Incorporating new dynamic structures in ultrasonic surgical devices enabled by 3D printing titanium.

一项研究工作正在进行中，将微型超声手术设备与手术机器人集成在一起，用于微创手术。目前的超声设备由换能器、波导和手术尖端组成，并包含用于微创手术的长波导。这意味着手术尖端只能沿着直线输送，而且设备不能与柔性机器人集成。然而，一个非常小的超声波装置只包含一个小体积的激发材料，这是压电。这限制了可实现的振动幅度，因此有必要探索新的动态结构，以增强手术尖端在小型设备中的振动运动。目前，超声手术装置换能器和波导内部结构的整合受到减法制造技术能力的限制。可以增强动态响应的内部特征是使超声手术设备小型化的潜在因素，因为小型化需要在手术尖端激发位移振幅，这与更大的设备一致，但使用更小体积的压电材料。因此，本研究将研究使用3D打印技术制造换能器和手术尖端的钛合金（Ti-6Al4V）部件。该研究将考虑只能使用3D打印技术制造的潜在内部动态结构，并将研究一系列内部空隙模式和网状结构，以提供增强的振动性能。

A research effort is underway to integrate miniaturised ultrasonic surgical devices with surgical robots for minimally invasive surgeries. Current ultrasonic devices consist of a transducer, waveguide and surgical tip and incorporate long waveguides for minimally invasive surgeries. This means that the surgical tip can only be delivered along a straight path and the devices cannot be integrated with flexible robots. However, a very small ultrasonic device contains only a small volume of the excitation material, which is piezoelectric. This limits the achievable vibrational amplitude and so it is necessary to explore new dynamic structures that can enhance the vibrational motion of the surgical tip in a small sized device.Currently, the incorporation of internal structures in the transducers and waveguides of ultrasonic surgical devices is limited by the capabilities of subtractive manufacturing technologies. Internal features that can enhance the dynamic response are a potential enabler for miniaturising ultrasonic surgical devices, because miniaturisation requires the excitation of a displacement amplitude at the surgical tip that is consistent with much larger devices, but with a much smaller volume of piezoelectric material. This study will therefore investigate the use of 3D printing technologies for the manufacture of the titanium alloy (Ti-6Al4V) parts of the transducer and surgical tip. The study will consider potential internal dynamic structures that can only be manufactured using 3D printing technologies and will investigate a range of internal void patterns and reticulated structures to deliver enhanced vibrational performance.