ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,390,295, issued on Aug. 19, was assigned to Cilag GmbH International (Zug, Switzerland).
"Slack cable eliminating capstan" was invented by Eric N. Johnson (Maineville, Ohio).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surgical tool includes a drive housing having an elongate shaft extending therefrom, an end effector operatively coupled to a distal end of the shaft, a drive input rotatably mounted to the drive housing and having an input shaft extending therefrom, an upper capstan assembly rotatably mounted to the input shaft and having a first drive cable coupled thereto and extending to the end effector, a lower capstan assembly rotatably mounted ...