direction.