WO2000076897A1

WO2000076897A1 - Suture winding device

Info

Publication number: WO2000076897A1
Application number: PCT/FR2000/001674
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michel Surcin
Original assignee: Ethicon
Priority date: 1999-06-16
Filing date: 2000-06-16
Publication date: 2000-12-21
Also published as: FR2795059A1; AU6448500A; FR2795059B1

Abstract

The invention concerns a device for winding suture onto a packaging support for said suture, characterised in that it comprises a yarn guide (80) placed on an element (20) mobile in translation along a first direction on a support assembly (30, 40) and associated with first driving means (40) to be selectively moved along said direction, said support assembly (30, 40) being itself mobile in translation along a second direction transverse to the first and associated with second driving means (30) to selectively moved along said direction.

Description

SUTURE THREAD WINDING DEVICE

The invention relates to automatic packaging devices for sutures.

Common packages of suture threads and in particular suture threads mounted on a needle, consist of cardboard sides folded so as to hold the thread firmly inside the package. These cardboard packaging, commonly called shuttles, generally have a weakened area such as a pre-cut provided for a practitioner to easily tear off this area and discover a selected part of the needle or thread.

In current packaging, care is taken to arrange the suture in such a way that a pull on a selected area of the thread causes a progressive exit of the thread without it becoming tangled on itself or more generally than a knot appears.

To avoid such an incident, the wire is usually deposited on the support, describing successive eight, so that the wire forms successive crossings superimposed on the center of the reel in eight, which have the effect of effectively reducing the risk of tangling. wire when pulled out of the package.

Other particular windings of the wire on the shuttle, capable of preventing the appearance of knots, are also possible. To place the wire according to these particular windings, winding machines are provided which are capable of describing the shape chosen and of discharging the wire onto the support progressively during the chosen path.

The machines offered so far mainly consist of gears and rotating arms. Such machines are costly, imprecise with regard to the path for depositing the wire, and make it difficult to modify the shape of the coil to be formed. This last defect is particularly troublesome because the geometric shape of the spool must be particularly precise and would be advantageously optimized by successive retouching of the shape of the path of the wire as and when the series of packages produced by the automation.

The present invention proposes to respond to these drawbacks. For this, a device is proposed for winding a suture thread on a support for packaging this suture, characterized in that it comprises a thread guide placed on an assembly movable in translation in a first direction on an assembly -support and associated with a first drive means to be selectively moved in this direction, said support assembly itself being movable in translation in a second direction transverse to the first and associated with a second drive means to be selectively moved in this direction.

Other characteristics, objects and advantages of the present invention will appear on reading the detailed description which follows, given in relation to the appended figures in which:

- Figure 1 shows a top view of a wire drive arrangement according to a first variant of the invention;

- Figure 2 shows the same arrangement in side view;

- Figure 3 shows a bottom view of a wire drive arrangement according to a second variant of the invention.

The device represented in FIG. 1 is made up of four main elements: a fixed rail 10, a movable rail 20, a linear motor 30 mounted to move along the rail 10, and a linear motor 40 for longitudinal drive of the rail 20. The rails 10 and 20 are arranged, whatever the state of the present device, perpendicular to one another. For this, the motor 30 is a linear motor mounted on the rail 10 without freedom of rotation, and the motor 40, integral with the motor 30, comprises a channel through which the rail 20 extends with only a freedom of longitudinal translation. Thus, the rail 20 is fixed in rotation relative to the rail 10, by the action of holding the two motors 30 and 40 integral with one another. The motor 30 is a linear motor with longitudinal displacement on the fixed rail 10, which therefore drives with it the motor 40 and the rail 20.

The rail 20 therefore forms an assembly, movable in longitudinal translation on a support assembly formed by the motors 30, 40, this support assembly itself being movable in translation in the direction of the fixed rail 10.

The rail 20 is therefore movable both in its main direction and in a direction which is transverse to it.

The rail 10 is formed by a guide slide 105 and a magnetic bar 102 parallel to each other. These two elements are fixed by their ends to a fixed support 101, by two connecting pieces 103.

The bar 102 traverses the rail in its upper part, and crosses a central channel of the motor 30.

The magnetic bar 102 and the motor 30 form a linear drive assembly with magnetic interaction of known type. The bar 102 is formed from a succession of magnetized elements with alternately positive and negative polarity, the motor 30 being itself capable of generating alternating magnetic fields in its central channel. These alternating fields interact with the bar 102 to produce a progression of the motor 30, according to an increment of polarity with each variation of fields. The motor 30 and the rail 10 therefore have a relative translation controlled by increments.

The motor 40 and the rail 20 have the same structure, the rail 20 comprising a bar 112 identical to the bar 102, and a slide 115 made integral by connection heads 113, and the bar 112 passing through the motor 40 by a central channel of this last.

