JPS612834A - Exterior unit of endoscope and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an endoscope exterior unit that allows exterior parts to be joined with excellent sterilization resistance, appearance, etc., and a method for manufacturing the same.

[Technical Background of the Invention] In recent years, endoscopes have been widely used in the medical and medical fields.

In particular, since endoscopes used in the medical field are inserted into body cavities, it is essential that they can be sterilized, and the exterior portion of the endoscope must be able to withstand sterilization. Furthermore, since it is necessary to inject water into the body cavity through the endoscope, each joint in the outer portion is required to be sufficiently airtight. Furthermore, it must have the appearance quality required for a medical cutting tool. The main exterior units forming this exterior part include a main body block-shaped unit to which a water injection device section, a drainage device section, etc. are attached, and a tubular unit inserted into a body cavity.

Conventionally, the parts constituting these units have been made of copper-zinc alloy in the block-shaped unit, and copper-nickel alloy or copper-nickel alloy in the tubular unit.
Each zinc alloy is cut or formed into the required shape, and then the two units are joined together using a brazing agent such as nickel-based hard solder, tin-lead filament solder, or tin-sulfur-based soft solder. Ta. Furthermore, the outer unit joined by the above method is made of nickel-chromium 2
The exterior unit and its joints were coated with layer plating or three layers of copper, nickel, and chromium, and the exterior unit and its joints were resistant to sterilization due to the sterilization treatment.

However, in recent years, domestic and foreign manufacturers are increasingly using corrosion-resistant alloy steel for the exterior unit in order to avoid the plating process. However, as for the joining method of the above-mentioned exterior unit, all manufacturers continue to use the conventional method using the above-mentioned soldering method 1. In this case, in order to avoid corrosion from the joint, attempts are made to improve the brazing work so that the brazing agent at the joint does not run onto the outside surface, but this is extremely difficult to work with and requires skill. It is a lot of work, and the results cannot be said to be sufficient.

For this reason, the sterilization resistance of the joints of the exterior unit remains unresolved.

For example, in tin-lead soft wax and tin-antimony filamentous wax, the brazing agent itself has poor corrosion resistance, so if even a small amount of the waxing agent remains on the outer surface, corrosion will progress from this area during sterilization.

Regarding nickel-based hard solder, although the brazing agent itself has some corrosion resistance under sterilization conditions, the melting point of the soldering agent is 65%.
Due to the high temperature of 0 to 850℃, even if the vacuum brazing method is used for bonding, there will be a significant thermal effect near the joints of the units to be bonded, which will impair the strength, appearance, and sterilization resistance. be.

Furthermore, brazing requires 7lux coating as a pre-process and deburring and cleaning processes as post-processes.
It requires a large amount of man-hours, the results are dependent on the skill of the worker, and it is difficult to automate.

As mentioned above, many problems remain regarding the joining method of the exterior unit of an endoscope made of a corrosion-resistant alloy, and a method to solve these problems is equally desired.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and provides an endoscope exterior unit that enables cost reduction and good sterilization-resistant bonding, and a method for manufacturing the same. The purpose is to

[Summary of the Invention] The method for manufacturing the endoscope exterior units 1 to 1 of the present invention includes welding a block-shaped Yucot and a tubular unit to the edge of a fitting portion with a clearance of approximately 50 μII or less by irradiating an energy beam. By joining them together, an exterior unit that can be easily joined can be realized.

Furthermore, the exterior unit manufactured by joining using the above manufacturing method requires less man-hours, is lower in cost, and has good appearance and sterilization resistance.

[Embodiment 1 of the invention The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

1 to 5 relate to the manufacturing method of the present invention, FIG. 1 shows how they are joined, and FIGS. 2 and 3 show an optical viewing tube to which the manufacturing method of the present invention is applied, 4 shows an enlarged view of the vicinity of the connection part in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 shows a part joined by the manufacturing method of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 2, an optical telescope 1 having an exterior unit to which this can be applied is made by welding or otherwise connecting an elongated insertion section 2 and the fitting portion of the rear end of this insertion section 2. The optical image of an object such as an affected area in front of the objective optical system on the distal end side of the insertion section 2 is transmitted through an image transmission means inserted through the insertion section 2. It is configured so that it can be observed through the eyepiece 3 on the hand side.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the sheath 4 to which the manufacturing method of the present invention is applied has a hollow tubular sheath insertion section 5 and a fitting section 6 into which the rear end of this sheath insertion section 5 is fitted, by welding or the like. It consists of a sheath main body part 7 that is integrally connected. A water injection device section 8 is formed on the side of the sheath body section 7.
A connecting part 9 is installed at the rear end, and a mandoline (rod-shaped device) 10 or an optical viewing tube 1 shown in FIG. It can be inserted into the portion 5.

