Dental Handpiece Push Button Thermal Insulation and Friction Control
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Dental handpieces experience undesirable temperature increases on the push button surface due to unintentional actuation during tool operation, leading to potential patient tissue contact and frictional heat issues, which existing designs fail to adequately mitigate without increasing actuation forces or causing wear.
Innovation Solution
A dental handpiece design featuring a double-walled push button with a thermal insulation layer between the outer cover plate and inner contact element, where the thermal insulation layer extends radially to dissipate heat away from the outer cover plate, reducing temperature rise and wear, and using materials with low thermal conductivity and surface roughness to minimize friction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the push button is biased by a spring to prevent unintentional actuation, then reliability is improved, but the actuation force required increases
Solution Approach 1:
A friction element is introduced as an intermediary component between the push button and the plunger. This friction element provides a controlled frictional force that assists the spring bias in preventing unintentional actuation, while allowing the push button to be actuated with relatively low force when intentionally pressed. The friction element acts as a mediator that decouples the high bias force from the actuation force requirement.
2Temperature
If the push button is made with high thermal conductivity material to dissipate heat, then temperature control is improved, but frictional heat generation increases due to higher contact pressure
Solution Approach 1:
The friction element serves as a thermal intermediary that is thermally coupled to the push button but mechanically decoupled from the plunger. It provides a controlled interface that reduces direct metal-to-metal contact and associated frictional heating, while maintaining thermal pathways for heat dissipation from the push button surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The friction element is designed with specific friction characteristics and thermal conductivity parameters that optimize the balance between preventing unintentional actuation through friction and minimizing frictional heat generation. By carefully selecting and controlling these parameters, the system achieves reliable operation without excessive heating.
3Reliability
If the contact surface between push button and plunger is increased to reduce contact pressure, then wear is reduced, but the actuation force increases
Solution Approach 1:
The friction element acts as a mediator that distributes the contact pressure over its surface area while providing sufficient frictional engagement. This allows the push button to actuate with low force while maintaining low contact pressure and wear through the controlled friction interface between the friction element and the plunger.
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
The design effectively keeps the push button temperature within safe limits during unintentional actuation, reduces wear, and maintains low actuation forces, ensuring safety and quality standards are met while preventing excessive heating and wear.
Implementation Method 1
the thermal insulation layer extends radially to dissipate heat away from the outer cover plate
Implementation Method 2
A friction element is provided in the head which is frictionally coupled to the push button in a manner which prevents unintentional actuation of the push button during rotation of the tool
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
The invention relates to a dental handpiece with a manually operable push button for actuating the trigger mechanism, wherein the push button is double-walled with an outer cover plate and an inner contact element, wherein for actuating the push button an upper side of the outer cover plate is pressable by a user against a bias, thereby actuating an actuator by an underside of the inner contact element to actuate the trigger mechanism, wherein a thermal insulation layer extends between the outer cover plate and the inner contact element which causes a thermal decoupling of the outer cover plate from the inner contact element.