JPH03264059A - Crease formation device for artificial vessel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To carry out the crease formation of an original member tubular articles and thermal fixation of the crease shape at the same time by constituting the title crease formation device from a screw rod, screw rod turning member for turning the screw rod, divided nut part for pressing the original member tubular article installed on the screw rod to the screw rod from outside, and a divided nut heating mechanism for heating the divided nut part to a prescribed temperature. CONSTITUTION:A screw rod 9 on which an original member tubular article 20 is installed is fixed on the upper and lower chucks 8. An air cylinder 4 is lowered to the upper edge position of the original member tubular article 20. The left and right air cylinders 4 are operated from the perfect opening to the perfect closure, and a divided nut 6 is pressed on the screw rod 9 from the left and right, and the air cylinder 4 is perfectly closed for about 1-3sec., and crease formation and the thermal fixation due to the heating of the divided nut 6 by a cartridge heater 15 are carried out, and after the left and right air cylinders 4 are operated from the perfect closure to the perfect opening, the screw rod 9 is turned by a certain angle (about 300-340 deg.), and the divided nut 6 is lowered in a certain pitch (integer times of the turning pitch of the screw rod 9), and this operation is repeated, and then the original member tubular article 20 is crease-formed in a prescribed length, and the air cylinder 4 is perfectly opened. Then, the air cylinder 4 is raised, and crease formation is completed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a dressing device for automatically pleating artificial blood vessels. The present invention relates to an artificial blood vessel dressing device that enables easy manipulation of the dressing with good workability by repeating the action of sandwiching the material.

[Prior Art] Artificial blood vessels are used not only in a straight state but also in a bent state, and therefore are required to have flexible bendability. Therefore, the artificial blood vessel needs to be appropriately creased to the extent that the blood vessel itself does not break or twist even when bent by a certain amount.

Conventionally, the method of forming spiral folds on the surface of an artificial blood vessel has been carried out manually by an expert by winding a thread under tension around a threaded rod to which a raw material is attached (inserted). In addition, as a mechanical method,
No. 6239 discloses a method in which a flexible tubular material such as Tetoron or polypropylene is fitted onto a shaft, and the surface of this flexible tubular material is creased by claw-like bodies operated by a plurality of cams. is shown.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the case of the above-mentioned artificial blood vessel loading method performed manually by a skilled person, the work efficiency is poor, resulting in extremely low productivity and high costs. In addition, special public service No. 44-2623
In the case of using the method described in Publication No. 9, the apparatus becomes complicated and there are also problems such as an increase in cost.

[Means for Solving the Problems] Therefore, the inventor of the present invention solved the problems in the conventional pleating method described above, and developed an apparatus that can automatically perform pleating and heat setting in a simple process. As a result of various studies, the present invention was completed.

That is, according to the present invention, a threaded rod for attaching a raw material tubular object to the outside, a threaded rod rotation means for rotating the threaded rod up to a predetermined angle or at a predetermined speed, and a raw material tubular material attached to the threaded rod. It consists of a split nut part that presses the split nut against a threaded rod from the outside, and a split nut heating mechanism that heats the split nut part to a predetermined temperature, and simultaneously heat-sets the pleated shape at the same time as pleating the raw material tubular object. An artificial blood vessel loading device is provided.

[Operation] A raw material tube made of polyester or other thermoplastic resin is attached to a threaded rod from the outside. Next, the tip of the split nut heated to a predetermined temperature is pressed against a threaded rod to form pleats on the raw material tube, and at the same time, the pleat shape is heat-fixed.

By repeating the above operation at regular intervals in the longitudinal direction of the raw material tubular material (ie, the longitudinal direction of the threaded rod), the artificial blood vessel filling work is completed.

In this way, since the folds can be applied and the folds can be heat-fixed at the same time, the operation of the artificial blood vessel dressing becomes extremely efficient.

[Examples] The present invention will be described below based on illustrated examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view showing an embodiment of the artificial blood vessel prosthesis device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the relationship between a threaded rod and a split nut.

The threaded rod 9 to which the raw material tubular object 20 is attached is attached to the apparatus main body 21 by the chuck 8. Also, chuck 8
is rotatably driven by a threaded rod drive device 2 using a pulse motor as a drive source.

The air cylinder 4 for holding the threaded rod 9 is a cylinder stand drive device 1 composed of a pulse motor and a ball screw.
It is linearly reciprocated by. Further, a heater block 5 whose heating is controlled to a predetermined temperature and a split nut 6 which is heated by the heater block 5 are integrally attached to the air cylinder 4.

The length of the pleats is determined, for example, by instructions from a program input into a computer in advance. The upper and lower limit switches 12 function as a safety device in case of malfunction in the vertical direction. The cylinder fixing part 1O is provided with a detector 14 for detecting the presence or absence of the raw material tubular object 20, and an alignment sensor 13 for aligning the threaded rod 9 and the split nut 6. The entire device is controlled by a sequence control device 11.

Note that 10 is a fixing part for fixing the air cylinder 4, and this fixing part 10 is guided by the guide 3 to a predetermined position above and below.

Further, 7 indicates a support base for finely adjusting the position of the threaded rod 9.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged explanatory view showing an example of the structure of the split nut 6 and the heater block 5 that heats it.
A cartridge heater 15 and a thermocouple 16 as split nut heating means are provided at a position close to the split nut 6, and ethylene propylene rubber (EP) is provided between the heater block 5 and the air cylinder head 17.
DM) Heat-resistant rubber with low thermal conductivity such as silicone rubber 1
8 is inserted into the air cylinder of the heated heater block 5 to prevent the influence of heat on the rad 17 as much as possible.

