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AssigneesEthicon, Inc., Harro Höfliger Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH
InventorsKonstantin Ivanov, Donald Pompei, John Rega, Lorens Slokovic, Haro Hofliger, Manfred Reiser, Erwin Bauder, Edgar Wieland, Roland Eissele, Manfred Hild
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The specification discloses an automated apparatus and method for packaging surgical needles having sutures attached thereto wherein a bundle of needles and sutures are placed at a semi-automated separation station and an operator feeds the needles, one at a time, into a rotating needle feed wheel. As the feed wheel advances, the suture is tensioned and directed along a pre-determined path to separate it from the remaining sutures in the bundle. The apparatus has a plurality of individually rotatable tool nests which are sequentially spaced on a rotating or indexing turntable. These tool nests sequentially receive plastic packages for receiving the needle and suture at a first station. At a second station, a needle is inserted into the package by robotic fingers which have retrieved the needle and attached suture from the rotating needle feed wheel. The rotating needle feed wheel and the rotating tool nests are synchronized to step together as each advances. At a third station, the package and needle are rotated to tension the suture and position the package and the suture for automatic winding of the suture into the package. At a fourth station, the rotatable tool nest is rapidly rotated to wind the suture into a circumferential channel in the package which surrounds the needle.
An automated packaging machine for needles having sutures attached thereto which packages the needle in a package tray having a suture retaining channel nominally closed by a plurality of resilient fingers, with the suture wound into the suture channel, said package tray being indexed through a plurality of sequential workstations;
A method of automatically packaging needles having attached sutures in a package tray to form suture packages, said package tray having a suture channel nominally closed by a plurality of resilient fingers, including the steps of advancing in indexed motion a plurality of package trays to a plurality of spaced workstations stationarily arranged along a path of the advancing package trays;
An semi-automated packaging machine for needles having sutures attached thereto which assists an operator in singulating a single needle and attached suture from a plurality of needles and sutures and then packages the single needle in a package tray, said tray having a suture retaining channel which is nominally closed by a plurality of resilient fingers and which receives the suture attached to the needle, said package tray being indexed through a plurality of sequential workstations;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.