Needle supply device

Details Needle supply device Needle supply device

1997-09-29

2000-01-11

Noland, Kenneth W.

Article dispensing

With means to agitate, vibrate or jar articles in supply...

Rigidly mounted on or incorporated in discharge assistant

221277, B65H 360

Patent

active

060126035

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND ART

This invention relates to a needle supply device for accommodating such as curved needles for surgical operations and the like, and for supplying the needles to a predetermined position of an apparatus for manufacturing sutures attached with the needles.
Recently, in the field of medical industry, there have been marketed sterilized needle-attached sutures (sutures attached with needles) for surgical operations in which the point of a suture is fixedly attached to a needle. There have also been known apparatuses for manufacturing such needle-attached sutures comprising a needle retaining unit for retaining a needle in a certain posture (or direction), a suture inserting unit for inserting a suture into an insertion hole of the end of the needle in the certain fixed posture, and a swaging die for fixedly swaging the end of the needle with the suture inserted in the insertion hole to produce a needle-attached suture.
The prior art mentioned above has been involved with the following problems to overcome.
Generally, such a needle for surgical operations and the like is curved into a substantially arc shape, and thus it has a certain directionality. Accordingly, in producing needle-attached sutures by the above manufacturing apparatus, the needles are required to be supplied to the needle retaining unit one by one in a state that they are set accurately in the same direction. However, a device for automatically supplying needles in the same posture has not ever been developed, and it has been inevitable that the needle supply relies on manual operations.
In view of the above, an object of this invention is to provide a needle supply device for use in a needle-attached suture manufacturing apparatus and the like capable of supplying curved needles, which are at randomly set with its direction being irregular, to a predetermined position of the apparatus one by one in a state that all the needles are oriented in the same direction accurately.


DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

To solve the above problems, this invention has adopted the following arrangement.
This invention is directed to a needle supply device for accommodating curved needles and for supplying the needles in a certain posture to a predetermined position one by one, the needle supply device comprises: a passage defining member including a needle storage portion in which the needles are accommodated, a needle discharge portion, and a needle path connecting the needle storage portion and the needle discharge portion; needle conveyor means for forwarding the needle in the needle storage portion along the needle path to the needle discharge portion by vibrating the passage defining member; and select means in a passage form for exclusively allowing the needle in the posture meeting a predetermined condition to pass while maintaining the posture.
In the needle supply device, the needles are set in the needle storage portion with its posture (or direction) set at randomly. When the passage defining member is subjected to vibration by activating the needle conveyor means, the needles in the needle storage portion proceed along the needle path and reach the selecting means in order. The needles in the certain posture meeting the predetermined condition are exclusively allowed to pass the select means while maintaining the posture. Accordingly, all the needles, after passing the select means, reach the needle discharge portion in the same posture meeting the above condition. Hence, the needles are supplied to the needle discharge portion one by one in the same posture.
With this arrangement, expensive means such as detector means for detecting the posture of the needle and drive means for allowing the needle in an improper posture to fall off from the needle path are not required. In other words, accurate supply of needles in the needle storage portion to the needle discharge portion one by one in the proper posture can be realized with a simplified and inexpensive arrangement by allowing the passage defining member to vibrate and providing th

REFERENCES:
patent: 4922904 (1990-05-01), Uetake et al.
patent: 5191960 (1993-03-01), Waveham
patent: 5394971 (1995-03-01), Colligan et al.
patent: 5511670 (1996-04-01), Demarest et al.

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