US 4,544,355 AGranted

Arrangement for imposing pressure on maintenance media in medical particularly dental handpieces

AssigneeKaltenbach & Voigt GmbH & Co.

InventorsEugen Eibofner, Ernst Strohmaier

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Abstract

An arrangement for imposing pressure on cleaning media and/or lubricants which are contained as maintenance media in the movable components of medical, particularly dental handpieces, wherein the maintenance medium is adapted to be placed under pressure by a pressure drive acting through an outlet opening of a housing which contains a motion drive for the movable handpiece components, the last mentioned being brought into connection with the outlet opening through an inlet opening in the handpiece. During this pressurization of the maintenance medium, the movable components of the handpiece are placeable into movement through the motion drive of the housing in such a manner, whereby engaging means of the motion drive which are accessible through the outlet opening of the housing can be brought into engagement with cooperating engaging means of the movable components of the handpiece which are accessible through the inlet opening. With respect to the engaging means of the motion drive, handpieces or handpiece components, in particular attachment heads, having different cooperating engaging means, can be attached to the outlet opening of the housing and maintained, and thereby place their movable components into motion. As a result of the arrangement a plurality of different engaging means for the motion drive, in a simple manner there can always be selected and placed in operation engaging means correlated with the cooperating means of the handpiece or handpiece component which is to be currently serviced.

Claims20

Dependent claims

In an arrangement for pressurizing a maintenance medium, such as a cleaning media and a lubricant, to supply it under pressure to the movable components of different dental handpieces, including a housing having an outlet opening, a motion drive means in said housing for driving the movable components of the handpieces, a maintenance medium pressure drive means acting through said outlet opening and through an inlet opening in a handpiece communicating with the outlet opening so as to place said maintenance medium under pressure, with the movable components of the handpiece being driven by the motion drive means of the housing while under pressurization of the maintenance medium, and in which engaging means on said motion drive which are accessible through said outlet opening engage cooperating engaging means on the movable components of the handpiece which are accessible through the inlet opening to drive the movable components of the handpieces;

the improvement comprising:
a plurality of different attachment heads securable, one at a time, to the outlet opening on said housing, each attachment head including a passageway for allowing the maintenance media to be conveyed therethrough to the movable components of the handpiece, and said plurality including a first attachment head having a first type of output motion drive for engagement with a first type of input motion drive to a first type of handpiece, and at least one additional second attachment head having a second type of output motion dirve, different from and incompatible with said first type of input motion drive, for engagement with a second type of input motion drive to a second type of handpiece, with only one of said plurality of different attachment heads being mounted on said outlet opening at one time, and being replaceable one at a time by another different attachment head.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.