48929 results about "Clutch" patented technology

A surgical instrument having a locking mechanism for preventing an output shaft of the surgical instrument from rotating and a further locking mechanism for mounting a battery pack to a distal end of a housing of the surgical instrument. The surgical instrument further includes a clutch mechanism for limiting the torque of a drive shaft of the surgical instrument. The locking mechanism for preventing the output shaft from rotating includes a locking switch which mates with a locking cap disposed on the output shaft. The locking mechanism for mounting the battery pack to the housing includes a groove at the distal end of the housing and a retaining ring which engages the groove when the battery pack is mounted on the housing. The clutch mechanism includes a clutch plate that interfaces with both the output shaft and the drive shaft and prevents failure of the motor shaft.

A device for dispensing an individual plastic fastener from a supply of fastener stock to couple together two or more objects. The supply of fastener stock includes a plurality of equidistantly spaced cross links which are coupled at one end to a continuous side rail. The fastener dispensing device includes a hollowed sharpened needle shaped to define a longitudinal bore and a feed mechanism for advancing the continuous side rail of the fastener stock into direct axial alignment behind the longitudinal bore of the hollowed needle. The feed mechanism includes a rotatably mounted feed shaft, a pair of feed wheels fixedly mounted on the feed shaft, each feed wheel comprising a plurality of sprockets which are sized and shaped to engage the supply of fastener stock, and first and second clutch wheels which are releasably matingly engageable with one another, the first clutch wheel being fixedly mounted on the feed shaft and the second clutch wheel being rotatably mounted on the feed shaft, each of the first and second clutch wheels including a plurality of ratchets. As a feature of the invention, the number of ratchets on each clutch wheel is at most equal to the number of sprockets on each feed wheel.

An incrementing mechanism suitable for use in a medical injector device has a driving member rotatably and slidably mounted within a tubular body and arranged to advance an elongate element in one direction with respect to the tubular body. A one-way clutch includes a generally conical surface and a blocking clutch member engageable with the conical surface. Means are provided to disengage the clutch, including a pressure component arranged and biased to engage the clutch member. Rotation of the driving member with respect to the pressure component causes two sets of inter-engageable teeth to ride over each other, which successively lifts the pressure component to disengage the clutch member from the conical surface and then allows the pressure component to be biased to a position where the clutch member engages the conical surface.

The catheter device comprises a motor located at the proximal end of the catheter device and a drive shaft, extending from the proximal end section to the distal end section of the catheter device, for driving a rotating element located at the distal end of the catheter device. The catheter device also comprises a hose-like catheter body which encompasses the drive shaft and extends from the proximal end section to the distal end section of the catheter device. At the proximal end of the catheter device, the drive shaft is connected to a motor by a clutch. The clutch is a magnetic clutch with a proximal and a distal magnet unit. The proximal magnet unit is connected to the motor and the distal magnet unit to the drive shaft. The distal magnet unit is mounted fluid-tight in a clutch housing. The proximal end of the catheter body makes a fluid-tight connection with the clutch housing.

An arrangement that may be used in combination with selected tools having a tooth cutting surface for the care and maintenance such as removing a selected portion of the exposed surface of equine teeth. The selected tool in communication with a source of powered motion and mounted in and supported by a hand piece which is guided into the mouth of the horse. The cutting surface of the powered tool is partially guarded so as to protect fleshy portions of the horse's mouth from being engaged by the cutting surface. The hand piece provides for quick on and off attachment of a selected cutting surface for maintenance of a preselected portion of teeth within the same hand piece or another hand piece sized to ease access to the next selected portion of the horse's mouth. The selected hand piece arrangement may further incorporate a vacuum channel whereby the tooth dust and debris created by the powered cutting surface removing a portion of tooth is sucked out of the mouth of the horse. The motion of the tooth surface removal tool may be changed from rotary to powered reciprocating motion for a selected portion of the teeth or changed to be at a preselected angle. Attaching the powered drive to the rotary cutting surface by means of an adjustable clutch further enhances protection from injury to the inside of the mouth of the horse.

