Handle Assembly for Expandable Carriage Clamping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical positioning systems face challenges with sterilization due to complex designs with multiple parts, leading to increased costs and time, wear of clamping components, and difficulties in precise and dynamic positioning of patients during surgeries.
Innovation Solution
A simplified surgical positioning apparatus with a minimum number of reentrant surfaces for improved sterilization, adjustable clamping mechanisms using washers or an adjustable cross nut to account for wear, and a carriage design that allows for precise and easy repositioning of body parts with a single locking mechanism.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If surgical positioning systems use complex designs with multiple parts, then positioning functionality is achieved, but sterilization becomes more difficult and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple clamping functions into a single integrated carriage assembly that simultaneously clamps the extremity holder to the base plate and secures the track. This merging of functions reduces the number of separate components, eliminating crevices between multiple parts and enabling efficient sterilization while maintaining positioning functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The carriage assembly is designed as a modular unit that can be easily separated from the base plate and extremity holder. This segmentation allows the carriage to be sterilized independently or as a complete assembly, and facilitates rapid setup and takedown procedures while maintaining a simplified overall structure.
2Reliability
If clamping components are used to secure extremity holder and track, then positioning stability is achieved, but wear occurs over time
Solution Approach 1:
The clamping mechanism incorporates an adjustable cross nut that can be modified to compensate for wear in the threaded components. This dynamic adjustment capability allows the system to maintain reliable positioning stability throughout the component lifespan by adapting to degradation over time.
Solution Approach 2:
The cross nut can be adjusted to change the effective thread engagement parameters, compensating for wear in the threaded components. By modifying the dimensional parameters of the cross nut, the system maintains reliable clamping force and positioning stability even as original components wear.
3Reliability
If flash sterilization is used to sterilize surgical apparatus in the operating room, then immediate sterility is achieved, but cooling time delays the surgical procedure
Solution Approach 1:
The carriage assembly is designed to be easily removed from the base plate and extremity holder, allowing it to be sterilized separately in the operating room using flash sterilization methods. This extraction enables rapid sterilization without requiring the entire surgical apparatus to cool down, as the carriage can be quickly replaced after sterilization.
Data Source
AI summary
A carriage assembly is disclosed for quasi-independent, multi-action clamping of multiple surgical components such as a track of a base plate and a ball of an extremity holder. Clamping is achieved via tightening a single handle for adjustably positioning an extremity holder for a body part during a surgical procedure. When the handle assembly is tightened, in a first action, a first tab clamp portion of a tab couples to the carriage body while moving the carriage arm toward the carriage body to thereby clamp a first surgical device. In a second action, the tab pivots about the first tab clamp portion in the Y direction, to thereby clamp a second surgical device in between the second tab clamp portion and the track portion of the first body, to achieve simultaneous, multi-action clamping. The invention solves the problems of sterilizability, wear of surgical equipment, precise holding, and ease of positioning/repositioning.