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Control system for an automatic needle-suture assembly and packaging machine
| Details |
Inventors: Demarest, David D.; Daniele, Robert A.; Esteves, Anthony; Hodulik, Michael G.; Shaw, Teresa M.; Reinemuth, George Horst; Branco, Richard Paul; Cafone, Matthew;
Assignee: Ethicon, Inc. (Somerville, NJ)
Primary Examiner: Bryant; David P.
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Scully Scott Murphy & Presser
A method for automatically forming armed surgical needles and for automatically packaging the same in a packaging tray, the automatic forming and packaging operating under control of a control computer, each armed surgical needle including a surgical needle having a suture receiving opening formed therein for attachment of a definite length suture material thereof. The method comprises the steps of sorting and depositing a plurality of needles on an indexing conveyor; enabling a robot gripper device to sequentially pick up the needles and place a picked needle in a precision conveyor device for automatic sequential conveyance to a first station; utilizing a first indexing device for sequentially indexing the needle from the first station to a second station to form the armed needle, the first indexing device being elevated in height; at the second station, automatically inserting a free end of a suture strand into the suture receiving opening of the needle, swaging the needle about the free end of the suture, and cutting the suture strand to a predetermined definite length to form the armed needle. The formed armed needle is then sequentially inserted into a respective single package tray indexed at a subsequent station that has been oriented in height with respect to the first indexing device in accordance with the size of the needle. At a further subsequent station the tray and parked armed needle therein is subject to at least one rapid winding operation to wind the suture around a peripheral channel of the tray. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present application describes a control system for an improved high-speed, automatic needle-suture assembly and packaging system.
It is another object of the instant invention to provide a control system for a cost-effective automatic needle threading and swaging system and automatic packaging system that virtually eliminates operator exposure to any repetitive manual operations.
It is still another object of the instant invention to provide a control system for an automatic needle-suture assembly and packaging system that incorporates a rotatable swage dial having a plurality of multi-axis grippers that automatically grip surgical needles for indexing to a plurality of processing stations that include: a loading station for transferring individual precisely oriented surgical needles from a precision conveyor to successively indexed multi-axis grippers; a swaging station that automatically draws an indefinite length strand of suture material, cuts the strand, inserts the free end of the definite length strand within the suture receiving end of the needle, and swages the suture strand to the surgical needle; a pull-test station that automatically performs minimum and n-count destructive pull-testing of the needle-suture combination; and finally, a needle-suture load to package station where armed, pull-tested needles are transferred to the automatic packaging station for packaging thereof.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a control system for an automatic needle-suture assembly and packaging system that incorporates a rotatable suture winding and packaging dial for automatically packaging armed surgical needles through several processing stations including: a package load station for loading an empty package tray onto a supporting structure of the tool nest; a package detect station for detecting the presence of an empty package tray; a needle-suture load to package station where an armed needle is transferred to the package from the multi-axis gripper; a needle check station where the presence or absence of an armed needle is checked; a winding station where the suture that depends from the surgical needle is wound around a peripheral channel located about the periphery of the package tray; a cover loading station where a cover is applied to the package; and finally, a package removal station where the completed package is removed from the machine, or rejected if the package is flawed
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