Oxygen concentrator with a product pump

Abstract

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.