Autoclavable charging device for a rechargeable energy store of a surgical instrument and associated method

Abstract

The invention relates to an autoclavable charging device (12, 13, 15-20) for an electrical and rechargeable energy store (30) of a surgical instrument (11). The invention further relates to a method for charging a rechargeable energy store (30) in an autoclaved surgical instrument (11) or for an autoclaved surgical instrument (11). The charging device according to the invention is characterized in that this device comprises a receiving device (13) for receiving and converting an electromagnetic field into an alternating current voltage, and comprising charging electronics (12) galvanically connected to the receiving device (13), wherein the charging electronics (12) convert the alternating current voltage into the charging voltage, and wherein the charging device (12, 13, 15-20) comprises at least one galvanic output connection (17, 18, 19, 20) for galvanically connecting to the energy store (30) of the surgical instrument (11). The method according to the invention is characterized in that before charging the energy store (30) is galvanically connected to the at least one galvanic output connection (17-20) of the charging device (12, 13, 15-20), wherein the surgical instrument (11) and/or the energy store (30) is then autoclaved, wherein the surgical instrument (11) and/or the energy store (30) is then brought into an effective range of a device (14) generating an electromagnetic field, and a resonant coupling is generated between the device (14) generating the electromagnetic field and a receiving device (13) of the charging device (12, 13, 15-20), said coupling leading to an energy transfer from the device (14) generating the electromagnetic field to the receiving device (13), wherein the energy is used at least partially for generating a charging voltage for the energy store (30).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.