Apparatus and method for making suture packages

[0001] The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for making suture packages and more particularly to suture packages utilizing a molded component made, e.g., by plastic injection molding.

[0002] Various types of suture packages have been proposed to meet the needs of sterile and compact storage of armed and unarmed sutures, ease of handling while retrieving, opening and presentation of the suture (and needle if applicable) to the surgeon for effective and efficient dispensing from the package. In the operating room, small advances in the speed and reliability of procedures such as suture handling can confer a great benefit, in that surgical operations are time critical and allow no room for error or malfunction. One type of suture package that has proven beneficial has a generally oval, plastic “tray” with a peripheral “winding” or suture channel in which a wound coil of suture may be stored. An interior surface or “field” bounded by the suture channel serves as an area upon which one or a plurality of needles may be “parked”, i.e., held by various means (“needle parks”). The tray may be covered by a paper or plastic lid, which may include a suture channel cover in the form of a plurality of cantilevered tabs extending over the suture channel when the cover is in place. A number of patents disclosing tray-type suture packages are owned by the assignee herein and are identified and incorporated by reference below.

[0003] There are a variety of sutures available for different surgical applications and these different sutures vary in suture/needle composition, gauge, needle shape, length, curvature, number, etc. and therefore require suture packages that are specifically designed to effectively hold and dispense them. Each different type of suture package has, in the past, required the preparation of specific tooling, e.g., unique injection molding dies, which are expensive and time consuming to produce. It therefore remains an objective to facilitate and improve the efficiency of production of a variety of different suture packages.

[0004] The problems and disadvantages associated with conventional apparatus and techniques utilized to manufacture suture packages are overcome by the present invention, which includes a mold for making suture packages and having a first portion for forming a first surface of a first type of suture package, the first surface having a first shape. A second portion of the mold is suitable for forming a second surface of the first type of suture package, the second surface having a second shape. The second portion is removeably conjoinable to the first portion. An alternative second portion for forming an alternative second surface to that used in the first type of suture package is interchangeable with the second portion, yielding a second type of suture package with the alternative second surface having a third shape. The alternative second portion is removeably conjoinable to the first portion for producing the second type of suture package.

[0013] The inventors of the present invention have recognized that the differences in suture packages for different types of suture needles frequently pertain to the area of the package within the winding channel, i.e., where the needle park is typically located, rather than the suture winding channel. FIGS. 1 and 2 show a first exemplary suture package 10 that may be made by the apparatus and methodology of the present invention. The suture package 10 has a peripheral suture channel 12 surrounding an interior field 14. The interior field 14 may be provided with a plurality of features, such as one or more needle parks 16 for holding needles 18 of an armed suture 20. The suture 20, which need not be armed with a needle 18, is wound into a coil and stored in the suture channel 12 under suture cover 22 with one end extending through a vent 24 in the suture cover 22. The interior field 14 may have a deflectable, hinged, needle access panel 26 and a plurality of areas having a reduced cross-sectional thickness 28, 30, 32, which are provided to minimize material usage. Apertures 34, 36 are provided to allow the suture package 10 to interact with machinery for loading the suture 20 into the package 10, such as for receiving locating dowels and winding pins (not shown), i.e., to allow a suture to be automatically wound in a suture winding machine and loaded into the suture package 10. Clips 38 retain a paper cover 40 over the interior field 14. A plurality of posts 42 and mating apertures (not shown) retain the suture cover 22 over the suture channel 12. The foregoing features are known in the art and are disclosed more fully in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,135,272, 6,047,815, 5,230,424 and 5,179,818, each of which is incorporated herein for its teachings concerning various suture packages and their features. Suture packages of this type would typically be formed using plastic injection molding techniques.

