US3211188A - Tie wire tools for orthodontists and for general industrial use - Google Patents

Description

3,2l 1,188 TIE WIRE TOOLS FOR oRTHoDoNTIsTs AND FOR GENERAL INDUSTRIAL USE M. WALLSHEIN Filed June 8, 1962 Oct. l2, 1965 Ju.' I

INVENTOR, Mau/1N WALLSHEIN,

ATTORNEY..

Om C Mm N NN United States Patent O g 3,211,188 TIE WIRE TOOLS FOR ORTHODONTISTS AND FOR GENERAL INDUSTRIAL USE Melvin Wallshein, 8645 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, N.Y. Filed June 8, 1962, Ser. No. 201,081 2 Claims. (Cl. 140-120) The present invention relates to a tool to twist contacting regions of a tie wire so that the loop formed thereby is reduced in size to tightly grip one or more objects positioned through such loop. l

To illustrate an adaptation of Vthis invention, I have chosen to show it embodied in an instrument suitable for use by Orthodontists to aid them in applying a tie wire, as for instance where a tie wire is to hold an arch wire to a bracket on a tooth in a mouth.

Heretofore, the twisting of a tie wire was done with a plier. The amount 'of twist conveniently capable with a plier in each manipulation thereof, is a half turn. To make at least, say two full twist turns in the tie wire, required that the hand make four complete oscillations with appropriate successivegripping and releasing actions on the plier. Many a time the plier would slip and hence would require replacement in proper association with the work, in order to continue. Then again, the pitch of the twist accomplished in the wire would vary, depending on the distance from the plier jaw tips to the work elements positioned through the loop whose size is to be reduced by plier manipulation.

It is therefore the principal object of this invention to providea novel and improved tool for the purpose mentioned, which with one manipulation will make a few complete twist turns in the tie wire, right up against the elements to be tied, and thus immediately have a secure association of the tie wire with the elements encOmpassed thereby.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved tie-Wire twisting tool of the character described, for use in industry generally and especially adaptable as shown in an orthodontists instrument, which avoids the objectionable features encountered by ordinary plier manipulation, and which has the stated advantageous attributes, for it twists the wire tightly automatically, and further which is reasonably cheap to manufacture and efficient in carrying out the functions for which it is designed.

Still `another object thereof is to provide a novel and improved tie-wire twisting tool which automatically tightens the loop for twisting, and thereafter to twist the loop, is, manipulated with partial turning movements of the hand. Such a tool is very cheap to make and may be suicient in various instances.

' Other objects and advantages will become apparent as this disclosure proceeds.

For the practice of this invention, one form it may assume, is to have a rotor rod retractable into a hollow handle, but spring-biased to extended position with provision that said rotor rod shall turn automatically when it travels in a direction out of said handle, but not to turn when it travels into the handle. I also have at the free end of said rotor member, a tubular part into which a tip is slidably fitted and spring-biased to extended position. The spring biasing said tip is stronger than the spring biasing the rotor member to extended position, so that the tip shall assume extended position before the rotor turns, after the tool is collapsed and allowed to expand. The rim of said tip is serrated and the rotor member is provided with an anchor pin to engage the ends of the tie wire.

I will now give a more detailed description of preferred embodiments of this invention and will explain their modes of operation and use, for which I will resort ice to the accompanying drawing forming part of this specification, in which drawing, similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views. FIG. l is a central longitudinal sectional view of a tool embodying teachings of this invention, shown in fully extended condition.

, FIG. 2 is an end view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary longitudinal view of the tool brought to fully collapsed condition with its tip bearing against a bracket carried on a tooth in a patients mouth. This bracket supports the arch wire which is to be tied to said bracket with a tie wire. The wire piece which is to serve as the tie, is shown mounted to hold the arch wire to the bracket, with the ends of such wire piece extending, ready to be tied to an anchor pin to form a loop lin the tie wire. It is to be noted that the strands of the tie wire piece are engaged by the tools serrated tip.

FIG. 4 is a view like FIG. 3, showing the next step of operation. Here the tie wire ends are tied to form a loop engaged by the anchor pin and the tool has been allowed to extend a bit so such loop is pulled taut.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary longitudinal view of the tool at the last step of the operation where it has been allowed to fully extend. During such extension, the tie wire was tightly twisted several times to securely hold the arch wire to the bracket. It may be noted that now, after the tool is removed, the excess of the wire piece of which the tie was made, is to be trimmed olf.

FIG. 6 is an exploded view, showing to a larger scale in perspective, the tool parts which constitute a clutch.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary longitudinal view of a modilied construction to attain tautness of the loop mentioned in the description of FIG. 4, before the tie wire is twisted by the tool as shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary longitudinal view of a tool of modified construction, shown in extended condition.

FIG. 9 is an end view of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a face view of one of the clutch parts of FIG. 8.

FIG. 11 shows the tool of FIG. 8, collapsed.

FIG. l2 is like FIG. 8, slightly modified.

In the drawing, the numeral 15 designates generally one tool concerned with herein, comprised of a hollow handle 16 in which is slidably, rotatably fitted a piston element 17; said element being at one end of a rod of substantially rectangular cross-section, which has been twisted about its longitudinal axis to offer a spiral track 18. I shall call this twisted rod, the rotor rod and designate it generally by the numeral 19. This rotor rod is slidably :fitted through the central hole 20 of a face ratchet wheel indicated generally as 21 which is rotatable within the handle 16 between a face ratchet 22 and a washer 23; there being a predetermined space between said face ratchet 22 and washer 23 which are xed in said handle, for the face ratchet 21 to slide up and back in, limited only by the presence of a compression spring element 24 which biases said face ratchets 21 and 22 into engagement. The teeth of said face ratchets are in such direction that same shall engage when the rotor rod 19 moves outwardly of the handle 16, but while said rotor rod moves into said handle, theteeth of the face ratchet 21 will ride over the teeth of the fixed ratchet 22. Thus, a clutch mechanism is provided to control said rotor rod. The rotor rod is free to turn through the holes 22', 23.

At the free end of the rotor rod 19, there is a tubular extension denoted generally by the numeral 25, in which there is telescopically fitted a tip element indicated generally as 26 having a toothed formation 26' around its free rim edge. This tip 26, in order to turn with the rotor rod 19, has a pin 27 extending therefrom, slidably tted in the longitudinal slot 28 in the tubular element 25.

3 The numeral 29 indicates a headed pin extending laterally of said tubular element 25.

The handle member 16 and the rotor rod 19 may be deemed a telescopic structure biased to extended condition by the compression coil spring 30 which is housed in said handle, to bear against the piston element 17 and the end plug 31 respectively. The telescopic casing formed by the associated tip and socket elements 26, 25, houses a relatively stronger spring 32, biasing such casing to extended condition.

As mentioned, FIG. l shows the tool 15 in fully extended condition, which is its state at rest. The clutch members 21, 22 are held in engagement by action of the spring 24. If the rotor rod 19 is held stationary and pushed into the handle member 16, the ratchet wheel 21 will ride on the fixed ratchet mem-ber 22, that is, the ratchet wheel 21 will turn, and thus the rotor rod will have only linear movement. Of course, the spring 30 will become stressed While the rotor rod moves into the handle. Now on holding the tool in hand by the handle 16, and permitting the tool to expand, the engagement of the face ratchets will be firm and the face ratchet 21 will be held against rotation, while the action of the spring 30 will cause the rotor rod t move outwardly of the handle. The rotor rod 19 will rotate while it is imoving through the hole 20 during the outward movement of such rotor rod.

To use the tool 15 to make a tie wire 33 to tightly hold an arch wire 34 in its supporting bracket 35 which is on a band 36 about a tooth 37 in a mouth, the tie wire is bent in half and set in front of the arch wire and behind the flanges 38, 38 of the bracket 35 as shown in FIG. 3, Where the tooth illustrated is an upper buccal tooth of an open-mouthed patient who is reclining in a dentists chair.

Now, holding the extended tool 15 by the handle 16, it is placed tip end into the mouth so that the tip 26 shall bear against the underside of the bracket 35, and the strands of the tie wire are set to be engaged between diametrically opposite teeth 26. Now, push the handle 16 to fully collapse the tool as in FIG. 3, and while holding it so, attach the ends of the tie wire about the anchor pin 29 as at 38 to form a nearly taut loop 33 as in FIG. 4. Upon allowing the tool to slightly expand, the tip 26 will quickly move outward of the tubular member 25, thereby making the loop 33' really taut, While the rotor rod 19 hardly moves any in rotation. Now allowing the tool to fully extend, the rotor rod 19 will rotate a few times during its movement out of the handle 16, and thereby cause the tight twists in the tie wire against the bracket 35 as shown at 39 in FIG. 5, which completes the intended assembly in secured lformat. The tool is now removed from the mouth and the excess of the tie Wire trimmed off by cutting it at points A and B.

To further insure that the rotor rod 19 shall have no turning movement at its start of withdrawal from the handle, to permit the extension of the tip 26 to tighten the loop 33 before the rotor rod 19 commences to turn, the start region C of said rotor rod is made fiat, so such fiat first passes through the hole 20. It is evident that while said flat continues in said hole upon withdrawal of the rotor rod 19, there will occur no rotary movement of said rotor rod for such interval. Here, difference in spring strengths is not important, but desirable.

If desired, the parts 25 and 26 may be integral instead of telescopic, and so, the spring 32 is omitted. This will require that the loop be made tight when mounted on pin 429 in FIG. 4.

The scheme of construction of the modified tool structure indicated generally by the numeral 15', is like that of the tool 15, except that the rotor member 40 is a tube with a peripheral spiral groove 41 for engagement of the tooth 42 of the loose clutch part which is the face ratchet wheel 42, and further, there may be a rod 44 extending lixed from the serrated tip element 43, which when the tool 15 is collapsed, will protrude out of the end plug 45 as shown in FIG. ll. Also, there may be the element 46, which not only serves in place of the anchor pin 26, but also upon collapse of said tool 15', is used as a fingerpiece to be stayed by a finger of the dentist, while the exposed end of the rod 44 is pushed inward of the handle 16', to make the loop 33 taut. The numeral 17 indicates a collar at the inner end of the rotor rod, acting piston-like and is rotatable in the tubular handle 16 against the action of the spring 30 which biases the components 40 and 16 to extend. In all other respects, the tools 15 and 15 are similar as to structure and mode of operation. The tool 15' when made small enough, will permit the rod y44 to be pushed by the palm of the hand while the finger-piece 46 is held back by the tip of the index linger.

In the slightly modified tool indicated generally by the numeral 15", each of the sections 47, `48, 49 is a tube of uniform diameter respectively, one within the other. This avoids the built-up construction necessary at tip end in tool 15.

If it is desired to have a turn-by-hand tool to twist a tie wire but to retain the feature to automatically tighten the loop 33', such tool would comprise merely the assembly of the resiliently associated members 43 and 40 of 15 for example, and in such instance, the tube 40 needs no spiral track, and of course, the part 16 and its appurtenances are omitted; the handle of such tool as now curtailed, then being the tube 40. Also, if desired, the rod 44 may be included as well as the finger-piece 46 for such modified construction.

Although I have shown embodiments of this invention suitable for the orthodontist who deals with tie Wires which are relatively thin, the tools herein taught may be made of heavier construction to suit various applications for use in industry generally, to work on heavier tie wires.

This invention is capable of numerous forms and various applications without departing from the essential features herein disclosed. It is therefore intended and desired that the showing herein shall be deemed merely illustrative and not restrictive and that the patent shall cover all patentable novelty herein set forth; reference being had to the following claims rather than to the specic description herein to indicate the scope of this invention.

I claim:

1. In a tool for twisting together opposite strands of a wire loop which encircles an object and need be made smaller in order to tightly engage such object, first and second members associated only in telescopic sliding relation, spring means biasing said members to extended condition, means on the first member to mount said loop at a point spaced from and opposite to said object and means on the second member to engage the opposite strands of said loop when the tool is in compressed condition while the free end of the second member is held against said object, whereby on restoring the tool to normal extended condition, said loop is automatically made taut.

2. A tool as defined in claim 1, wherein the means on the second member to engage the Strands, is provided by notches in the free end of the Second member.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,209,434 12/ 16 Hayden ..1 140-119 1,472,763 10/23 Pomeroy 140-119 2,880,811 4/ 59 Kuester 192-26 FOREIGN PATENTS 755,729 8/ 5 6 Great Britain.

CHARLES W. LANHAM, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM F. PURDY, Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. IN A TOOL FOR TWISTING TOGETHER OPPOSITE STRANDS OF A WIRE LOOP WHICH ENCIRCLES AN OBJECT AND NEED BE MADE SMALLER IN ORDER TO TIGHTLY ENGAGE SUCH OBJECT FIRST AND SECOND MEMBERS ASSOCIATED ONLY IN TELECOPIC SLIDING RELATION, SPRING MEANS BIASING SAID MEMBERS TO EXTENDED CONDITION, MEANS ON THE FIRST MEMBER TO MOUNT SAID LOOP AT A POINT SPACED FROM AND OPPOSITE TO SAID OBJECT AND MEANS ON THE SECOND MEMBER TO ENGAGE THE OPPOSITE STRANDS OF SAID LOOP WHEN THE TOOL IS IN COMPRESSED CONDITION WHILE THE FREE END OF THE SECOND MEMBER IS HELD AGAINST SAID OBJECT, WHEREBY ON RESTORING THE TOOL TO NORMAL EXTENDED CONDITION, SAID LOOP IS AUTOMATICALLY MADE TAUT.

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