Passive bending section for endoscope, and endoscope
AssigneeOlympus Corporation
InventorsKenichiro SAITO, Takahiro KISHI
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A passive bending section for an endoscope is disposed between an active bending section of an inserting section and a flexible tube of the inserting section and is passively bent by receiving an external force. In the passive bending section, a curvature gradually increases from the distal end portion of the passive bending section toward the proximal end portion of the passive bending section.
Claims13
-16. (canceled)
An endoscope comprising an operating section, a first helical tube that constitutes a flexible tube connected to the operating section and is disposed along a central axis direction, a first cover that covers an outer peripheral surface of the first helical tube, an active bending section that is disposed on a distal side of the flexible tube and is actively bent by an operation of the operating section, and a passive bending section that is disposed between the flexible tube and the active bending section along the central axis direction and is passively bent by an external force,
- wherein the passive bending section comprises:
- a distal end portion coupled with the active bending section;
- a proximal end portion coupled with the flexible tube;
- a second helical tube connected to the first helical tube so that loosely wound portions in which thin plates are helically wound via clearances in the central axis direction and densely wound portions in which the thin plates are helically wound by bringing the adjacent thin plates into contact closely with each other in the central axis direction are alternately disposed along the central axis direction;
- and
- a second cover that covers an outer peripheral surface of the second helical tube, and
- in a first loosely wound portion disposed on a side of the distal end portion of a material forming the second helical tube and a second loosely wound portion disposed on a side of the proximal end portion of the material forming the second helical tube, a flexural rigidity in the second loosely wound portion is larger than a flexural rigidity in the first loosely wound portion.
An endoscope comprising an operating section, a first helical tube that constitutes a flexible tube connected to the operating section and is disposed along a central axis direction, a first cover that covers an outer peripheral surface of the first helical tube, an active bending section that is disposed on a distal side of the flexible tube and is actively bent by an operation of the operating section, and a passive bending section that is disposed between the flexible tube and the active bending section along the central axis direction and is passively bent by an external force,
- wherein the passive bending section comprises:
- a distal end portion coupled with the active bending section;
- a proximal end portion coupled with the flexible tube;
- a second helical tube connected to the first helical tube so that loosely wound portions in which thin plates are helically wound via clearances in the central axis direction and densely wound portions in which the thin plates are helically wound by bringing the adjacent thin plates into contact closely with each other in the central axis direction are alternately disposed along the central axis direction;
- and
- a second cover that covers an outer peripheral surface of the second helical tube, and
- in a first loosely wound portion disposed on a side of the distal end portion of a material forming the second helical tube and a second loosely wound portion disposed on a side of the proximal end portion of the material forming the second helical tube, the number of windings of the thin plates wound in the second loosely wound portion is smaller than the number of windings of the thin plates wound in the first loosely wound portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.