There is no particular limit to the thickness of the split nut 6, or if the thickness is too large, the raw material tubular material 20 will not enter the valley unless the force (pressing force) for pressing the threaded rod 9 is increased, resulting in folds. It becomes shallow, which is not desirable. The number of threads on the split nut 6 is also not particularly limited, and is usually 1 to 50 threads, preferably 5 threads.
It should be about a mountain. For split nuts larger than 20 threads, as above, unless the pressing force is increased, the raw material tubular material will not enter the valley and the folds will be shallow.

Force to press the split nut 6 (i.e. force to press the threaded rod 9)
(Pushing force) is usually 0.5 to 50 kg, preferably 5 to 20 kg, depending on the thickness of the split nut 6 and the number of threads.
It is.

The relationship between the threads of the split nut 6 and the threaded rod 9 is such that the opening angle of the thread on the split nut 6 side is the same as or smaller than the opening angle of the thread on the threaded rod 9 side. 6
This is necessary in order to make the side threads or the valleys of the threaded rod 9 sufficiently large. For example, as shown in FIG.
The opening angle of the double thread is 40°, and the opening angle of the thread on the threaded rod 9 side is 600°.

Also, the split angle θ of the split nut 6 used (see Figure 5)
is selected in the range of 20 to 180", and usually at least one pair of split nuts are used with the threaded rod 9 in between, or
The nut is not limited to this, and a split nut can be used only on one side.

The shape of the ridges of the split nut 6 and the threaded rod 9 is usually a screw thread, but is not limited to this, and may be, for example, an annular ridge. Therefore, the threaded rod of the present invention includes not only a normal threaded rod but also a rod-shaped body having a mountain shape or an annular shape.

The heating temperature of the split nut by the cartridge heater 15 varies depending on the type of raw material, but in the case of raw material or polyester, by heating it to 100 to 200°C, it is possible to heat-fix the folds attached to the raw material tube. becomes.

The raw materials (artificial blood vessels) used in the present invention include:
Polyester and other thermoplastic resins are mainly used from the viewpoint of corrosion resistance, processability, flexibility, etc.

Furthermore, there are many types of artificial blood vessels, and therefore many types of combinations of threaded rods and split nuts are required.

Next, an example of the operation of the artificial blood vessel dressing device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the device in FIG. 1, focusing on the operation of the threaded rod-split nut portion.

(Operation example 1) This method is a method in which opening and closing of the split nuts 1 to 6 and rotation of the threaded rod 9 are repeated.

■Fix the threaded rod 9 to which the raw material tube 20 is attached to the upper and lower chaffs 8.

(2) Lower the air cylinder 4 until it reaches the upper end position of the raw material tube 20.

■ Operate the left and right air cylinders 4 from fully open to fully close, and press the split nut 6 against the threaded rod 9 from the left and right.

■Fully close the air cylinder 4 for about 1 to 3 seconds to perform pleating and heat setting.

■After the left and right air cylinders 4 are fully opened from fully closed, the threaded rod 9 is rotated by a certain angle (approximately 300° to 340°), and the split nut 6 is moved at a fixed pitch (an integral multiple of the rotational pitch of the threaded rod 9). lower it.

(2) After the predetermined length of the tubular raw material 20 is pleated by repeating the operations (2) to (2) described above, the air cylinder 4 is fully opened.

■ Raise the air cylinder 4 to complete pleating.

In this method, the threaded rod 9 is rotated while the split nut 6 is pressed against the threaded rod 9.

■Fix the threaded rod 9 with the raw material tube 20 attached to the upper and lower chucks 8.

(2) Lower the air cylinder 4 until it reaches the upper end position of the raw material tube 20.

■ Operate the left and right air cylinders 4 from fully open to fully open, and press the split nut 6 against the threaded rod 9 from the left and right.

■Rotate the threaded rod 9 at a circumferential speed of 1 to 200 am/sec.

- Lower the split nut part 6 in synchronization with the rotation advance pitch of the threaded rod 9.

(2) After the predetermined length of the tubular raw material 20 is pleated by repeating the operations (2) to (2) described above, the air cylinder 4 is fully opened.

■ Raise the air cylinder 4 to complete pleating.

(Operation Example 2) [Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the artificial blood vessel dressing device according to the present invention can press a split nut onto a threaded rod to create a fold, and at the same time heat-fix the fold. This makes it possible to carry out the material work for artificial blood vessels extremely efficiently.

13... Alignment sensor, 14... Detector, 15... Cartridge heater, 16... Thermocouple,
17...Air cylinder head, 18...Heat-resistant rubber, 2°...Raw material tubular material, 21...Device main body.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an overall perspective view showing one embodiment of the artificial blood vessel prosthesis device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the relationship between a threaded rod and a split nut, and Fig. 3 is a split nut 6 and its heating. An enlarged explanatory diagram showing an example of the structure of the heater block 5, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the opening angles of the threads of each split nut and threaded rod, and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the split angle θ of the split nut. It is.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A threaded rod for attaching the tubular raw material to the outside, a threaded rod rotation means for rotating the threaded rod, and a split nut for pressing the tubular raw material attached to the threaded rod from the outside to the threaded rod. What is claimed is: 1. A device for pleating an artificial blood vessel, comprising: a split nut portion; and a split nut heating means for heating the split nut portion to a predetermined temperature.