Endoscope having feature in flexible tube section constituting insertion section
AssigneeOlympus Optical Co., Ltd.
InventorSeisuke Takase
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Abstract
In an endoscope of the present invention having a feature in a flexible tube section constituting an insertion section, the flexible tube section includes a spiral tube formed by spirally winding a metal strip, a mesh-like tube covering the outside periphery of the spiral tube; and an outer sheath layer composed of resin for covering the outside of the mesh-like tube, wherein when the outer sheath layer is softened by being subjected to a thermal load caused in a high temperature/high pressure steam sterilization process, the outside diameter of the flexible tube section is the same as or smaller than the outside diameter thereof before it is subjected to the thermal load.
Claims4
An endoscope having a feature in a flexible tube section constituting an insertion section, wherein said flexible tube section comprising:
- a spiral tube formed by spirally winding a metal strip;
- a mesh tube covering an outer periphery of said spiral tube;
- and an outer sheath layer comprising resin for covering an outside of said mesh tube, wherein when said outer sheath layer is softened by being subjected to a thermal load in a high temperature/high pressure steam sterilization process, an outside diameter of said flexible tube section is the same as or smaller than the outside diameter before the thermal load is applied, wherein the spiral tube is n a state where a force is applied in a diameter reducing direction at all times.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.