Caged floating seal assembly
AssigneeTeleflex Medical Incorporated
InventorRichard H. McFarlane
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A seal assembly establishes sealing engagement with a plurality of differently dimensioned instruments passing through a trocar. The seal assembly is a caged seal assembly movably disposed within the trocar and includes at least two seal segments disposable into and out of a sealing orientation relative to the instrument. A cage structure of the seal assembly includes at least two cage segments each connected to a seal segment, a biasing assembly connected to the cage structure and disposed and structured to normally bias the seal segments into sealing orientation.
Claims32
A seal assembly structured to establish sealing engagement with differently dimensioned instruments passing through a trocar, comprising:
- a trocar,
- a caged seal assembly freely movably disposed within a chamber of the trocar and defining a central channel extending through the entire height of the caged seal assembly for an instrument passing therethrough, said caged seal assembly including at least two seal segments having respective seal structure mating faces disposable into and out of a sealing orientation for the seal assembly wherein when the seal assembly is in the sealing orientation, said mating faces are in contact with each other, and the seal segments define the central channel,
- a cage structure having an outer circumference and said cage structure having at least two cage segments each connected to a different one of said seal segments wherein the cage segments are connected by a hinge disposed proximate the outer circumference of the cage structure and said hinge defining a linear axis of rotation parallel to an axis through the central channel and a biasing assembly connected to said cage structure and entirely disposed within the chamber of the trocar, and structured to normally bias said seal segments and mating faces into said sealing orientation.
A seal assembly for sealing engagement with differently dimensioned instruments passing through a trocar, comprising:
- a trocar,
- a caged seal assembly freely movably disposed within the trocar and having an outer circumference and defining a channel extending through the entire height of the caged seal assembly for an instrument passing therethrough and including a plurality of caged segments movably connected to one another by a hinge defining a linear axis of rotation parallel to an axis through the channel and being positioned proximate the outer circumference of the caged seal assembly, said caged seal assembly comprising a plurality of seal segments having respective seal structure mating faces each connected to a different one of said cage segments and movable therewith into and out of sealing orientation for the seal assembly, the seal segments defining the channel when the seal assembly is in the sealing orientation,
- a biasing assembly connected to said cage segments and disposed entirely within the outer circumference of the trocar, and structured to normally bias said seal segments and mating faces into said sealing orientation,
- at least some of said cage segments including a guide portion formed of a material having a predetermined rigidity different from that of the seal segments and disposed in an exposed position relative to an instrument passing through said caged seal assembly, and said plurality of cage segments and said biasing assembly cooperatively structured to facilitate disposition of said seal segments out of said sealing orientation upon passage therethrough of an instrument having a predetermined greater size than said predetermined dimensional range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.