In the water injection device section 8, a water supply cock 11 is interposed on the outer periphery of the sheath main body section 7, and two water supply pipes 12, 12 (only one is shown in the figure) are provided vertically or horizontally symmetrically. Liquid can be injected from the end of the water pipe 12.12 into the body cavity through the sheath insertion section 5. Moreover, water can be drained by connecting one of the water pipes 12 to a drainage device via a tube.

-h1 The mandoline 10 has an obturator 14 installed at the distal end of the shaft section 13 that can be inserted into the sheath inserting section 5 to close the section 5a between the distal ends of the sheath inserting section 5.

As shown in FIG. 4, the rear end side of the mandolin 10 has a large diameter step and is connected to the mandolin main body 15.
The mandolin main body 15 has a tapered outer circumferential surface that fits into the inner circumferential surface of the sheath main body 7. A knob portion 16 is provided on the rear end side of the mandolin body portion 15 and projects rearward when the mandolin body portion 7 is attached to the sheath body portion 7.

By the way, the connection part 9 provided in the sheath 4 to which the mandolin 10 or the optical viewing tube 1 can be attached is a ring-shaped connecting part 9 formed by concentrically cutting out the outer periphery of the enlarged rear end of the sheath body part 7. Fitting recesses 18 are formed, and connecting rings 19 are rotatably fitted into these four parts 18. Each pin 2 protruding from both sides of the main body 15 of the mandolin 10
0 is stored in the axial direction of the sheath insertion section 5 ('a
By rotating the connecting ring 19, for example, the inner circumferential portion of the connecting ring 19 engages with the rear side of the groove 21 in which the pin 20 is housed. each by restricting the ability of the bin 20 to move! Each bottle 20 can be restrained within 321 to securely cover the mandolin 10. In addition, if you turn it in the opposite direction, the restraint will be released,
I removed the mandolin 1, and it turned out like a sea urchin.

Further, on the outer periphery of the connection ring 19, there is a detachable operation lever 2.
2 is provided in a protruding manner and is slidably housed in a circumferential groove 23 having an appropriate length in the circumferential direction on the outer circumferential surface of the concave portion 18 on the base side of the lever 22, and is rotated within the circumferential groove 23. So, it is now possible to put it on and take it off.

A groove 25 is provided at the rear end of the connecting portion 9 to accommodate a positioning bin 24 protruding from the mandolin 10 or the like. Further, the front end of the connecting ring 19 is brought into contact with an O-ring 26 fitted around the recess 18.

In the manufacturing method of the present invention, for example, the sheath insertion part 5 shown in FIG. 4 and the fitting part 6 of the sheath main body part 7 are joined by laser IJ' beam sheath welding, and FIG. A small diagram of the principle of beam seam welding.

In the same figure, reference numeral 32 is a block 1 which is approximately equivalent to the sheath main body 7 and has an outer diameter of 18 mm, an inner diameter of 1 Q mm, and a length of 30 mm.
-1 test piece, the code 33 is approximately equivalent to the sheath insertion part 5, and has an outer diameter of 1Q mm, an inner diameter of 9.3 mm,
It is a tubular test piece with a length of 1501 nll.

The block-shaped test pieces 1 to 32 are fitted onto the tubular plates 1 to 33, and the block-shaped test pieces 1 to 32 are fitted onto the outer parts of the block-shaped test pieces 1 to 33.
- The piece 32 is mounted on a test piece fixing jig (not shown) that is adjustable in rotation and vertical tilt angle. Therefore, the block-shaped test piece 32 and the tubular i-stop piece 33 fitted therein are
~The piece fixing jig allows it to be rotated at an appropriate speed.

On the other hand, the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillation unit 34 passes through the sleeves 1 to 35 disposed in front of the laser oscillation unit 34, and passes through the collimator lens 36 disposed in front of the sleeves 1 to 35. flat? ) turned into a luminous flux. A reflecting mirror 37 is disposed in front of the collimator lens 36, and the +y light is reflected from the fitting portion l edge of the tubular j-stop piece 33 and the flock-like bus i~piece 32, which are rotated by the anti-reflection mirror 37. The sea 1F light that has been changed in this direction passes through a condensing lens 39 disposed below the reflecting mirror 37 and is focused on the upper edge 38a of the fitting portion. In addition, the reflecting mirror 37. The upper edge 38a of the fitting portion of the condenser lens 39 is disposed on the same straight line.

In addition, the block-shaped test piece 32 chucked in the fixing jig and the tubular disks 1 to 33 fitted inside the block-shaped test piece 32 are
By adjusting the vertical inclination angle of the fixture, the angle between the axes of the test pieces 32 and 33 and the irradiated laser beam is 4.
It is fixed at 5°.

On the other hand, a gas outlet 40 is connected to a gas pipe from a gas cylinder (not shown).
Acetylene gas is ejected onto the upper edge 38a of the fitting portion to prevent oxidation of the welded portion and its vicinity.

The laser oscillation unit 34 has an average output of 50W.

A YAG laser with a pulse width of 2.5 m5ec was used.

