Surgical Instrument Adapter with Highly Secure Locking Shaft Mechanism
OwnerTyrone Vaughninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A highly secure instrument adapter includes a handle with an internal locking and release mechanism which does not use a pushing release and which requires little physical effort to lock and release, yet provides a stable and secure connection between an instrument and the handle. The locking mechanism is comprised an ergometric handle having an open handle cavity, a receiver having an internal threaded tubular body and a plurality of locking apertures, and a rotating collar having a limited range of rotation, a plurality of fingers that project outward from the flattened surface on a spacer structure, and a plurality of circular apertures placed alternately between said fingers.
Claims28
A highly secure instrument adapter apparatus comprised of:
- an ergometric handle having an open handle cavity;
- a receiver having an internal threaded tubular body and a plurality of locking apertures;
- a rotating collar having a limited range of rotation, a plurality of fingers that project outward from the flattened surface on a spacer structure, and a plurality of circular apertures placed alternately between said fingers;
- an interconnect tube and handle core;
- a stabilizing ball bearing assembly positioned inside said receiver;
- and
- a locking ball bearing assembly positioned inside said handle, receiver and rotating collar.
The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said compression spring engages said stabilizing ball bearing and exerts a transverse force to an instrument shaft when instrument shaft is inserted into shaft cavity and rotating collar is rotated.
The apparatus of claim 6 wherein maximum force is applied to instrument shaft when stabilizing ball bearing is in contact with the shallowest portion of stabilizing contoured ball bearing groove.
The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said receiver also contains a plurality of locking apertures that are configured to engage at least one locking ball bearing.
The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said receiver channel is configured with an internal diameter just larger than the external diameter of said receiver so that said receiver can fit securely inside the receiver channel.
The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said fingers each contain an outer surface that is curved at a consistent radius and a smooth inner surface that is also curved at a consistent radius.
The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the smooth inner surface of each said finger transitions to a contoured inner surface that is tapered from a narrow end to a wider end.
The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the lead-in surface portion is placed at angle of θA as measured from the centerline of the receiver channel, the ramp surface portion is placed at angle θB as measured from the centerline, and the locking engagement has a radius that corresponds to the radius of the locking ball bearing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.