Arthur D. Little, Inc.

Van Straaten Chemical Company

Smith + Nephew

John L O'Brien

D William Lee

Stephen C Cohen

George E Barker

Jack Milgrom

Joop Frans Hoekstra

Ernest Allen Dion

Robert Richard Perron

Michael Rossetti

Ronald A Mayville

Philip C Johnson

Peter F Strong

Techniques are described for making one-piece tubes for surgical instruments in which an inner tube that carries a cutting implement is disposed for movement within an outer tube having a cutting window that exposes the cutting implement to tissue. Swaging is performed to close an end of a tubular member that is to serve as either the inner tube or the outer tube. Other processing steps are also performed. For example, a selected amount of a protrusion formed by the swaging is cut away, the tube material is fused together at a seam formed by the swaging, and the closed distal end of the tubular member is formed into a selected shape. For example, the selected shape is rounded so that the distal end defines convex (e.g., substantially hemispherical) interior and exterior distal surfaces. This renders the tube suitable for use in full-radius surgical instruments. Alternatively, the selected shape is flattened so that the distal end defines flattened interior and exterior distal surfaces. In this case, the tube can be used in end cutting surgical instruments.

Making closed end tubes for surgical instruments

A lubricant for forming a ferrous metal blank into a preselected configuration by warm- or hot-forming procedures. The lubricant is an alkali-modified borate glass containing a minor mole percent of an alkali metal oxide, preferably sodium oxide. The glass is formed in situ on the surface to be lubricated by depositing on the surface a glass-forming mixture of a source of boron oxide and an alkali metal borate and then heating the mixture to form the glass.

Lubricant for forming metals at elevated temperatures

Process and apparatus for forming essentially spherical solid pellets directly from a melt, and particularly solid metal pellets such as iron and lead. The melt from a column of a preset height is directed through one or more orifices in a way to form a jet which experiences an upwardly directed trajectory path and which under the influence of vibratory action breaks up to form pellets of a predetermined diameter. Adjustments of the column height and/or vibration frequency are used to control pellet diameter. The pellets may be formed and solidified in a controlled atmosphere; and in the case of iron pellets, the carbon content of the pellets may be adjusted, to attain a desired degree of hardness, either before or after pellet formation. Iron pellets thus formed are particularly suitable as substitutes for lead pellets in ammunition.

Process and apparatus for forming essentially spherical pellets directly

A method of cold forming ferrous metals is disclosed employing as a cold-forming lubricant a dry solid coating comprising a film of a chlorine-containing, film-forming polymer and a destabilizing agent applied to the surface of a ferrous metal workpiece, which surface is free from other coatings or surface treatment, said coating being applied as a liquid composition and to particular coating compositions.

Metal cold forming process and lubricant composition therefor

A process for bonding a copper or nickel end junction piece to an aluminum electrical conductor wire. The copper or nickel end junction piece is used to make the electrical connection with terminals in meters, fuse boxes, switches and the like, thus eliminating such junctions with the aluminum wire and hence eliminating the possibility of the formation an aluminum oxide connection which may give rise to overheating and subsequent fire. The end junction pieces may be applied on-site after the aluminum wire is cut to the desired length. No special pretreatment of the aluminum wire end is necessary prior to the addition on the end junction piece.

Process for forming an aluminum electrical conducting wire junction end

Growing community of inventors

Winchester, MA, United States of America

John L O'Brien