# PMs in Insulin Pumps



## TsenSheng (Sep 25, 2011)

Acquired a few hundred Insulet Insulin Pumps. Below are some pictures and questions as to what various metals may be.

The Pod itself - 






The Pod split open - Notice the brass speaker button thing on pod lid? It is a dull whitish silver metal used as a conductor and several springs used as an electrical contact between the board and the speaker. Could this be silver?





The PCB - Some MCs, Gold plated crystals, and small chips





The assembly - On most of the pods, there are 3 gold spools. newer pods only have 1 gold spool and one shiny metallic spool, possibly palladium due to increased gold prices?

There is also a dull silver metallic coating on some parts of the plastic, used to conduct electricity, it has a green coating underneath. I'm guessing this is possibly some sort of silver coating? 

There is also a very fine wire wrapped around the spools, much like a corona wire. the wire is dark and has a green to blue tint in light, any ideas?


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## butcher (Sep 25, 2011)

sorry I cannot see pictures on this computer, the only idea I have is testing solutions.


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## macfixer01 (Sep 27, 2011)

Those parts could be silver plated, only testing would tell. This is the first time I've ever seen this particular unit and couldn't believe how little is in it, but now I see why. I looked up the Omnipod website and it appears their pump comes in 2 parts. What you have is just the disposable injection units which attach to the skin surface with an adhesive pad. There is a separate electronic unit which controls it wirelessly that has all the intelligence for computing insulin needs from glucose levels you input, delivering a basal rate of insulin, and delivering boluses.

http://www.myomnipod.com/

My girlfriend has a Medtronics Minimed Paradigm insulin pump and theirs is all in one unit. The downside is it has a thin piece of capillary tubing which goes from the internal syringe to a needle patch which then sticks to the skin surface. On the other hand the disposables are only plastic, so I would guess it's much cheaper to use over time? I thought it was funny Omnipod offers on their website to switch you over for $149.99 since her Medtronics unit cost around $8000 when new I believe? It looks like Omnipod must make a lot of money on the consumables?

macfixer01


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## etack (Oct 3, 2011)

the most important part is the batteries they are silver button I believe they are Varta 357 

http://www.varta-microbattery.com/en/mb_data/documents/material_safety_data_sheets/MSDS_22_Primary_Silver_Button_Series_V_MF_en.pdf
http://www.varta-microbattery.com/en/mb_data/documents/data_sheets/DS20357.pdf. 

I've taken apart about 200 of them and thew out about half the batteries then their was a post on Ag batteries. I was sick about that It was about 1.75 Lbs of batteries. :evil: 

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=3212&hilit=silver+batteries

Also the gold wire guides are very heavy plated
Eric


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