Suture Package Profiled Channel High-Speed Packaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional suture tray packages face issues with high dispense force, suture 'hang-up', and inability to handle high-speed packaging and smaller diameter sutures, particularly USP 10-0, due to design limitations such as deforming petals and gaps that allow smaller sutures to escape.
Innovation Solution
A three-piece suture package with a flat, oval-shaped base member and a plastic cover member featuring a profiled surface with D-shaped bulges and a recessed area, which creates a seamless suture channel with zero openings, allowing for high-speed winding and minimal dispense force, and accommodating larger suture sizes with increased channel volume.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional tray packages with door members are used, then suture retention is achieved, but suture hang-up occurs and high dispense force is required
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the door members from the suture package design entirely. By extracting this component, the patent eliminates the suture hang-up problem that occurred when sutures interacted with the door members during dispensing, while maintaining suture retention through the recessed area and profiled surface geometry.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using active door members that move to release sutures, the invention inverts the approach by using a passive recessed area with a profiled surface that guides suture release naturally. The suture is retained by the geometry of the recessed area during winding, but releases easily when pulled, inverting the traditional mechanism from active retention/release to passive geometric control.
2Reliability
If cantilevered door members with spaces are used, then suture retention is provided, but smaller diameter sutures escape through the spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the door members that created gaps and spaces, replacing them with a continuous profiled surface in the recessed area. This eliminates the spaces through which smaller diameter sutures could escape, while still providing effective suture retention through the geometric configuration of the recessed area.
Solution Approach 2:
The profiled surface in the recessed area provides localized retention features that are optimized for different suture diameters. The specific geometry of the recessed area creates appropriate friction and mechanical interference for various suture sizes, ensuring that even smaller diameter sutures like USP 10-0 are retained effectively without requiring door members with tight tolerances.
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional packages with door members are used, then suture winding is achieved, but high-speed packaging is limited due to deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the door members that deformed at high speeds, replacing them with a static recessed area and profiled surface structure. This allows the suture winding process to proceed at high speeds (exceeding 1200 rpm) without the deformation problems that limited conventional packages, while still achieving effective suture retention and guidance.
4Reliability
If a seamless suture channel with zero openings is created, then smaller sutures are retained, but channel volume must be increased for larger suture sizes
Solution Approach 1:
The recessed area with its specific profiled surface geometry provides localized retention features that are particularly effective for smaller diameter sutures. The profiled surface creates appropriate friction and mechanical interference zones that prevent small sutures from escaping through any openings, while the overall channel volume is sufficient to accommodate larger suture sizes when needed.
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
A package (10) for surgical sutures comprises a base member (12) having a top surface (20), a bottom surface, an outer periphery (24), and a longitudinal axis. An outer wall (30) extends upwardly from the periphery (24) of said base member (12), said outer wall (30) having an inner surface, an outer surface and a top, said inner surface of the outer wall (30) being a profiled surface consisting of a plurality of bulges (38) extending from the top surface (20) of the base member (12). An inner wall (40) extends upwardly from the top surface (20) of said base member (12), said inner wall (40) having an inner surface, an outer surface, and a top. There is a suture channel cover member (14) having a top surface, a bottom surface, and an outer periphery (74), the outer periphery (74) having a profiled surface corresponding to the profiled inner surface of the outer wall (30) of the base member (12). An opening in the outer edge of the cover member (14) forms a suture port having a first end and a second end. The suture track area (16) to retain suture is formed in between the inner surface of the outer wall (30) and the outer surface of the inner wall (40) of the base member (12). The cover member (14) has a recessed area (80) in its middle, said recessed area (80) having an outer periphery corresponding to the inner surface of the inner wall (40) of the base member (12).