Bidirectional Bone Cutting Tool with Intersecting Helical Flutes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing rotary bone, cartilage, and disk removal cutting tools often cause damage to soft materials due to axial loading and inadvertent translation during bidirectional cutting operations.
Innovation Solution
A cutting tool with a shank designed for oscillatory rotation in a limited angular range, featuring a body with first and second radial arrays of helical flutes with spaced apart rake surfaces that balance cutting operations in both rotational directions, minimizing axial loading and allowing bidirectional cutting while preventing inadvertent axial translation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a rotary cutting tool is used for bidirectional cutting of bone, cartilage, and disk, then cutting efficiency is improved, but axial loading and inadvertent translation occur causing damage to soft materials
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting tool employs oscillatory rotation about the shank axis within a limited angular range rather than continuous rotation. This oscillating motion creates a vibratory cutting action that reduces axial loading on the tool and prevents inadvertent translation, thereby eliminating damage to soft materials while maintaining bidirectional cutting capability
Solution Approach 2:
The cutting tool performs periodic bidirectional cutting operations with alternating directions. The oscillatory motion creates periodic engagement and disengagement of the cutting edges with the material, allowing the tool to cut in both directions while returning to the starting position without axial translation, thus improving productivity without harming soft tissues
2Productivity
If conventional helical flutes are used in the cutting tool body, then material removal is achieved, but axial loading occurs during cutting operations
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting tool incorporates two radial arrays of helical flutes with opposite handedness (one left-handed, one right-handed). This asymmetric configuration allows the tool to engage material effectively in both rotational directions while the opposing flute arrays balance the cutting forces, preventing axial loading during bidirectional oscillatory cutting operations
Solution Approach 2:
The two arrays of helical flutes act as counterbalancing elements. When the tool oscillates in one direction, one array of flutes performs the primary cutting while the other array provides counterbalancing support. During reverse oscillation, the roles reverse, ensuring that axial loading is minimized in both directions through the counterbalancing effect of the intersecting flute arrays
Data Source
AI summary
A cutting tool for bone, cartilage, and disk removal includes a body with a first radial array of helical flutes formed along the body with a continuous radius in a first helical direction. The body has a second radial array of helical flutes formed along the body with a continuous radius in a second helical direction opposed to the first helical direction and intersecting the first array of helical flutes. Each helical flute forms a pair of spaced apart rake surfaces, which collectively perform a first and second cutting operations along a side of the body such that the intersecting rakes balance the cutting operation thereby minimizing axial loading of the cutting tool to permit bidirectional cutting while minimizing g inadvertent axial translation of the tool.