ARTIFICIAL FOREARM Russian patent published in 2015 - IPC A61F2/54 

FIELD: medicine.

SUBSTANCE: invention refers to medical equipment, namely to artificial forearms. The artificial forearm comprises an artificial hand, a bearing sleeve comprising clamping elements and a pivoted receiving sleeve. The bearing sleeve is presented in the form of splints with an elbow joint and cuffs on the forearm and shoulder; ends of the forearm splints are rigidly attached to a bearing case accommodating a pivotally mounted hand rotation shaft with its one end rigidly connected to the receiving sleeve and its other end - to a wrist flexion pivot. A dismountable shoulder piece embracing the shoulder joint pivotally connected to the shoulder cuff is inserted into the cuff. A flexible limited-swing cable drive of hand flexion and extension comprises two cases with pivotally mounted swivel blocks rigidly connected to input and output line shafts, two branches of the cable drive fixed on the swivel blocks accommodated in the flexible cases in the form of spirals wound with turn-touching with inner anti-fraction surface and coupled in pairs to each case. The shoulder piece comprises a mounted guide with a spiral groove movably connected to a driving pin rigidly fixed on a lever rigidly connected to the input shaft of the first case, which is rigidly supported on the shoulder cuff; the second case is rigidly connected to a pivot support of the hand flexion, while its output shaft is attached to the hand case. The hand is electromechanical and controls the drive by releasing effective bioelectric signals from the surface of contracted forearm muscles. Sensitive elements in the form of two pairs of surface electrodes are fixed on the shoulder cuff and electrically connected to an electronic control unit comprising two electrical circuits, series preamplifier and signal detector attached to a pulse-duration amplifier, which is connected to an electric motor of the hand drive; the electronic control unit and power supply are mounted on the shoulder piece.

EFFECT: using the invention enables making the artificial forearm more usable by enhancing the device, when the disabled person performs focused self-service actions, reducing the range of compensatory motions and the length of locomotive actions, when using the artificial forearm by implementing the active function of hand flexion and extension accompanied by hand rotation control and handgrip.

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