Endoscope
AssigneeOlympus Corporation
InventorTaigo Kakehashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An endoscope includes: a bending portion, a wire, and a coil sheath, including a single element wire, an outer peripheral face of which is formed to be a curved face on one side of the outer peripheral face and to be a flat surface on another side of the outer peripheral face, the coil sheath being passed inside by the wire and configured by being helically wound by the element wire along a longitudinal direction such that the outer peripheral face formed to be the curved face and the outer peripheral face formed to be the flat surface are in contact with each other.
Claims7
An endoscope comprising:
- a bendable bending portion;
- a coil sheath including a single element wire helically wound in a longitudinal axis direction to define an interior;
- and
- a wire disposed in the interior of the coil sheath, the wire being pulled for bending the bending portion;
- wherein an outer peripheral face of the single element wire is formed to have a curved face on one side of the outer peripheral face and to have a flat surface along a shearing direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis direction of the single element wire on another side of the outer peripheral face;
- and
- the coil sheath is wound such that the curved face of one winding of the single element wire and the flat surface of an adjacent winding of the single element wire are in contact with each other.
An insertion section for use with an endoscope, the insertion section comprising:
- a bendable bending portion;
- a coil sheath including a single element wire helically wound in a longitudinal axis direction to define an interior;
- and
- a wire disposed in the interior of the coil sheath, the wire being pulled for bending the bending portion;
- wherein an outer peripheral face of the single element wire is formed to have a curved face on one side of the outer peripheral face and to have a flat surface along a shearing direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis direction of the single element wire on another side of the outer peripheral face;
- and
- the coil sheath is wound such that the curved face of one winding of the single element wire and the flat surface of an adjacent winding of the single element wire are in contact with each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.