Dentistry – Apparatus – Having motor or means to transmit motion from motor to tool
Patent
1998-06-18
2000-10-17
Wilson, John J.
Dentistry
Apparatus
Having motor or means to transmit motion from motor to tool
433126, A61C 100
Patent
active
06132213&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a dental handpiece for medical or technical purposes.
In particular, the invention relates to the arrangement of a drive system in the dental handpiece, said drive system having a drive motor for driving a dental tool that can be operated with the dental handpiece.
Dental handpieces generally comprise an instrument section for accepting a dental tool, a turbodrill for example, a drive motor for driving the rotating dental tool and a hose section with a media delivery hose for delivering certain supply media for operation of the dental tool, such as, for example, current, spray air or cooling air, spray water, etc. With regard to the construction of the dental handpiece, essentially a distinction is made between two different types of construction.
As shown in FIG. 5, the instrument section 1, the drive motor 3 and the hose section 2 with the media delivery hose 4 may be present in the form of individual components which are directly coupled in series by being fitted onto one another. This construction consequently has three coupling points between the instrument section 1 and the hose section 2 and also between the drive motor 3 and each of the two sections 1 and 2. A construction of this type is known from, for example, DE 28 34 099 C2 or EP 0 012 871 B1.
The second type of construction of the dental handpiece is represented in FIG. 6. In this case the drive motor 3 is a motor cartridge retained in a hollow space formed by the instrument section 1 and the hose section 2. For this purpose the instrument section possesses a casing overlapping the drive motor 3 with integrated supply lines for accepting the supply media delivered from the media delivery hose, said casing and the supply lines of the instrument section 1 being guided as far as the hose section 2.
However, the known types of construction are problematic in many respects. For instance, as a result of the large overall length owing to the type of design and as a result of the relatively high weight of the dental handpiece, handling of the handpiece is made difficult, since the centre of gravity of the handpiece is shifted towards the hose. Precisely for dental operations, however, sensitive and easy handling of the dental handpiece is required. The many coupling points or points of separation within the dental handpiece are critical with regard to the hygiene requirements. In addition, these points of separation make secure passage of the supply media difficult, since slightly leaky points may arise. Furthermore, the rotary capacity of the handpiece that is necessary for working in the mouth of a patient is hindered, since rotation always has to be effected via the coupling points of the drive motor. Since the motor shaft of the drive motor necessarily has to be coupled mechanically to a shaft that is present in the instrument section in order to operate the dental tool, as a result the maximum rotary speed is limited and the handpiece tends to vibrate and to generate noise. Moreover, with the known types of construction the requisite different rotary-speed and power ranges--ie, low rotary-speed ranges with high torque requirements and high rotary-speed ranges with low torque requirements--can only be achieved by use being made of a plurality of different and exchangeable instrument sections having the appropriate graduations of transmission, as a result of which, however, the costs of the overall system increase considerably. Finally, with the known types of construction each drive part has its own bearing system. As a result of this, however, the susceptibility of the dental handpiece to wear increases correspondingly and additional heating of the components of the handpiece may occur as a result of bearing friction.
The object underlying the present invention is therefore to create a dental handpiece with which the aforementioned disadvantages are generally avoided.
In particular, the object underlying the present invention is to create a dental handpiece with which, as a result of reducing the number of points
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Knorpp Ernst
Thaler Wolfgang
Kaltenbach & Voigt GmbH & Co.
Wilson John J.
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