US Patent 8197235 Infusion pump with integrated permanent magnet

Described herein is an infusion pump with an integrated permanent magnet. The permanent magnet is positioned to provide an attractive force that moves an armature to compress a fluid-filled infusion tube. An electromagnet can be activated to overcome the attractive force of the permanent magnet and move the armature away from the infusion tubing. The force required to overcome the permanent magnet is much less than the force required to compress the tubing. For this reason the infusion pump has very low power consumption since much of the pumping work is provided by the permanent magnet.