Surgical Staplers
Client
Frankenman International
Year
2012
Type of Work
Design developmentÂ
PrototypingÂ
Design for manufactureÂ
Visual languageÂ
ErgonomicsÂ
During abdominal surgery, the need for hand-suturing can be removed by using surgical staplers. These utilise tiny titanium versions of the standard office staple. But instead of firing single staples, surgical staplers fire dozens whilst simultaneously cutting through tissue. And, although they are now standard instruments, there are still opportunities for improvements. We have designed a few surgical staplers for Frankenman and have innovated along the way...
The first is the linear cutter; this fires eighty staples across four rows: two rows on either side of the cut. Linear cutters are used in a variety of surgical procedures, but they are most commonly used in bowel surgery. In this major redesign, we have incorporated the complex actuation mechanism into substantially more ergonomic handles. We have also made the device’s semiotics more intuitive (to stop incomplete firings) and, critically, we’ve made it safer by incorporating an automatic interlock within the handles.
