Rotatable Handpiece Holder With Replaceable Locking Mount
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing handpiece holders for medical, dental, and industrial devices lack ease of access, replaceability, and the ability to hold handpieces in multiple rotational positions, which are essential features for user convenience and versatility.
Innovation Solution
A handpiece holder with a base that affixes to a vertical support surface using pins or rods, featuring a rotatable disc with a spring-biased stop and a U-shaped holder with expandable mechanical fingers, allowing for secure attachment and easy repositioning, ensuring easy access and replaceability while accommodating various handpiece orientations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the handpiece holder is made secure and fixed to the vertical support surface, then reliability is improved, but ease of operation for replacement deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The holder employs a dynamic fastening system with spring-biased pawls that can transition between locked and unlocked states. The spring mechanism provides automatic engagement for secure mounting while allowing easy release when sufficient force is applied, resolving the contradiction between secure attachment and ease of replacement.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring-biased pawl mechanism changes the engagement parameter dynamically. During normal operation, the spring maintains strong engagement force for reliability. During replacement, applying sufficient force overcomes the spring bias, changing the engagement state from locked to unlocked, thus enabling easy replacement.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the handpiece holder is made rotatable to hold handpieces in different positions, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable disc with spring-biased pawls creates a dynamic positioning system. The disc can rotate freely during installation, then the spring pawls automatically engage with the geared track to lock the disc at desired positions. This provides multiple rotational positions without requiring complex motors or actuators.
Solution Approach 2:
The geared track acts as an intermediary between the rotatable disc and the spring pawls. It translates rotational movement into discrete locked positions, allowing the disc to be held at various angles while maintaining mechanical simplicity through the interaction of the track and pawl mechanism.
3Ease of repair
If the base is made replaceable on the field, then ease of repair is improved, but reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The spring-biased pawl system provides dynamic engagement that ensures reliable mounting during normal use while enabling easy field replacement. The spring force maintains secure attachment, but the mechanism allows quick release by overcoming the spring bias, facilitating field repair without compromising either reliability or replaceability.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring mechanism provides self-locking functionality that automatically secures the base to the support surface upon installation. This self-service feature ensures reliable mounting without requiring additional fastening operations, while still allowing easy replacement when needed.
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 solution provides a handpiece holder that is easily accessible, replaceable, and rotatable, ensuring secure positioning and easy repositioning of handpieces, enhancing user convenience and versatility in medical, dental, and industrial applications.
Implementation Method 1
a spring biased stop to releaseably secure the rotatable disc in a desired rotational position
Implementation Method 2
a spring biased pawl, spring biased ball bearings, etc., which have a biased stop end to selectively engage a toothed circumferential gear track
Implementation Method 3
flexible mechanical fingers sized to fit within a hole in the base in communication with a hole in the rotatable disc aligned with a hole in the vertical support surface to removably secure to the inside of the vertical support surface, when the post is inserted. The holder post may be removed by pulling it with sufficient force so that the fingers compress against the edges of the hole of the vertical support surface to release their hold.
Data Source
AI summary
A handpiece holder, which provides easy access to a medical, dental, or industrial handpiece, is replaceable and rotatable to hold handpieces in different angled positions.