Offset Locking Portions for Surgical Forceps
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical and surgical instruments, such as needle holders and forceps, require significant manual effort to maintain the locking mechanism open, leading to user fatigue, reduced tactile sensation, and suboptimal ergonomics during surgical procedures, as the locking portions automatically engage when pivoted, causing discomfort and increased fatigue.
Innovation Solution
The design offsets the locking portions normal to the pivoting plane, allowing them to pass each other without locking engagement during normal operation, enabling automatic locking by applying a transverse force, which cancels the offset and engages the locking mechanism, allowing for easy opening and closing without manual effort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the locking portions are designed to automatically engage when the legs are pivoted, then the instrument can maintain a secure grip, but the user experiences increased fatigue and reduced tactile sensation
Solution Approach 1:
The locking portions are offset normal to the pivoting plane, creating a spatial arrangement where automatic locking is prevented during normal pivoting motion. The offset dimension (perpendicular to the pivoting plane) allows the locking portions to pass each other without engagement during standard operation, while still enabling locking when deliberately actuated by applying transverse force.
2Ease of operation
If the locking portions are offset normal to the pivoting plane, then the instrument allows easy opening and closing without locking, but the locking mechanism requires application of transverse force to engage
Solution Approach 1:
The offset locking portions pass each other automatically during normal pivoting motion without requiring any additional locking action. The instrument's own pivoting motion serves to prevent locking engagement, eliminating the need for separate mechanisms to control locking during standard operation.
3Reliability
If the locking portions are brought into locking engagement by applying transverse force, then the instrument can be locked in place, but the design requires cancellation of the offset
Solution Approach 1:
The offset is pre-configured in the design to prevent accidental locking during normal operation. Before locking can occur, the user must first apply transverse force to cancel the offset, creating a deliberate two-step action that prevents inadvertent locking while enabling secure locking when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
A medical or surgical instrument, preferably of the pincers, scissors and/or forceps design, includes at least two legs pivoted relative to each other in a pivoting plane and lockable in at least one pivoting direction and in at least one pivoting position. The legs include locking portions adapted to be brought into locking engagement with each other, with the locking portions offset against each other normal to the pivoting plane by such offset that, when the legs are pivoted in the pivoting plane, the locking portions laterally pass each other in the pivoting plane without getting into locking engagement with each other. The medical or surgical instrument is configured in such way that the locking engagement of the locking portions is implemented only by applying a transverse force normal to the pivoting plane to at least one of the legs while cancelling the lateral offset.