Toothed cable and toothed cable guiding apparatus

A toothed cable guiding apparatus comprising:

• a guide member having a curved guiding path;
• and
• a toothed cable guided by the guide member;
• wherein the guide member comprises an inner wall portion and an outer wall portion,
• wherein the toothed cable moves and is guided between the inner wall portion and the outer wall portion of the guide member by a driving force of a drive source and transmits the driving force to an operation target,
• wherein the inner wall portion and the outer wall portion constitute the curved guiding path having a curvature to guide the toothed cable,
• wherein the inner wall portion is provided on an inner side of the curvature in a radial direction of the curvature and the outer wall portion is provided on the outer side of the curvature in the radial direction of the curvature, the guide member having a concave portion on an inner surface of the outer wall portion, which inner surface opposes the toothed cable,
• wherein a distance between a bottom surface of the concave portion and the inner wall portion is greater than a distance between a portion of the outer wall portion other than the concave portion and the inner wall portion,
• wherein the toothed cable comprises a cable body, and a cap provided at a tip of the cable body,
• wherein the cap is positioned in the guide member closer to one end of the guide member than the cable body in an axial direction of the guide member,
• wherein the toothed cable is configured to be movable in the curved guiding path of the guide member in a direction from one end side toward the other end side of the guide member in the axial direction,
• wherein the cap comprises a tip portion, and a body portion provided on a side of a base end of the tip portion in the cap,
• wherein the tip portion of the cap has a conical or truncated cone shape, or, a conical or truncated cone shape of which a tip is chamfered, or, a conical or truncated cone shape of which boundary portion between the tip portion and the body portion is chamfered, and
• wherein the body portion has a cylindrical shape, or, a cylindrical shape of which boundary portion between the cap is chamfered,
• the toothed cable is configured such that the cap moves so as to be in sliding contact with the outer wall portion and an edge of the concave portion when the toothed cable moves in a direction from one end side of the guide member toward the other end side of the guide member in the curved guiding path of the guide member, and
• the toothed cable is configured such that an end region of the cable body, which end region is on the side of the cap, contacts the inner wall portion of the guide member when the cap comes into sliding contact with an edge of the concave portion to limit an angle at which the cap swings in an orientation in which a tip of the tip portion of the cap approaches the outer wall portion.