Distal end structure of endoscope
AssigneeOlympus Corporation
InventorTomoyuki Iizuka
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A distal end structure of an endoscope according to the present invention includes a distal end member formed of a metal material, an insulating ring provided in an annular shape around an insertion axis on a proximal end side of the distal end member, a cover formed of a flexible insulative material that covers the distal end member, a projecting section provided integrally with the insulating ring and projecting in a direction crossing the insertion axis, a through-hole provided in the cover and engaging with the projecting section, and a to-be-tom-apart section provided near the through-hole, in which force is applied to the to-be-torn-apart section to tear apart the cover along the insertion axis direction and remove the cover from the distal end member.
Claims12
A distal end structure of an endoscope formed to extend along an insertion axis, the distal end structure of the endoscope comprising:
- a distal end member formed of a metal material;
- an insulating member provided around the insertion axis on a proximal end side of the distal end member;
- a cover formed of a flexible insulative material that covers the distal end member;
- a projecting section provided integrally with the insulating member and projecting in a direction crossing the insertion axis;
- an opening window provided in the cover to expose a part of the distal end member;
- a through-hole provided between the opening window in the cover and a proximal end portion of the cover and engaging with the projecting section;
- and
- a to-be-torn-apart section provided in the cover at a position spaced from each of two sides in a width direction of the through-hole to linearly extend from a proximal end portion of the opening window to the proximal end portion of the cover along a direction of the insertion axis, the to-be-torn-apart section being torn apart from the proximal end portion of the opening window in a direction towards the proximal end portion of the cover, by an applied external force to enable the cover to be removed from the distal end member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.