This thesis presents the design of a gear driven anti- twister mechanism for a blood cell separator. The anti- twister mechanism allows for continuous feed and discharge lines that are rigidly attached to the rotating centrifuge head, thus eliminating the need of rotating seals. It is anticipated that the device using a gear driven anti-twister mechanism will have smoother power transmission and closer rpm tolerances.

In addition, a procedure for the dynamic analysis of the existing device, which uses a belt-driven anti-twister mechanism, is developed. The experimental values obtained from the device are compared with the theoretical values ob­tained by analytical methods. This comparison demonstrates that the procedure employed can be used in prognosis of natu­ral frequencies for devices with similar configuration. Such a dynamic analysis is important to ensure that the separator designed will not have any natural frequencies near to the operating frequencies.