additional information

[foccri]

Hello! We are trying to make a version of the oxygen concentrator. We were wondering what was the purpose of the constant pressure reservoir ? Could we replace it with a standard pressure regulator ? Also, how exactly do you rehydrate the oxygen coming out ? Thank you for your help !

[joeldriver]

Understand that I have no qualifications in anything medical related! This response assumes you are using this as supplemental O2 for a human or another type of air breathing critter.

The output of the concentrator is pulses of O2 at ~3 bar / 45 psi from the zeolite canisters. This needs to be converted to a constant flow at a much lower pressure. The pressure needs to be low enough that the 3 bar O2 form the canisters has no problem overcoming it during the O2 release cycle. It also needs to be a constant load so that the timing of the process stays near optimal for the O2 release / not-O2 purge. The weighted bladder does this well and is simple to construct, can easily trigger a simple switch for low/full, and keeps the pressure/load constant at all fill levels. Load = back pressure

The input air is dried to protect the zeolite from moisture. Bubbling the O2 through water adds moisture making it less drying on the patient and provides a visible indication of flow.