i’m An IP owner involved in the development of a portable/wearable artificial kidney but am not a pump person per se so have a question regarding external gear pumps as one of several options being investigated as alternatives to peristaltics. Is it, in fact possible/practical to use an external gear pump with one drive gear and two (or more) idler gears to pump two (or more) separate streams from a single prime mover pump? The key point, however, is that the displacements of each pumping section need to be different. It seems the easiest way to accomplish this is to make the depth of the chambers/cavities different and, therefore, the thickness of their corresponding idlers. My 2-part question is (1) Is this actually doable and (2) if yes, which of the gears/cavities cavities (drive and idler) must have the lesser or greater depth.
Thanks kindly,
Gerry