Print Email Facebook Twitter Design of a compliant steerable arthroscopic punch Title Design of a compliant steerable arthroscopic punch Author Nai, T.Y. Contributor Herder, J.L. (mentor) Tuijthof, G.J.M. (mentor) Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Department BioMechanical Engineering Programme Bio-Compatible Design Date 2010-01-29 Abstract Meniscectomy is a medical procedure where ruptured meniscal tissue is removed within the knee joint. The con- ventional cutters fail to reach the entire meniscus. Therefore, the focus of this study is to create a cutter with a steerable tip, which allows sideway steering to increase the reacha- bility within the knee joint. Additionally, this steerable joint is required to be robust to transmit a cutting force of up to 190N. The mechanism design is divided into the functions: steering and actuating cutting mechanism. The most promis- ing solution of each function was combined and resulted in the use of a crossed configuration of a Compliant Rolling- Contact Element for the instrument joint. Flexural Steering Beams actuate the rotation of the joint using the principle of a parallelogram mechanism. A prototype of this mechanism has a range of motion of +25 and -22 degrees with a steering stiffness at the handle side of 18Nmm/rad. An axial load of 200N on the tip corresponded with a parasitic deflection of 4 degrees. This unique type of a steerable joint shows poten- tial to be functional in a meniscectomy cutter due to its great robustness towards compression, yet allowing the instrument tip to deflect. Subject MeniscectomySteerablecompliantarthroscopypunch To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fb4ce10e-6e5d-481c-b959-eccdd10f95f8 Embargo date 2011-06-29 Part of collection Student theses Document type master thesis Rights (c) 2010 Nai, T.Y. Files PDF Master_thesis_TimNai.pdf 17.74 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:fb4ce10e-6e5d-481c-b959-eccdd10f95f8/datastream/OBJ/view