US 6,199,812 B1Granted

Swivel arm, especially for a surgical microscope stand

AssigneeLeica Microsystems Inc.

InventorRolf Schuepbach

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A swivel arm assembly for connecting a surgical microscope to a stand comprises a microscope interface connected to a suspension device by a swivel arm. The swivel arm includes an approximately isosceles two-armed support lever and an approximately isosceles two-armed operating lever pivotal relative to the support lever about an axle connecting the vertices of each lever. An upper shaft at an upper end of the support lever and a lower shaft at a lower end of the support lever are coupled connected to respective upper and lower operating ends of the operating lever by toggle joints, whereby moments arising at one shaft are transmitted to the other shaft at a 1:1 ratio. The swivel arm is guided for motion in a vertical plane by a parallel carriage guide having a first and second orthogonal carriage guides, and an adjustable carriage guide connects the upper shaft to the suspension device to permit the center of gravity of loading to be moved. The invention keeps the surgical microscope stable and free of play without using parallelogram supports.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A swivel arm assembly for connecting a microscope to a support stand, said swivel arm assembly comprising:

a support lever having a center portion and a pair of approximately isosceles arm portions extending from said center portion of said support lever to provide upper and lower ends spaced from said center portion of said support lever;
an upper shaft supported at said upper end for rotation relative to said support lever;
a lower shaft supported at said lower end for rotation relative to said support lever;
an operating lever having a center portion and a pair of approximately isosceles arm portions extending from said center portion of said operating lever to provide upper and lower operating ends spaced from said center portion of said operating lever;
an axle connecting said center portions of said support lever and said operating lever, said operating lever being mounted for rotation about an axis of said axle relative to said support lever;
means connecting said upper operating end of said operating lever to said upper shaft and said lower operating end of said operating lever to said lower shaft to transmit a moment arising at one of said upper and lower shafts to the other of said upper and lower shafts;
whereby rotation of said one of said upper and lower shafts causes rotation of said other of said upper and lower shafts.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/590,226Filed 8 Jun 2000 · continuation
Priority: CH 1162/9720 May 1997
Granted: 13 Mar 2001
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification14 codes

F16M 11/18
Heads: with mechanism for moving the apparatus relatively to the stand
A61B 90/25
Surgical microscopes characterised by non-optical aspects: supports therefor
A61B 90/50
Instruments, implements or accessories specially adapted for surgery or diagnosis and not covered by any of the groups A61B1/00 - A61B50/00,…
F16M 11/10
Allowing pivoting: around a horizontal axis