For each of these two arrangements, the magnetic bar is not in contact with the interior walls of the channel of the corresponding motor. Thus, these motors 30 and 40 have no friction, no gearing, or any internal mechanical part in movement. These motors therefore have neither play nor wear. They are silent, flexible, clean, reliable, fast and precise. On one of the two connecting heads 113 of the movable rail 20 is attached a winding clamp 80 used to channel and guide the wire during winding, while allowing it to slide through it, so that the rail 20 guides the path for depositing the wire on a support placed below it. The motors 30 and 40 are connected to a supply and control device 70 capable of controlling the motor 30 and the rail 20 according to selected displacements.

The device 70 is here a microprocessor with analog servo-control whose control signals transmitted to the motors 30 and 40 are easily memorized and modifiable and can be entered on the basis of a mathematical definition of the geometry of the coil to be produced. Each motor is connected to a control rack or power block, itself under microprocessor control.

By programming this microprocessor 70, the positions of the motor 30 and of the rail 20 are therefore controlled according to a coordinated kinematics.

The rails 10 and 20 being transverse, the crew formed by the rail 20 can therefore describe any type of movement in a horizontal plane.

At each instant, the position of the rail 20 is chosen according to its main direction by transmitting to the motor 40 the signal corresponding to this position, and the position of the rail 20 is chosen according to the direction of the rail 10 by choosing the position of the motor 30.

In particular, the gripper 80 prints an 8-shaped movement.

The device 70 is also provided with a display means to allow programming and following the path of the movement of the clamp 80. It is thus also possible to identify a possible positioning deviation and allow the necessary adjustments to obtain the minimum deviation and thus the best performance.

Of course, the rails 10 and 20 are not necessarily arranged perpendicularly, it suffices that they are transverse to each other. In a particular embodiment of the invention, the clamp 80 is pneumatically controlled by the microprocessor 70, so that it is able to come and grab the wire and make it run an 8 while letting it slide between its two fingers.

According to an advantageous arrangement of the invention, the thread drive device which has just been described is arranged directly downstream of a device suitable for automatically placing a needle on a packaging support, this needle having been previously fixed on the suture.

The packaging support equipped with the needle is automatically brought into an initial position of the clamp 80 so that the clamp comes to slightly tighten the wire at its junction with the needle fixed on the support.

According to an advantageous arrangement, the machine also has fingers automatically passing through the support and allowing the winding of the two opposite loops of the 8 bearing around these fingers. Thus, once the wire has been gripped, the clamp 80 describes the chosen shape, here that of an 8, by surrounding each of the support fingers passing through the support. During the winding, the suture slides between the two fingers of the pliers with a friction force chosen to give the thread a slight tension during the winding. When the clamp has traversed the entire suture, it returns to an initial position, then a flap of the cardboard side is folded over the spool of thread deposited to maintain it in position, then the through fingers erase from the support which can then be folded back into its final arrangement.

In a second embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 2, two motors 30 and 40 each drive a respective loop belt 34, 44 each time circulating around two pulleys, each pair of pulleys defining a direction of movement.

These two loop belts extend here in directions perpendicular to each other. A first belt 44 carries an equipment 42 provided with a thread guide and is mounted on a support assembly 20 fixed on the second belt 34. Thus, the equipment 42 is driven on the support assembly 20 in a first direction by the motor 40, and the support assembly 20 is itself driven in a second direction transverse to the first by the belt 34 and the motor 30.

The two motors 30 and 40 are again controlled by a processor 70 so that the movement of the crew 42 is easily and precisely developed.

Of course, the invention is not limited to an 8-shaped winding, but on the contrary allows an easy modification of the winding movement produced by the drive assembly. It suffices to program the microprocessor 70 according to another chosen form.

The device according to the invention is therefore particularly advantageous, in particular when changing series, for example when changing winding geometry, length of wire or production speed.

Claims

1. Device for winding a suture thread on a packaging support for this thread, characterized in that it comprises a thread guide (80) placed on a unit (20) movable in translation in a first direction on a support assembly (30,40) and associated with a first motor means (40) to be selectively moved in this direction, said support assembly (30,40) itself being movable in translation in a second direction transverse to the first and associated with a second motor means (30) to be selectively moved in this direction.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises two rails (10, 20) of main directions transverse to each other each coupled to a linear motor (30,40).

3. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that one of the two rails (10,20) is provided movable in the direction of its main axis.

4. Device according to claim 3, characterized in that said equipment (20) comprises the movable rail (20) in the direction of its main axis.

5. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the movable rail (20) in its main direction is mounted on a linear motor (40) which is itself provided movable in translation transversely to the direction of this rail (20) , so that the support assembly (30,40) comprises this linear motor (40).

6. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the two motors (30, 40) are controlled so that the crew (20) moves along an 8-shaped path.

7. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the two directions are perpendicular to each other.

8. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the wire guide consists of a clamp (80).

9. Winding device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises means for holding the wire on a packaging support during the winding of the wire.