[0014] FIGS. 3 and 4 show another exemplary suture package that can be made using the apparatus and methodology of the present invention. The reference numbers of FIGS. 3 and 4 relate to those of FIGS. 1 and 2, in that features and structures shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 having corresponding structure and/or functionality as those features depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 are given the same reference numbers incremented by 100, unless described otherwise herein. One can readily appreciate that there are similarities and differences in the form and function of the suture package 110 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 relative to the suture package 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. For example, the suture package 110 holds several needles 118 beside one another along the longitudinal axis of the suture package, whereas the suture package 10 has a single needle 18 parked on the interior field 14 and oriented generally along the longitudinal axis of the suture package 10. The suture package 10 has needle access panel 26, whereas the suture package 110 does not. There are numerous other distinctions between suture packages 10, 110. Notwithstanding the differences therebetween, there are also similarities between the suture packages 10, 110, e.g., the peripheral suture channels 12, 112 of each of the suture packages 10, 110 appear to be the same.

[0015] The inventors of the present invention have discovered that a variety of suture packages having common elements may be molded more efficiently and more economically by utilizing multi-part (composite) molds, wherein a portion of the mold that forms the common or constant portion of the suture package is used for producing each suture package of a series of different suture packages having this common portion. The common mold portion is conjoined with a variable mold portion which forms the portion of the suture package that is unique for each of the plurality of different packages in the series.

[0016] FIGS. 5 and 6 show a composite mold 200 made in accordance with the present invention and having upper and lower subassemblies 202, 204. The upper subassembly 202 has an outer peripheral mold portion or “chase” 206 with an aperture 207 near the center thereof for receiving an inner mold portion or “insert” 208. The insert 208 has a pair of tabs 209 that control the depth that the insert 208 extends into the aperture 207. The lower subassembly 204 of the mold 200 has a similar layout, having an outer chase 210 with an internal aperture 211 that slideably receives a corresponding insert 212. The composite mold 200 therefore has four main parts 206, 208, 210 and 212. Fastener apertures 214 receive fasteners (not shown) extending therethrough to secure the upper and lower assemblies 202, 204 to opposed platens of an injection molding machine (not shown). When the upper and lower subassemblies 202, 204 are abutted together within the injection molding machine, they define an internal molding cavity for forming a suture package, e.g., 10, 110. After the injection of plastic into the molding cavity, the upper and lower subassemblies 202, 204 are separated to remove the molded product from the molding cavity. This is typically facilitated by conventional ejector pins (not shown). A plurality of ejector pin passageways 218 extend through the composite mold 200 to admit the ejector pins, which are extensible into the mold cavity to eject the molded package 10, 110 therefrom. Shutoff apertures 216 may be provided to admit a shutoff pin (not shown), e.g., for forming an aperture, e.g., 34, 134 in the suture packages 10, 110, respectively. The composite mold 200, when assembled, has a contiguous mold cavity defined by surfaces on the four mold parts 206, 208, 210 and 212 (and any shutoffs that may be employed). More particularly, the exterior bottom surface of the peripheral suture channel, e.g., 12 (see FIG. 1) is delimited in the mold cavity by surface 230 of lower chase 210; the top interior surface of the suture channel 12 is delimited by the surface 232 (shown in dotted lines) of upper chase 206; the bottom surface of the interior field 14 of suture package 10 is delimited by surface 220 of insert 212, including needle clip bottom surface 224 and access door bottom surface 222; and the top surface of the interior field 14 is delimited by surface 226 of insert 208, which includes a surface 228 for forming the top surface of the needle park 16.

[0017] FIG. 7 illustrates that a composite mold 300 for forming a suture package 110 may be formed by utilizing the same upper and lower chases 206, 210 as were used in the composite mold 200, but with different inserts 308, 312 (shown in phantom). Mold 300 will therefore produce a suture package 110, such as is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. As a result, a portion of the suture packages 10, 110, e.g., the suture channel 12, 112, which remains the same for different suture packages in a series, may be formed by one or more portions of the composite mold which remain constantly in use for molding each suture package in the series of different suture packages. The portion of the suture packages in a series of different suture packages that changes for each different package, e.g., the interior field 14, 114, can be formed by one or more portions of the composite mold 200, 300 that are changed for the formation of each different type of package. The ability to retain common portions of the mold for producing different packages results in a simplification of mold making, representing a substantial savings in energy, materials, labor and time.

[0018] While the present invention has been explained in terms of the embodiments shown, various modifications could be made by those skilled in the art which would fall within the scope of this invention and which are intended to be covered by the appended claims. For example, while a four-part composite mold is shown, a mold having greater or fewer parts may be employed without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention.