It is known in medical engineering that medical instruments are fastened detachably to a holding structure, for example, a ceiling supply unit in an intensive care unit or to a vertical column of a trolley. This makes possible a modular design of an instrument system with different medical instruments, where individual instruments can be replaced, added and/or removed according to need.
EP 0 321 120 B1 proposes a fastening device with a clamp and with a frame, which can be fastened thereto in different positions and in which the medical instrument is in turn held in different angular positions, for the detachable fastening of the individual medical instruments to a tubular holding structure. A claw of the clamp extends around the tubular holding structure and is fixed to the holding structure by a clamping screw in a frictionally engaged manner. However, the flow of force in this fastening device is not optimal. To fix the medical instruments, some of which are heavy, reliably and without clearance, correspondingly strong frictional and hence normal forces are required. The entire normal force is introduced at two mutually opposite action sites in the fastening device according to EP 0 321 120 B1, which leads to high load on the holding structure and to high overturning moments.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds