Surgical Table Column with Telescoping Design for Wide Height Range
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical tables lack a wide enough operating range for tabletop height adjustment, particularly failing to provide a low enough minimum height for easy patient loading and unloading, and high enough maximum height for procedures like orthopaedic surgery, while also requiring a compact mechanism for various configurations.
Innovation Solution
The surgical table features a column with a wide operating range, allowing the tabletop to be positioned at any height within this range. The column is designed to be movable to any position within its operating range, with a mechanism that enables the tabletop to be tiltable about two orthogonal horizontal axes, and a compact actuator system that minimizes the column's footprint.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If the column operating range is increased to provide both low minimum height and high maximum height, then the tabletop height adjustment range is improved, but the column and actuator mechanisms occupy more space increasing the footprint
Solution Approach 1:
The column employs a telescoping arrangement with nested tube sections where inner tubes slide within outer tubes. This nesting allows the column to achieve a wide operating range when extended while maintaining a compact contracted configuration, minimizing the footprint when the tabletop is at minimum height.
Solution Approach 2:
The column transitions between static and dynamic states through controlled extension and retraction. The telescoping mechanism allows the column to dynamically adjust its length, providing a wide height range during surgery while returning to a compact form when not in use, effectively managing space requirements.
2Strength
If the column is designed to bear high vertical loads and high offset loads, then the load bearing capacity is improved, but the column structure becomes more complex and larger
Solution Approach 1:
The column is divided into multiple telescoping tube sections rather than a single solid structure. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized for specific load requirements while maintaining overall structural integrity. The nested sections can independently bear and distribute loads, enabling high load capacity without requiring a monolithic complex structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The column incorporates composite construction with multiple materials of different properties in the telescoping sections. This allows optimization of each section for specific mechanical properties such as strength-to-weight ratio, enabling the column to bear high loads while maintaining a relatively simple and compact overall structure.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the tabletop is made tiltable about two orthogonal horizontal axes, then the versatility for different surgical procedures is improved, but the actuator mechanisms and structure become more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The actuator mechanisms are designed with multi-functionality to perform both tilt and trend adjustments. By using universal actuators that can operate in multiple degrees of freedom, the system achieves comprehensive tabletop positioning capability without requiring separate dedicated mechanisms for each function, thereby reducing overall complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The tilt and trend actuator mechanisms are merged into an integrated system rather than separate independent mechanisms. This combination allows shared components, control systems, and structural elements, reducing the total complexity while maintaining the ability to perform both tilt and trend movements for versatile surgical positioning.
Data Source
AI summary
A surgical table having a tabletop and a column for enabling at least a part of the tabletop to be rotatable about a trend axis extending in a transverse direction across the tabletop; and an actuator mechanism coupled between the movable framework and the column and arranged to raise and lower the movable framework and the trend axis relative to the column and to rotate the movable framework about the trend axis, wherein the actuator mechanism is fitted to an external surface of the outer column element and is adapted to move the movable framework between a lowermost position, at which the trend axis extends through an upper part of the outer column element which surrounds the inner column element when the column elements are telescoped into the contracted configuration, and an uppermost position, at which the trend axis is spaced at spacing height from an uppermost part of the column