Officials at S.S. White Technologies (St. Petersburg, Fla.) say their bespoke flexible shafts can be useful in a variety of medical applications.
Much like a solid shaft, flexible shafts transmit rotary motion. But it’s possible to curve a flexible shaft over, under and around areas in ways a solid shaft cannot.
Flexible shafts have found uses in handheld flexible screwdrivers and flexible drills used in surgery, laparoscopic and endoscopic surgical equipment, robot-assisted surgery technology, and breast biopsy probes.
In breast biopsy probes, for example, the flexible shaft drives a biopsy needle actuator that performs the collection of tissue.
During vascular radiology MRI procedures, there’s often a need to remotely and precisely inject a contrasting liquid so that the image can stand out. S.S. White has non-magnetic phosphor bronze shafts that transmit rotary motion from the remote driving mechanism to the injector assembly delivering the drug.
When it comes to orthopedic surgical instruments, S.S. White flexible shafts allow surgeons to easily access difficult-to-reach areas to tighten a screw, drill a hole or remove a nut.
