Influent’s family of flex fans, air jets, pumps, vacuum pumps and compressors uniquely satisfy the demanding performance, size and cost requirements of new technology products in a diversity of markets. This page provides examples of the many markets and end products where Influent’s new fluid movers enable next generation products for our customers. See Product Performance for performance details on specific products.

Medical Devices

• Oxygen Concentrators & Ventilators
  Industry Issue The market trend towards miniaturization of O2 concentrators and ventilators is impeded by conventional compressor technology which adds more size and weight to these medical devices than patients can easily carry. 
  Influent’s Solution Influent’s air compressor technology opens the door to the reductions in size, weight and power consumption needed to make these important devices truly portable.  Life and reliability is inherent in theses fluid movers that lack any frictional moving parts.
  
  
• Meter Dose Inhalers
  Industry Issue Metered-dose inhalers (MDIs), require high pressure to atomize medications for pulmonary delivery. These pressures are currently provided by high pressure propellants, like HFCs which have a negative impact on both the patient’s health and on the environment.
  Influent’s Solution MDI’s powered by small liquid pumps would enable the elimination of propellants, but conventional pump technology cannot provide both the small size and the required pumping power. Influent liquid pump technology is small enough to fit within MDIs while still providing the enabling pumping power required for atomization at a low cost.
  
  
• General Medical
  The number of medical devices that use small liquid pumps or compressors is vast. Examples include anesthetic control, pipetting, patient monitoring, edema sleeves, compression therapy, portable medical emergency suction, mobile dental carts, blood pressure machines and respirators. 
  Industry Issue Conventional miniature pumps and compressors and large, heavy, expensive and need periodic maintenance to meet product life cycle requirements.  The absence of fluid mover advancements has impeded medical product innovations and the resulting improvements in patient care.
  Influent’s Solution Influent’s miniature pump and compressor products provide the smallest size, target life without periodic maintenance and low cost at a time when the pressure to reduce the cost of medical care and medical equipment is significant.
  Enabling Medical Innovations Influent’s products also open the door for a new class of pumps referred to as “disposable” miniature pumps. To be disposable, miniature pumps must be small, low cost and environmentally benign.  An example disposable pumps application is a small liquid pump that comes with an IV bag and is used to initially push air bubbles through the IV tube prior to use.

Portable Power

• Micro Fuel Cells
  Micro fuel cells (MFCs) are expected to begin replacing batteries as the primary power source for consumer electronics (CE) products like laptops, cell phones, iPhones, PDAs as well as medical devices. The market for CE portable power is $50 billion.  MFCs advantages include days of uninterrupted power (no charging), the enabling of more feature-rich CE products and apps as well as lower weight.  After years of development MFCs are expected to hit the market in 2012. MFCs require a miniature internal air pump for their operation. These pumps must be small, quiet, low cost and use very little power so as not to rob excessive power from the MFC’s output.
  Industry Issue One of the final development hurdles facing MFCs was the absence of any commercially available air pumps that could meet these demands.
  Influent’s Solution Influent is developing miniature air pumps that uniquely satisfy these requirements and expects to provide air pump solutions for the first MFCs in market.
  
  
• Thermoelectric Power Modules & Air Batteries
  Other portable power technologies such as thermoelectric power modules and air batteries require miniature air pumps.
  Industry Issue These portable power technologies also require air pumps that are small, powerful, reliable and low cost. There are no commercially available air pumps that meet these requirements.
  Influent’s Solution Influent is developing miniature air pumps for MFCs that are also expected to meetthe requirements of these and other portable power technologies.

HBLED Lighting

High brightness LEDs (HBLEDs) are today’s most energy efficient and environmentally benign lighting sources. HBLEDs have already seen widespread acceptance in commercial and automotive lighting. With the impending phase out of incandescent lamps, HBLEDs are poised to take their place.
Industry Issue To capture this new multi-billion unit market, LEDs must provide the same brightness as incandescent lamps. In order to reach these brightness levels, HBLEDs lamps require an air mover like a fan to keep the LEDs cool. If kept cool, then HBLEDs can last for 10 years but fans typically only last for 3 years. The air mover must also provide small size, low cost, no noise and no vibration.
Influent’s Solution Influent’s flex fans and air jet products can meet all of the requirements including 10 year life. Influent has already developed and delivered both flex fan and air jet solutions for an A21 sized lamp that enabled 2,000 lumens of light output while maintaining the LED package temperatures required for 10 year life.  In addition to providing internal lamp solutions, these air movers are also ideal for luminaires and lighting fixtures where very long life is required.

Thermal Management

In an industry where overheating is becoming a barrier to innovation, our flex fans, air jets and liquid pumps can provide enabling solutions for feature-rich high-power electronics products. Our products can provide component level cooling for CPUs, GPUs, memory, graphics cards and VRegs and platform cooling solutions for reduced cost, reduced energy consumption and dramatically extended life of up to 10 years.

In some cases, these fluid movers enable cooling to be applied in products where high temperatures and harsh operating condition would have led to the rapid failure of conventional fluid movers. Even slight increases in surrounding temperatures can dramatically reduce conventional fluid mover life due to the evaporation of bearing lubricants.  Influent’s products have no frictional components that require lubricants and so provide inherently long life. Electronics product examples where conventional fans may have been prohibited include sealed telecom, industrial control and military enclosures as well as air cooling of outdoor concentrated photo voltaic panels.

Sensors/Sampling

• Gas Sensors
  Gas sensors are used in biochemical detection, environmental monitoring and first response systems. Our air pumps can increase the portability and convenience of gas sensors by allowing them to scale down to the size of a user's palm. This small form factor would allow sensors to be used more widely by war fighters. Audible components also serve as an inhibitor in the use of gas sensors. Our air pumps have the potential to make these sensors virtually silent. Battery life can be extended from several hours to several days with our efficient solution.
  
  
• Water Sampling Pumps
  Water conservation and purity has never been more important. Water quality rules, such as the Clean Water Act, are becoming ever more stringent, complex and costly. As a result, there is an increasing demand for sampling pumps to monitor effluent water from industrial plants, determine the safety of water in public places, test the sanitation in waste water removal facilities and to conduct general environmental research. Many of these sampling pumps are not suitable in necessary field locations because they lack the needed portability and reliability. Influent’s liquid pumps enable enhanced mobility and dependable service, allowing water sampling pumps to become an even greater asset in maintaining water purity.

Consumer Products

• Aerosol Sprayers
  Household sprayer products from insect repellant to hairspray are powered by hydrocarbon and HFC propellants that harm the environment. Some companies are turning to battery-powered sprayers for their products, but the internal pumps used are currently too large to penetrate the mainstream aerosol sprayer markets. Influent's scalable liquid pump design could fit inside current sprayer products—eliminating the need for aerosolized propellants.

©2011 Influent Corp.