Medical Valve Sensors: TAVR Fatigue Testing

When one of your heart valves fails, you want its replacement to be able to withstand the stresses of the human body. TAVR and TVMR valves must have the durability and reliability to stay in a patient indefinitely. Durability, in this case, is survival at extremely high blood pressures, because the last thing the patient or doctor wants is for the valve to fail in a cardiac event. To accomplish this, a load cell is placed between a linear actuator and a syringe plunger that is pumped down, forcing fluid into a small pressure vessel, allowing the system to maintain a constant pressure.

How it Works :

LCM series or LSB series load cells are threaded in-line with a linear actuator and syringe piston measuring the force the linear actuator is applying to the syringe piston for test validation.
As the linear actuator pushes down on the load cell/piston assembly the flow of fluid pushes open the TAVR valve.
A check valve keeps the fluid moving only through the TAVR valve and a pressure vessel is used as a reservoir allowing the system to reach the burst testing pressures.
The linear actuator then retracts, pulling the piston up, forcing the TAVR closed and refilling through the now open check valve.
The USB220 displays and logs the data to a PC via SENSIT™ software. This data can be used to validate the accuracy and precision of the pressure generated by the syringe piston.