Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Assembling or joining
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-28
2001-07-24
Briggs, William (Department: 3722)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Assembling or joining
C029S564600
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263558
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to machines for automatically swaging needles, such as surgical needles to a suture, and more specifically, to an apparatus that automatically swages, tests, and creates a double-armed suture, i.e., two needles having a single suture strand of predetermined length attached therebetween.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
This application describes in detail an improvement of a portion of the apparatus disclosed in a series of U.S. Patents, of which U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,746 entitled “Needle Threading and Swaging System” is typical. All of the patents to this device are assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
The automatic needle and suture threading machine described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,746 is a highly automated machine intended for high volume production and packaging of needles and sutures wherein 20,000 to 40,000 needles and sutures are to be produced in a single run.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present application describes an improved suture tower assembly for use with a swage dial assembly for the swaging of a pair of needles to a single suture, with the suture fed and cut to length by the suture tower apparatus to provide a double-armed suture, i.e. a suture with a surgical needle swaged each end of the suture.
The improved suture tower assembly of the present application includes an improved rotating or invertible suture gripper, an improved methodology to the suture cutting and insertion procedures, an improved cam dial, an improved universal needle gripper and an off set assembly that enables placement and retrieval of needles in a cut out die portion of a fixed swage die.
The present invention is also directed to improvements for a stand alone swage machine that is particularly adapted to enable subsequent automated handling of the needle, automatic swaging, automatic pull testing of the combined needle and suture (armed sutures), and bundling of the armed sutures for future packaging.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a machine which will efficiently handle small batches or production runs of double-armed sutures and to efficiently handle premium needles and super sharp cutting edge needles in an efficient manner without blunting the cutting edge of the needle, while bundling the same for future packaging.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a machine which is flexible in operation and enables quick changeovers between production lots and which minimizes the number of change parts required to migrate from one size needle or suture to another.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a machine which will handle odd runs or “doctors' specials” as they are referred to in the trade, where a particular surgeon expresses a preference for an unusual combination of needle type or size and suture material.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a plurality of universal gripper mounted on said swage dial for successively receiving an individual one of a plurality of precisely positioned needles at a first predetermined location and indexing each of said individual successive needles in a predetermined orientation from said first predetermined location through successive locations for sequential processing at subsequent predetermined locations, each of said universal grippers having a cam follower which cooperates with said cam dial to provide radial reciprocation of said universal grippers with respect to said swage dial in response to rotation of said cam dial.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved swage dial having an off set motion for the universal grippers that enables the grippers to place and retrieve needles held in a swage device having a swage die opening formed in a fixed swage die.
It is another object of the present invention to provide universal grippers which are rotated by said swage dial to each of said predetermined locations and reciprocated in and out of an operative position by said cam dial at each of said plurality of predetermined locations.
Finally, it is an object of this invention to provide a rotating array of needle collection buckets that enables collection of a predetermined number of needle and suture assemblies.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4072041 (1978-02-01), Hoffman
patent: 5226336 (1993-07-01), Coates
patent: 5726422 (1998-03-01), Haase et al.
patent: 6058821 (2000-05-01), Demarest
patent: 6076255 (2000-02-01), Shikakubo et al.
Blanch John F.
Demarest David D.
Lenihan Timothy P.
Smith William F.
Briggs William
Ethicon Inc.
Scully Scott Murphy & Presser
LandOfFree
Method and apparatus for forming double-armed sutures does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for forming double-armed sutures, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for forming double-armed sutures will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2534636