Bendable End Effector Shaft for Surgical Tool Precision
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing treatment tools face challenges in effectively bending and maintaining the integrity of end effectors during tissue treatment, leading to potential sagging and reduced precision when applied to living tissues.
Innovation Solution
A treatment tool design featuring a shaft body with a specific circular outer peripheral surface and transmission members, including wires and rods, that securely connect and bend the end effector, ensuring stability and precision by maintaining contact with the outer surfaces even at 90-degree angles, and a link mechanism that optimizes force transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the end effector is made bendable to adapt to tissue contours, then adaptability is improved, but structural integrity deteriorates causing sagging
Solution Approach 1:
The shaft body is divided into multiple rigid segments connected by rotation axes, allowing controlled bending at specific locations while maintaining rigidity within each segment. This segmentation enables the end effector to bend to match tissue contours without the entire structure becoming flexible and sagging.
Solution Approach 2:
The shaft body combines rigid materials with precise geometric design (circular outer peripheral surfaces) to create a structure that is rigid enough to prevent sagging but configured to allow controlled bending at designated rotation axes, resolving the contradiction between bendability and structural integrity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the end effector is bent at large angles (e.g., 90 degrees), then adaptability is improved, but contact loss between transmission members and shaft body occurs, reducing reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The shaft body features circular outer peripheral surfaces at rotation axes, and the transmission members have corresponding circular cross-sections. This spherical/circular geometry ensures continuous contact between transmission members and shaft body even when bent at large angles like 90 degrees, preventing disengagement and maintaining reliable force transmission.
Solution Approach 2:
The combination of rigid shaft body material with precisely engineered circular geometric features creates a joint that maintains contact under large bending angles, enabling both high adaptability through large-angle bending and high reliability through sustained contact.
3Manufacturing precision
If a complex link mechanism is added to optimize force transmission, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The link mechanism is segmented into modular components (links, rotation axes, connection points) that can be manufactured separately with high precision and then assembled. This modular segmentation enables precise force transmission while keeping individual components simple enough to maintain overall device simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
A treatment tool includes: a tubular insertion tube; an end effector that is provided at a distal end of the insertion tube and is bendable with respect to the insertion tube, the end effector being configured to apply treatment energy to a living tissue according to supplied power to treat the living tissue; a shaft body that is provided in the end effector and has an outer peripheral surface located on a circumference of a specific circle centered on a rotation axis when viewed from a direction along the rotation axis, the rotation axis allowing the end effector to be bent with respect to the insertion tube; and a wiring that is inserted through the insertion tube and serves as a supply path of the power, the shaft body including a passage through which the wiring is inserted.