Motor And Piston Assembly For Percussive Massage Device

What is this patent about?

’874 is related to the field of therapeutic devices, specifically percussive massage devices. These devices rapidly tap or slap an area of the body to stimulate deep-tissue muscles and increase local blood circulation. Existing devices often mount the motor, cylinder, and piston individually within the device's outer body, requiring precise alignment during assembly. Decreasing the size of these devices makes maintaining the necessary tolerances for consistent operation more difficult.

The underlying idea behind ’874 is to create a self-contained reciprocation mechanism for a percussive massage device. This mechanism integrates the motor, piston, and linkage into a single, pre-aligned unit. The key insight is to use a spatial positioning bracket to maintain the precise relative positions of these components, ensuring consistent performance regardless of the device's overall size or the tolerances of the outer body structure.

The claims of ’874 focus on a self-contained reciprocation mechanism that can be coupled within the enclosure of a percussive massage device. This mechanism includes a spatial positioning bracket, a semi-cylindrical bracket forming a cylindrical passageway, a piston constrained to move linearly within that passageway, a motor with a rotating shaft, a crank with an offset post, and a reciprocation linkage connecting the crank's post to the piston. The claims also cover a battery-powered percussive massage applicator incorporating this reciprocation unit within its main enclosure.

In practice, the motor's rotation turns the crank, and the reciprocation linkage converts this rotary motion into linear motion of the piston. The spatial positioning bracket is crucial because it rigidly connects the motor and the cylinder in which the piston moves. This ensures that the force generated by the motor is efficiently translated into the desired percussive action, and that the piston moves smoothly and consistently. The applicator head attaches to the piston, delivering the massage.

This design differs from prior approaches by providing a pre-assembled and aligned reciprocation unit. Instead of individually mounting and aligning each component within the device's housing, the entire mechanism is installed as a single module. This simplifies manufacturing, reduces the need for tight tolerances in the outer body structure, and ensures consistent performance by maintaining the critical alignment of the motor, piston, and linkage. The use of ball bearing couplers in the linkage further reduces friction and improves efficiency.