Abstract: A removable and reusable filter attachment system. A filter medium is fixed o, and surrounded by, a filter frame having a coaxial, longitudinally extending, annular rim. The rim engages an annular groove which surrounds the opening of a filter housing. The annular groove contains a fusible material and a heating mechanism for melting the fusible material. Upon resolidifying, the fusible material forms a hermetic bond with the rim and groove. Remelting allows detachment and replacement of the filter frame.

Abstract: The invention relates to a blood purification system especially useful as an artificial kidney system. When the blood of the patient is purified by a filter, the volume of filtrate from the filter is measured accurately and the volume of a substitution fluid supplied to the patient is measured accurately. The blood is purified while the two volumes are being maintained in balance accurately.

Abstract: Fluid treatment apparatus is disclosed in which a stack of flat membrane elements and support plates are enclosed and compressed by means of a casing which comprises two endplates between which the stack is arranged, the internal faces of the endplates being adapted to contact the faces of the stack which is substantially parallel to the plane of the elements, and at least two lateral plates are located with their internal surfaces in front of the lateral faces of the stack. A number of studs and cooperating recesses are provided in adajcent surfaces of each lateral plate and each endplate, whereby the lateral plates and endplates are connected together within cooperating engagement surfaces, which are disclosed as being cylindrical, of its stud and recesses, hold the endplates and lateral plates together and thus hold the stack compressed.

Abstract: The water content of a crude oil containing surfactant is reduced to less than 0.5 weight percent by first conventionally drying the crude oil to a water concentration less than about 10%, then contacting the crude oil with a low molecular weight alcohol to effect a phase separation into an aqueous layer and an oil layer, thereafter separating these layers to obtain a dried oil and an aqueous alcoholic surfactant solution. The alcohol can then be separated from the aqueous alcoholic surfactant solution. The recovered alcohol can be recycled through the system and the recovered surfactant can be reused in another micellar flood.

Abstract: The filter device has a housing with elongated top and bottom walls and side walls which taper inwardly from top to bottom. The top wall has extending downwardly therefrom into the housing a generally flat filter membrane support with a quadrangular periphery, a pair of filter membranes being disposed on opposite sides of the support and sealingly bonded to its periphery, the support having a center portion with spaced coplanar surfaces on each side to provide support for the center portion of the filter membranes. The housing is provided with an opening communicating with the space between the two filter membranes and with an opening communicating with the space between the housing and the two membranes.

Abstract: A foaming crude oil is separated into (i) liquid oil containing not more than 10% by volume of gas and (ii) gas containing not more than 200 parts per million of liquid oil by passing the foaming crude oil into a cyclone separator which has means for controllably adjusting the size of the inlet thereto and in which the ratio of the diameter of the vortex finder to the diameter of the vessel in the region of the inlet is from about 0.40 to 0.80, and which is also provided with a disengaging chamber and means for maintaining a minimum liquid level in said disengaging chamber.

Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus for treatment of particulate mixtures such as a mixture of solid particles, which is to be depleted in, enriched by or treated with a fluid, or wherein the mixture acts as a treatment medium for a fluid passing through same. The apparatus is of the type operating with an advancing bed of the particulate material. It utilizes walls permeable by at least a portion of the fluid. The apparatus is of the type of tubular, rectangular or the like vessel having only stationary parts and subdivided by a selected combination of permeable and non-permeable walls into separate chambers into or from which the fluid can be delivered or removed. The movement of the particulate mixture is effected solely by forcing same through a passage having preferably but not exclusively an annular chamber, by pumping, by gravity or by a combination of both. Additional throttling or valve means are employed to selectively control the advancement of the bed through the device.

Abstract: The blood-air separator is for use in the extracorporeal blood bypass during cardio-pulmonary surgery. Air bubbles are separated from the recirculating blood stream by centrifugal force and buoyancy after the stream has left the oxygenator and before it returns to the patient. Separation is accomplished by imparting circular motion to the bloodstream within the separator at a point where air bubbles can move upward and inward, and blood liquid outward and downward. Curved vanes in the blood flow stream cause the circular blood motion.

Abstract: Previously known extraction columns for fissionable material (nuclear fuel) and breeder material in the reprocessing of spent fuel elements with pulsation mechanisms working by air impulses, drag along the radioactive aerosols. These difficulties are avoided with the extraction column of the invention in which the column body contains a central tube filled with extraction agent which is connected with a pulsating pump via a multiple part sealing liquid container with the parts joined together according to the principle of communicating tubes.

Abstract: The performance of axially-fed permeators comprising an essentially fluid impermeable tubular shell containing a plurality of selectively permeable hollow fibers suitable for the selective permeation of at least one fluid in a fluid mixture containing at least one other component, wherein the hollow fibers are positioned in a tubular shell and are assembled in the form of an elongated bundle, is enhanced by providing at least one flow diverter in the bundle. The flow diverter comprises a region of a plurality of hollow fibers embedded in a solid wherein the cross-sectional area of the flow diverter which is transverse to the orientation of the hollow fibers is a minor portion of the transverse cross-section sectional area of the bundle sufficient to divert fluid flow within the bundle. Advantageously, the portion of the plurality of hollow fibers encompassed in the flow diverter is insufficient to significantly adversely affect the total available membrane surface area for the selective permeation.

Abstract: This invention provides an automated single pass dialysate supply apparatus and a method for conducting hemodialysis treatments when the apparatus is used. The apparatus is of the closed circuit type and provides a pair of cylinders, each equipped with a hydraulically driven diaphragm, which supply fresh dialysate to and remove spent dialysate from an artificial kidney on an alternating time basis; the improvement resides in the means which sense the difference in time of arrival of the end of stroke of each diaphragm and automatically counteract these differences to either maintain or restore synchronization of the instant of end of stroke of each diaphragm in each half cycle of operation.The hemodialysis treatment method permits operator presetting of the desired ultrafiltrate removal rate and insures maintenance of that preset rate throughout the hemodialysis treatment period.

Abstract: Capillary fiber bundles of semipermeable membrane material may be used by winding the fibers onto a reel member to form an annular assembly of the fibers, and thereafter cutting the annular assembly into separate bundles. In accordance with this invention, the capillary tubing is fed to the reel through guide slot means elongated in a direction generally parallel to the axis of rotation of the reel. The tension on the capillary tubing is sufficiently low to allow the capillary tubing to move about while winding in the guide slot means in generally random manner. Accordingly, the bundles comprise strands in generally non-parallel crossing arrangement with adjacent strands. Individual bundles may be wrapped in a special flexible sheet, and cut at their ends for improved quality.

Abstract: Method of and apparatus for washing and cleaning membranes of a plurality of membrane filtration units aligned in series, each unit being part of a circuit provided with a recirculation pump, each circuit being provided with an inlet and an outlet. Washing liquid is supplied to the circuits in an amount exceeding the predetermined capacity of the recirculation pump.

Abstract: The present invention relates to novel aromatic diamino phosphoramides, thiophosphoramides and phosphoramidates and to a process for the production of same.

Abstract: A process for sterilizing a solution and thereafter transferring it to a solution container for storage. A sterilizing filter, flexible tubing and the solution container are provided as a pre-sterilized unit with a label indicating that the unit is sterile. A source of solution to be transferred is connected to an inlet of the sterilizing filter, and the solution is sterilized by transferring it from the source and through the sterilizing filter to the container via the flexible tubing. The integrity of the filter is determined by introducing a pressurized gas into the filter and observing through a light-transmissive portion in the sterile unit for gas bubbles, which would indicate a loss of filter integrity and unit sterility.

Abstract: A filter pack (20) and method of making the same are provided. Finely divided inert material (23) is bound in the filter pack (20) for use in a spin pot. Essential elements are a wall (21) which defines a cavity in which the finely divided inert material (23) is placed, a cap (26), a first cover (25), and a first screen member (24) comprised of at least one screen having a mesh size which prevents passage of the finely divided inert material therethrough but which allows passage of a fluid therethrough. The first screen member (24) forms a press fit between the wall (21) and the first cover (25) to cover the exposed portion of the cavity. The finely divided inert material (23) is compressed in the filter pack (20) by the intrusion of the first cover (25) and the first screen member (24) into the cavity occupied by the finely divided inert material (23).

Abstract: A dialyser has a membrane assembly (14) comprising two U-shaped conduits partially defined, and separated, by a transfer membrane wall. The walls of the conduits are provided with furrowing at an inclination to the direction of flow through the conduit. Blood is pumped through one conduit by a roller pump (16) in series with a reciprocatory pump (18) and dialysate is pumped in counter current through the other conduit by a roller pump (23) in series with a reciprocatory pump (25). The reciprocatory pumps (18,25) are operated in phase so that the resulting pulsatile component in the two conduits is in phase. This pulsatile flow, in conjunction with the furrows, produces vortexes in, and good mixing of, the blood and dialysate in their respective conduits and hence enhanced contact of each of these liquids with the transfer membrane wall.

Abstract: The system comprises a conventional oil/gas separator, with an oil supply line extending from the separator oil reservoir for conducting oil to a machine (such as an associated gas compressor, or the like), and a gas/oil vapor line communicating with the gas chamber of the separator, for conducting oil vapor-laden gas thereto (from such a compressor, or like machine). In an embodiment of the improvement, a check valve is interposed between the oil supply line and the reservoir to prevent oil flow from the line to the reservoir, and a by-pass line, having a pilot-pressure-closed, normally-open valve interposed therein, is coupled between the oil supply line and the gas chamber. The valve senses chamber pressure and, when the latter is sufficiently diminished, opens the by-pass line to evacuate the oil supply line (and oil cooler and filter) into the separator.

Abstract: An artificial kidney adapted to be implanted in the human body comprising a housing including a diffusion chamber and a dialysate bath chamber. A plurality of microtubules, preferably torqued or spiraled, are arranged substantially vertically in the diffusion chamber. Each microtubule has at least three longitudinal passages therethrough, an arterial passage, a venous passage, and at least one urinary passage, one of the urinary passages extending co-extensively between the arterial and the venous passages, and being separated by walls permeable to waste products from the bloodstream. The arterial and venous blood from the body flow counter-currently through each microtubule, so that the chemical imbalance between the arterial bloodstream and the venous bloodstream causes diffusion across the urinary passage, and the waste products are collected in, and discharged from, the urinary passage.

Abstract: Hydrophobic diffusion membranes such as porous polypropylene may be rendered hydrophilic at their surfaces, without losing their valuable characteristics as diffusion membranes, by subjection to a corona discharge or other ionizing condition, preferably in air or a similar oxygen-containing atmosphere.