Patent ID: 8740034

Claim:
A surgical instrument comprising: a handle assembly; an elongated shaft assembly mounted to said handle assembly and protruding therefrom, said elongated shaft assembly comprising: an elongated spine member having a distal end configured to be selectively couplable to either one of a first end effector and a second end effector wherein said first end effector differs from said second end effector; a firing tube axially movable on said elongated spine member and interfacing with a firing system supported by said handle assembly to cause said firing tube to selectively move on said spine member such that said firing tube is selectively axially movable from an un-actuated position wherein the distal end of the spine member is removably couplable to a portion of either one of the first and second end effectors to a coupled position wherein a distal portion of said firing tube retains said portion of said first or second end effector in coupled engagement with said distal end of said spine member, said firing tube being further selectively axially movable to actuated positions to selectively apply at least one actuation motion to the first or second end effector coupled to said distal end of said spine member; a first adapter removably couplable to said distal portion of said firing tube and configured to actuate a movable portion of the first end effector when the first end effector is coupled to said distal end of said spine member upon actuation of said firing tube to at least some of said actuated positions; and a second adapter removably couplable to said distal portion of said firing tube and configured to actuate another movable portion of the second end effector when the second end effector is coupled to said distal end of said spine member upon actuation of said firing tube to at least some of said actuated positions.