DE29619310U1 - tweezers - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION BUTT 1

Description:

State of the art is:

Today, tweezers are generally manufactured and used in the traditional form and design, although new findings in microbiology and hygiene mean that both their surface structures and the difficult-to-access slot at the connection between the two halves of the tweezers are questionable for medical use.

Tweezers and similar instruments are usually made from two flat pieces of steel that are essentially mirror images of each other, which are firmly connected at one end - usually by welding or brazing - at a flat angle. This poses the risk of capillary cavities forming.

Tweezers made of plastic are also known; they are usually molded in one piece and more or less resemble the metallic tweezers.

However, especially in microsurgery, tweezers and similar instruments are also known whose grip zones are designed as derivatives of cylindrical surfaces in order to be able to change the gripping direction of the tips by means of simple rolling movements between the thumb and index finger. Such instruments are made from solid metal or round rods.

In all of these types, the gripping area is usually provided with haptic structures in order to increase grip. These are particularly prone to contamination and prove difficult to clean, especially in the medical field.

The sharp edges that they sometimes have also pose a danger, as they can damage rubber gloves.

Task and solution:

With a view to the future requirement for mechanical processing procedures in medicine, a way was sought to replace the hygienically critical properties of conventional tweezers.

The proposed design eliminates the need for the otherwise necessary process of joining the two halves of the instrument during manufacture, which must be very careful and complex for quality products and also requires subsequent plastering and straightening work.

DESCRIPTION SHEET 2

A tube, from whose two opposing wall parts the legs and working tips of tweezers are worked out, offers a stable, torsion-resistant connection of the tweezers halves in the part of its circumference that remains connected (6).

2. The proposed design offers more favourable hygienic conditions than the known designs, as it replaces the dubious flat connection of two sheet metal parts converging at a flat angle with a hollow body that can be easily flushed.

The proposed design of the grip zone as a perforation replaces unhygienic grid areas.

3. The proposed design enables an extremely lightweight construction because the stability of the curvature of all areas of the instrument resulting from the tube enables an optimally minimized material thickness and the other functional parts (spring zone, grip zone, working tips) are created by removing material.

4. The proposed design of the grip zone as recesses or openings enables a secure hold in any direction of stress.

Depending on the distance to the object being worked on or the amount of force required, the effective pair of troughs can be selected from two opposing fingers. Since round troughs can also be used as a pivot point, it is possible to swivel objects held radially without loosening the grip, and to change the hand position relative to an object that is still in the grip if necessary.

5. The basic cylindrical shape of the instrument allows for a quick and sensitive change of grip position by rolling the instrument between the fingertips, especially when, as is common in microsurgery, difficult spatial work is required.

Claims (1)

PROTECTION CLAIMS SHEET 1 Protection claims Object: Tweezers and related instruments, primarily for medical use Marking: 1. 2. These tweezers and related instruments are characterized by the fact that they are not, as is usual, made of two essentially mirror-like, predominantly flat sheet metal parts that are firmly connected to one another at the ends facing away from the working tips, but can each be made from a single piece of tube (Figure 1). By slitting tubes of the usual tweezer length in the middle at one end up to about 1/5 of their total length (1) and widening these slits before their end (2), two elastic legs (3) are created if the tube material is suitably elastic. These legs can be widened (4) and/or bent and their outline can be shaped in such a way that a wide variety of common as well as new tweezer configurations are created. Ideally, the working tips are formed from the tapered ends of the legs. However, additional parts can also be added to complete the piece. By means of a defined cross-section reduction, a springy area is localized and its spring force is regulated. Depending on the intended use of the tweezers and related instruments, tubes of different diameters and different wall thicknesses can be used. 1. Sub-claim: Smaller forceps can be combined by slitting tube sections on both sides in the manner described, so that the connection between the two tube halves is only maintained in the middle of the tube length. In this way, a double-ended instrument is created (Figure 2), which can preferably be given differently designed working tips. 2. Under-demanding: In the handle area, conventional tweezers usually have haptic structures (grooves, knurls, millings) which are hygienically questionable in the medical field and often only offer slip resistance in the longitudinal direction. PROTECTION CLAIMS SHEET 2 The proposed tweezers can also be equipped with such structures. However, a better solution is to have one or more, primarily round, flat recesses that are dimensionally related to the human fingertips. These gripping aids can also be designed as material openings (5). 7. 3, Subclaim: Additional functional elements can be fed through the hollow rear end of the instrument using flexible or rigid supply lines. These can be, especially in the medical field, light guides, hoses for gaseous and liquid media including additives of solid substances, as well as current-carrying cables.