Medical Light Source Invention

...
	Uninterruptible Operating Room Light Source

	This new medical Light Source Invention is the first result of my Medical Device
	Development program and will be used during Minimally Invasive Surgery when
	Endoscopes (Laparoscopes, Arthroscopes, Cystoscopes etc.) are applied and
	penetrate dark areas of the human body.
	A failure in Light Supply to these instruments interrupts the surgical procedure until
	the fiber light cable is plugged into a spare light source or until one is located.
	Additionally, this new light source saves the cost for periodical Xenon Bulb replacement
	on a required maintenance basis even if the bulb (~$ 500 cost) could last for several
	hundred hours longer.
	As with many ideas and inventions there are always a variety of possible technical
	approaches before a prototype can be build, independent from the Patent application
	and approval procedures.
	At the end, the final decision which solution is the best, is always based on three
	factors:
	What is the Operational Safety and Reliability?
	What are the production cost, and projected profit?
	How many devices can be sold per month?
	The answers to question 2+3 are directly connected:
	The production cost are reduced significantly when the number of
	manufactured and sold units per month rises and consequently
	the profit:
	Parts are purchased in larger quantities at higher discounts.
	Manufacturing and Assembly procedures can be evaluated for
	partial or full automation.

	Selected sections of the Patent Application of this Invention are located HERE.

	I will demonstrate below some very different solutions and their Pros and Cons:

	I also challenge you to send me your comments and ideas > nobody has all the
	information or maybe I missed something obvious?



	For fast Reference your can move down on this page by Hyperlinks:
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	Xenon Lamp Wavelength Diagram
	Typical Optical Heat Mirror Wavelength Diagram
	Glan Taylor Beamsplitter
	Cylinder - Piston Design
	Turrhead
	Rotator Design
	Servo Motor Design
	Continuous Spring Design
	Slide Design



	I call it the "Beam Diversion" Design:
	My favorite Solution No moving parts > easy Assembly and stable Adjustment.



	I tested wedge prisms, as shown above, and found that supplying the Fiber
	Light Cable with light approaching in an angle leads to unacceptable losses.

	A Beam Splitter (reverse driven) should take light from an 35⁰ angle and
	then deflect it straight forward - in other words, 2 Lamps which focus in the
	same spot, axial over a distance of 2" to 3" in respect to the center line,
	are turned by 35⁰ each, towards each other merging at the reflective prism
	surfaces with a beam radius of ~ 2mm. Assuming a minimum of Energy Loss -
This would be the Ideal Solution.

However, it is rather difficult to find the exact optical device which can fulfill
all the specifications above and handle reliably the power of a 300W Xenon
Bulb focusing on a diameter of 4mm (o.157") with a guarantied lifetime of
20,000 hours.

The wavelength specifications are shown below and these lamps have a
color temperature of 6500⁰ Kelvin which is a very cold (blue) light.



	I just went to the web site of Edmund
	Scientific to double check the wavelength
	of the planned Heat Mirror which needs
	to be placed between a 300W Xenon Lamp
	and a Medical Fiber Cable for temperature
	reduction to prevent the melting of the
	epoxy holding the fibers together and
	forming a flat polished surface > the model
	I will use filters out 400nm to 700mn


The device shown below (Glan Taylor Beamsplitter) works in principle correctly but
cannot withstand the power of this Xenon lamp and additionally at a cost of $459.00
it is price restrictive for this application.



However, there are constantly new products entering the Market and I hope that
an innovative optical company can provide me with the ideal device under $100.
Edmund Scientific just came out with a very powerful Polka-Dot Beamsplitter which
I nee to study first because it would be very counter productive to bring an
Uninterruptible Light Medical Light Source on the market featuring a light diverting
device which fails 5 times more often than the light bulb embarrassing too.

If you have knowledge of a device which would work for this application, please
send me an email.


All other Solutions are mechanical and have "Moving Parts"
of some kind.

This of course, opens a whole can of worms there are thousands of possibilities.
However, I have these mechanics reduced to a solution which is very reliable and
inexpensive. I have no finished images yet - but I will publish them soon.
Below you can see some older designs which explain a lot about the function:

All Images below are Assemblies and created in Pro/Engineer.
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Cylinder-Piston Design
This Design I call the Cylinder-Piston Mechanism. The light is routed form the
Primary and Secondary Lamp through Fiber Light Cables. The Primary Light Cable
is connected to the Core(2) and the Secondary to the Cylinder / Housing(1) .





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Turrhead Design Light Source Light Outlet to Endoscope with 4 Bushings for
different Light Cable Brands.








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Rotator Design
In this design Fiber Light Cables are arriving from the Primary and Secondary
Lamps (in the back)



A Solenoid moves the Rotator (blue) counterclockwise when the Primary Lamp
fails and the Secondary Lamp supplies light to the outlet cable to the Endoscope
in the front.













Servo Motor Design
This solution moves the Secondary (spare) Lamp on a slide when a primary
lamp failure occurs in the focal position of the light outlet for the Endoscope.
This design utilizes a small servo motor.


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Continuous Spring Design
This solution uses instead of a Servo Motor a Continues Load Spring.
In case of lamp failure the Slide is released by a Latch connected to
a Solenoid. The disadvantage is that a mechanical manual reset is
required after lamp failure.








Slide Design
This solution moves a Fiber Light Cable from the Secondary (spare) Lamp
on a slide when a Primary Lamp failure occurs in the focal position of the light
outlet for the Endoscope.

Below are the images from the first design - the latest design is very close but
simpler in design and more inexpensive.








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Email: DKcustomer-service@mindspring.com