A method and apparatus to control an electro-mechanical transmission during a shift event, including identifying a fault in an off-going clutch, is provided. The method includes deactivating an off-going torque-transfer clutch, monitoring slippage of the off-going torque-transfer clutch, and limiting a change in operation of an electrical machine operatively connected to the transmission until the slippage of the off-going torque-transfer clutch exceeds a threshold. Limiting a change in operation of the electrical machine comprises limiting an output torque of the electrical machine, comprising limiting a time-rate change in the output torque and limiting a magnitude of the output torque. The limit of the change Is discontinued when the slippage of the off-going torque-transfer clutch exceeds the threshold.

An electrically variable transmission has a pair of clutches and a first mode when the first clutch is applied and the second clutch released, a second mode when the second clutch is applied and the first clutch released, and a fixed-ratio mode when both clutches are applied. Upshifts and downshifts out of fixed-ratio are accomplished in accordance with a control based upon shift confidence factors determined in accordance with proportional and derivative input speed error quantities. Additional authority limits are placed upon the shift confidence factors in accordance with output speed derivative quantities. Additional override downshift control is provided in accordance with additional input speed condition determinations.

Hydraulic fill and drain of a clutch chamber is controlled with a blocking valve and a trim valve. The blocking valve selectively provides pressurized fluid to the trim valve which in turn selectively provides the pressurized fluid to the clutch chamber. Exhausting of the clutch chamber is effected through one of two alternate paths utilizing deactivation of one of the trim and blocking valves. Back up exhausting of the clutch chamber is effected through the other of the alternative paths. Such system allows for determination of valve failures and continued operation until such failures can be rectified.

This invention introduces lift-clicking, a gentle method of clicking that utilizes light touch home sensors on the mouse and other computer input devices. It can be used either to replace the prior art depression-type mouse button with a home touch surface and a light touch or proximity sensor, or to add a touch/proximity sensor to an existing mouse button, providing three or more additional functions for each finger. It is a very ergonomic method that uses less force than the weight of the relaxed resting finger. It employs a finger lift, or a finger lift followed by a gentle drop, and utilizes unique combinations of windows, timing, hand presence reference, and logic sequences carefully designed to automatically prevent the production of unwanted clicks when the finger first arrives on or leaves the home sensor as the hand arrives or departs the input device. The initial condition is a finger resting on a touch switch/proximity sensor surface at a home resting position. A function is triggered either by lifting (or sliding) the finger away from its home touch surface (lift-delay-reference mode) or by dropping the finger back to the surface soon after the lift (lift-drop mode). Unwanted clicks do not occur because the function is triggered either by a lift after a very short delay with a requirement for hand presence reference, or by a drop within a time window opened by the previous lift. The gentle lift of the finger followed by a passive drop eliminates the push-down muscle twitch of prior art depression clicking, without any sacrifice of speed. Optionally included are click-inhibiting means so that unwanted clicks are not produced when a finger leaves a home sensor to actuate a non-home switch or scroll device. Momentary lifted modes can be used to enable scrolling with mouse motion, a fine cursor control feature, or to ignore all XY data so that the mouse can be repositioned without lifting it off the desktop and without moving the cursor (disengage clutch feature). Dragging can be accomplished with either the finger held lifted or with the finger resting at home. A single lift-click sensor can be used to trigger two different functions, the function chosen depending on the amount of time between the lift and the drop. The lift-click sensor can be piggybacked together with a prior art mouse button to provide lift-clicking while still allowing depression clicking, greatly increasing the number of triggerable functions. A lift-click sensor can be of a fixed type with no moving parts, (a zero button mouse) allowing the manufacture of pointing devices that are completely solid state, low in cost and sealed from the environment. The lift-click method makes it possible to replace the click buttons on a horizontal mouse with a programmable multi-point XY(Z) multi-functional touchpad which can be used to provide not only lift-clicks, but by toggling to new function sets, can also offer arrow/nudge key functions, page navigation, fine cursor control, and gesturing. Lift-clicking can greatly improve versatility and ease of use in most types of pointing devices.