Electrosurgical Jaw Member Wire Routing for Stable Tissue Sealing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing surgical instruments, particularly electrosurgical forceps, face challenges in effectively integrating mechanical clamping and energy-based tissue treatment mechanisms, with inefficient energy distribution and structural integrity during tissue grasping and cutting.
Innovation Solution
A jaw member design featuring an insulative spacer with a channel and radiused corners, a lead wire routing through this channel, and an overmold material to secure the structure, ensuring efficient energy conduction and mechanical stability for tissue treatment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If a lead wire is routed through a channel in an insulative spacer, then energy distribution efficiency is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase due to the need for radiused corners and interference fits
Solution Approach 1:
The channel with radiused corners is pre-formed in the insulative spacer before final assembly. The lead wire is pre-bent to match the channel geometry, and the interference fit features are pre-configured. This preliminary preparation of geometric features resolves the manufacturing precision challenge by making the complex radiused corner geometry a standard pre-formed feature rather than a post-assembly adjustment.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulative spacer acts as an intermediary component that provides a pre-formed channel with radiused corners to guide and protect the lead wire. The interference fit features on the spacer serve as intermediaries to secure the lead wire in place. This intermediary structure resolves the contradiction by providing a ready-made pathway that improves energy distribution while the pre-formed geometry manages manufacturing precision requirements.
2Strength
If overmold material is used to secure the lead wire and fill the channel, then structural integrity is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional manufacturing steps
Solution Approach 1:
The overmolding process merges multiple functions into a single manufacturing step: it secures the lead wire in place, fills the channel to provide structural support, and creates the outer housing in one operation. This combining of securing, filling, and housing formation resolves the device complexity issue by consolidating what would otherwise be separate manufacturing steps into a single integrated overmolding process.
Solution Approach 2:
The final assembly combines the insulative spacer material, lead wire, and overmold material into a composite structure. The overmold material acts as a composite that integrates and secures the metallic lead wire within the insulative spacer matrix. This composite construction resolves the structural integrity challenge while the single-step overmolding process manages the manufacturing complexity.
3Reliability
If the insulative spacer includes a pocket and channel with radiused corners, then reliability of energy conduction is improved, but ease of manufacture decreases due to complex molding requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The channel incorporates radiused corners instead of sharp angles, creating a curved pathway for the lead wire. This curvature improves reliability by preventing stress concentration points where the lead wire might fail, while also facilitating easier wire insertion and positioning. The radiused geometry resolves the contradiction by making the complex curved path a standard molding feature that maintains reliability without excessive manufacturing difficulty.
Solution Approach 2:
The pocket and channel structures are nested within the insulative spacer body, with the channel extending from the pocket through the spacer. This nested configuration allows the lead wire to be routed through a pre-formed three-dimensional pathway that ensures reliable energy conduction while the nesting approach manages manufacturing complexity by creating the pathway as an integrated cavity rather than separate components.
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
Enhances the mechanical and electrical performance of the jaw member, enabling effective tissue grasping, sealing, and cutting with improved energy distribution and structural integrity.
Implementation Method 1
the lead wire is interference fit within the channel proximally of the first radiused corner of the channel such that the overmold material is inhibited from flowing proximally beyond the first radiused corner
Data Source
AI summary
A jaw member of a surgical instrument includes a structural frame, an insulative spacer supported on the structural frame, an electrically conductive tissue contacting plate supported on the insulative spacer, and a lead wire. The spacer defines a pocket at an upper portion thereof and includes a channel extending from the pocket, through the spacer, to a bottom portion of the spacer. The channel defines a substantially U-shaped configuration having first and second radiused corners at the bottom portion of the spacer. The lead wire is attached to an underside of the plate at an attachment point within the pocket and extends distally from the attachment point into the channel, through the channel, over the first and second radiused corners, and proximally from the jaw member. The lead wire is adapted to connect to a source of energy to energize the plate for treating tissue.