Endodontic rotary instruments made from hollow tubes and methods of manufacturing thereof
AssigneeDENTSPLY International Inc.
InventorsRandall Maxwell, Vincent Shotton, Kevin Wilkinson, Yong Gao
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for manufacturing a hollow instrument comprising the steps of: providing a hollow tube having a longitudinal tube axis; forming at least one opening along a shaft portion of the hollow tube following a predetermined pattern thereby defining a plurality of fingers; and deforming at least a portion of the hollow tube into a desired shape; and optionally joining at least two fingers along a portion of the opening to secure the hollow tube in the desired shape thereby forming the hollow instrument.
Claims13
A method for manufacturing a hollow endodontic rotary file useful for shaping and cleaning root canals, comprising the steps of:
- a. providing a hollow tube extending along a longitudinal tube axis, the hollow tube having a proximal end and a shaft portion with a tip;
- b. forming a plurality of longitudinal tapered openings along the shaft portion of the hollow tube following a predetermined pattern that extend to the tip thereby defining a plurality of tapered fingers, therebetween, each finger having an outer surface and an inner surface extending between longitudinal opposing edges that extend to a tip end at the tip of the hollow tube, the opposing edges tapering towards one another so that each finger is wider towards the direction of the proximal end and narrower towards the tip;
- and
- c. deforming at least a portion of the hollow tube into a desired shape;
- and
- d. sharpening a portion of at least one of the longitudinal opposing edges to provide a cutting edge;
- e. joining at least two tapered fingers along a portion of at least one tapered opening to secure the hollow tube in the desired shape thereby forming the hollow endodontic rotary file;
- wherein each tip of the plurality of fingers or a portion proximate to each tip of the plurality of tapered fingers are deformed towards one another and converge towards the tube axis so that the shaft portion has a smaller outer diameter near the tip than at other portions of the shaft portion thereby forming a circumferential tapered shaft portion.
A method for manufacturing a hollow endodontic rotary file useful for shaping and cleaning root canals, comprising the steps of:
- a. providing a sheet of material;
- b. chemically milling the sheet to form a plurality of openings by removing material following a predetermined pattern, the milled sheet having at least two opposing tapered edges;
- c. rolling the milled sheet into a desired tubular geometry;
- d. sharpening at least a portion of the plurality of openings to provide a cutting edge;
- and
- e. joining a portion of the at least two opposing edges to secure the desired tubular geometry;
- wherein prior to or after step b, the at least two opposing edges are sloped towards one another such that upon joining the at least two opposing edges, a tapered hollow endodontic rotary file, instrument is formed having a shaft portion and a tip;
- and
- wherein the tapered hollow endodontic rotary file converges towards the tip such the a first diameter at the tip is smaller than a second diameter along the shaft portion;
- and
- wherein the predetermined pattern includes a variable groove having curves of decreasing amplitude.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.