Rotating Joint Massage Tool for Pain Reduction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current reciprocating massage tools with rigidly attached body contact tools often cause pain and bruising due to small contact areas and excessive motion, especially when used on delicate patients or sensitive tissues, as they are designed for specific angles and may not effectively penetrate deeper tissues.
Innovation Solution
A massage tool with a rotatable attachment to a reciprocating motor, featuring a rod and body follower with a rotating joint that allows the body contact area to remain parallel to the body surface, enabling six degrees of freedom and adjustable angle from 90 degrees to less than 60 degrees, and various coupling mechanisms like keyless friction-fit, threaded engagement, and flexible joints to accommodate different body contours.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Force
If a body contact tool is rigidly attached to the reciprocating rod, then the tool provides effective force transmission, but the contact area becomes small and causes pain and bruising
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies a rotating joint between the reciprocating rod and the body follower, transforming the rigid fixed connection into a dynamic adjustable connection. This allows the body follower to rotate and adapt its angle relative to the rod during operation, enabling the distal side to remain parallel to the body surface while the stroke axis angle varies from 90 degrees to less than 60 degrees, thereby maintaining optimal contact area and reducing pain and bruising
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the angular parameter of the connection between the rod and body follower from fixed to variable. The rotating joint enables continuous adjustment of the angle between the rod axis and the body contact surface, allowing the operator to optimize the contact geometry for different body contours and treatment requirements, thus preventing small contact area and associated harm
2Force
If the reciprocating motor has a stroke exceeding 1/4 inches, then the motor provides sufficient penetration power, but it provides too much motion and impact for delicate patients and sensitive tissues
Solution Approach 1:
The rotating joint creates a dynamic system where the body follower can rotate to maintain parallelism with the body surface regardless of the stroke angle. This allows the full stroke length to be utilized for penetration while the contact surface remains optimized, effectively decoupling the penetration power from excessive impact on delicate tissues
Solution Approach 2:
The patent varies the angle parameter between the stroke axis and body contact area from 90 degrees to less than 60 degrees, allowing the same reciprocating motor to adapt its effective stroke characteristics for different tissue types - providing deep penetration when needed while reducing impact on sensitive areas through angular adjustment
3Force
If the body contact tool is designed for a specific angle, then the tool provides focused force, but it must be applied at a specific angle to distribute forces over a larger surface area
Solution Approach 1:
The rotating joint transforms the static angular design into a dynamic adaptive system. The body follower can rotate during operation to maintain the optimal parallel angle with the body surface, eliminating the need for the operator to precisely control the application angle while still achieving distributed force over a larger surface area
Solution Approach 2:
The rotating joint design makes the tool universally adaptable to various body contours and application angles. The body follower can adjust its orientation to work effectively at any stroke axis angle from 90 degrees to less than 60 degrees, providing both focused force and distributed pressure without requiring specific application techniques
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~6
Figure 7~13
AI summary
A massage tool includes a rod having a proximal end and a distal end, and a body follower having a proximal side and a distal side. The proximal end is configured for attachment to a reciprocating shaft of a reciprocating motor. The reciprocating shaft has a stroke axis and a stroke length, and the distal end of the rod is configured to rotatably attach to the proximal side of the body follower by means of a rotating joint defining a center of rotation. The distal side of the body follower may include a body contact area having a maximum length at least three times greater than a minimum distance from the center of rotation of the rotating joint to the body contact area.