Surgical instruments with flexible ball chain drive arrangements

A surgical instrument, comprising:

• an elongate shaft;
• a surgical end effector coupled to said elongate shaft by an articulation joint, wherein said articulation joint is configured to facilitate selective articulation of said surgical end effector relative to said elongate shaft, and wherein said surgical end effector comprises:
• a first jaw;
• a second jaw, wherein said second jaw is configured to move relative to said first jaw between an open position and a closed position;
• and
• a firing member supported for axial travel within said surgical end effector
• between a starting position and an ending position, and wherein said surgical instrument further comprises:
• an upper chain-drive assembly attached to a top portion of said firing member;
• a lower chain-drive assembly attached to a bottom portion of said firing member;
• and
• a rotary drive member, wherein said rotary drive member operably interfaces with said upper chain-drive assembly at an upper location, wherein said rotary drive member operably interfaces with said lower chain-drive assembly at a lower location, wherein said upper location and said lower location are distal to said articulation joint, and wherein said rotary drive member causes said upper chain-drive assembly and said lower chain-drive assembly to apply axial drive motions to said firing member to move said firing member between said starting position and said ending position.

A surgical instrument, comprising:

• an elongate shaft;
• a surgical end effector coupled to said elongate shaft by an articulation joint, wherein said articulation joint is configured to facilitate selective articulation of said surgical end effector relative to said elongate shaft, and wherein said surgical end effector comprises a firing member supported for axial travel within said surgical end effector between a starting position and an ending position;
• an upper loosely-linked chain-drive assembly supported by said elongate shaft and traversing said articulation joint to operably interface with a top portion of said firing member;
• a lower loosely-linked chain-drive assembly supported by said elongate shaft and traversing said articulation joint to operably interface with a bottom portion of said firing member;
• and
• means for converting an upper portion of said upper loosely-linked chain-drive assembly that is distal to said articulation joint into a rigid drive member configured to apply axial drive motions to said firing member to drive said firing member between said starting position and said ending position.