Reusable Handle Single-Use Tool Connection for Bipolar Instruments
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current bipolar surgical instruments lack an effective system for connecting and disconnecting single-use tubular shank tools to reusable handles while ensuring electrical contact, mechanical coupling, and rotational freedom, which is essential for minimally invasive procedures.
Innovation Solution
A connection device utilizing spring elements or spring cages to securely attach and detach tubular shank tools from a handle, providing both mechanical and electrical coupling, along with rotational freedom, using radially elastically yielding bearing elements that ensure secure attachment and easy exchange of tools.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If fixed connections and welding are used between handle and tubular shank tool, then mechanical strength and electrical contact are ensured, but device complexity increases and tool exchange becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The connection device is divided into separate functional components: a reusable handle, a single-use tubular shank tool, and an insert system that couples them. This segmentation allows the tool to be easily exchanged while the handle remains, reducing overall system complexity for tool changes while maintaining reliable connections during use.
Solution Approach 2:
The tubular shank tool is inserted into the handle's receiving structure, with the tool's outer surface nested within the handle's inner cavity. The insert system components are nested within the tubular shank, creating a compact hierarchical arrangement that ensures mechanical strength and electrical contact without complex external connections.
2Ease of operation
If reusable handles with insert systems are used, then tool exchange becomes easy and device complexity reduces, but ensuring reliable electrical contact and mechanical coupling becomes more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The electrical contact function is extracted from the mechanical connection structure. Separate contact elements (such as contact arms or conductive surfaces) are provided that independently establish electrical connection between the handle and tubular shank tool, ensuring reliable electrical contact without complicating the mechanical insertion mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The insert system is designed with universal features that simultaneously achieve multiple functions: mechanical coupling, electrical contact, and positioning. The same insertion action that secures the tool mechanically also establishes electrical contact through integrated contact elements, simplifying operation while ensuring reliability.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If single-use tubular shank tools are used, then sterilization and contamination risks are reduced, but manufacturing cost and loss of substance increase
Solution Approach 1:
The tubular shank tool is designed as a disposable single-use component that can be manufactured at low cost using standard materials and processes. After a single use, the tool is discarded rather than sterilized and reused, eliminating contamination risks while keeping the loss of material economically acceptable due to the tool's simple construction and low manufacturing cost.
4Ease of operation
If rotational freedom is provided for the tubular shank tool, then ease of operation during procedure improves, but mechanical stability and precision may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The connection device provides dynamic characteristics by allowing the tubular shank tool to rotate freely within the handle during the procedure. This rotational freedom is achieved through bearing elements or low-friction surfaces that enable smooth rotation while maintaining adequate mechanical stability for surgical operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables secure, easy, and safe attachment and detachment of single-use tubular shank tools to reusable handles, maintaining electrical contact and allowing rotational movement, thus enhancing the usability and safety of bipolar surgical instruments in minimally invasive procedures.
Implementation Method 1
radially elastically yielding bearing elements
Data Source
AI summary
A surgical instrument includes a hand piece having a fixed branch and a displaceable branch for actuating a first tool and/or second tool, a guide device in which a force transmission device is arranged to be displaceable longitudinally and/or rotationally, the force transmission device coupled, on the proximal side, to the fixed branch and/or displaceable branch and coupled, on the distal side, to the first tool and/or second tool, and a connection device on which the guide device can be coupled to the hand piece in an insertable and detachable manner by a coupling simultaneously providing a holding force for holding the guide device in the connection device, a bipolar electrical contact on the distal side of the hand piece for parts of the instrument requiring energy, and degrees of freedom for longitudinal and/or rotational movement of the guide device and/or force transmission device.