Therefore, as the material used for the test piece, two types of A-stenitic stainless steel 5LJS304 and 5US316 were used.
Using Class II corrosion-resistant alloy steel, tests were conducted on various functions such as airtightness, corrosion resistance, joint strength, and appearance after welding, and the superiority and inferiority of the materials to be welded were determined.

Using the above two types of materials, block-shaped test piece 3
2 and tubular test piece 33, each 5US
304-8US304.5US304-3US316,
5US316-3US304.5US316-8US3
16 combinations of four types were used. In addition, a block-shaped test piece 32 and a tubular test piece 33 fitted therein
All fitting clearances were set to 0.0311.

Laser beam seam welding was performed on the upper edge 38a of the fitting portion of the block-shaped test piece 32 and the tubular test piece 33 under the above conditions, and samples A, B, and C were obtained.

I got D. FIG. 5(a) shows the above samples A, B, and C.

1 shows a schematic cross-section of the welded portion D, and FIG. 1B shows the welded portion viewed from the front on the tubular test piece 33 side. Reference numeral 41 in the figure is the welded portion. Above test FIA, B.

For C and D, tests were conducted for each function.

As a result, among the above-mentioned functions, all the samples had substantially the same level of airtightness, corrosion resistance near the joint, and appearance of the joint welded part 41, and showed extremely good results. In addition,
For airtightness evaluation, a pressure of 6 Ngw/m is applied to the joint lava part 41 and it is judged by the presence or absence of air leakage from the joint weld part 41. For corrosion resistance near the joint part, a high temperature and high pressure test is performed using an autoclave after welding. After the test, the state of discoloration near the joint was evaluated. In addition, regarding the bonding strength, the combination of 5US301SUS304 has the highest
The combination of US316-3US316 was the lowest,
In either combination, the bonding strength between the sheath body portion 7 and the sheath insertion portion 5 of the sheath 4 used in the above-mentioned rigid endoscope was sufficient.

Table 1 summarizes the above results.

("Il" stands for "same as above.") Below is the margin 1. Next, since the welded part 41 is a very small area, its strength and airtightness are limited to the inner peripheral surface of the hole of the block-shaped part and the internal fit therein. This is thought to be affected by the size of the clearance with the outer circumferential surface of the tubular component. Here, test pieces having the same shape as the block-shaped test piece 32 and the tubular lath 1 hepice 33 described in 1- above are used, and the above-mentioned mutual fitting IJ7-y degree is determined to be 0.
01mm, 0.03+am.

Samples E, F, G, and l-1 were obtained. The material pole of the test piece is block-shaped test piece 32. All 33 tubular test pieces were made of 5US304. For the obtained samples E, F, G, and H, the joint strength, airtightness, and 114 f! ! A-sex.

The appearance of each welded joint was evaluated.

As a result, it was found that Samples E, F, and G were at the same level and good in all of the above evaluation items. However, sample H is significantly inferior to the other three samples in terms of airtightness and bonding strength, and cannot be applied to the sheath body 7 and sheath insertion portion 5 of the sheath 4 of a rigid endoscope. I found out something. That is, the fitting clearance must be approximately 50 μl (0.05 mm) or less.

Table 2 summarizes the above results.

Table 2 Note that the manufacturing method of the present invention is not only applied to the joining of the sheath body 7 and the sheath insertion part 5 in the sheath 4 of a rigid endoscope, but also to the connection ring 19 shown in FIG. It can be used for joining with the attachment/detachment operation lever 22, or for joining by welding which falls on the fitting part of the insertion part 2 and the eyepiece part 3 which are connected to the optical viewing tube 1 shown in FIG. . Furthermore, the above-mentioned laser beam seam welding can be applied to all the exterior units in the portion where the edge of the underground joint is exposed to the outside and can be connected. Sheath used in conjunction with these 4. ! It also includes subclasses, etc.

By the above manufacturing method, it is possible to realize an exterior component unit of a rigid internal pA mirror as a product with a small number of man-hours and at a low cost.

Further, in the above embodiment, a YAG laser was used as an energy source for forming the welded portion, but it goes without saying that other laser beams such as a carbon dioxide laser can also be used, and furthermore, an electron beam, etc. particle beam,
It can be used as an energy source for forming welds.

Note that other corrosion-resistant alloy steel materials can also be used in the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention 1] As mentioned above, the effects of the present invention! According to 181 Zokatabutsu,
By simply irradiating and welding the two parts together by irradiating an energy beam onto the edge of the joint part facing the outside of both parts that are mated at the fitting part, it is possible to join the two parts by simply irradiating and welding them. The corrosion resistance near the joint is excellent even without any surface coating such as plating.Also, the appearance of the welded joint is also excellent. It is possible to achieve the external properties required for medical equipment without performing the deburring work that is required in the cleaning work.

Furthermore, the soft brazing process requires 7 lux coating as a pre-process and deburring and cleaning processes as post-processes, so it usually takes more than 15 minutes for one culm, but the result is In contrast, the manufacturing method of the present invention requires no pre-processing or pre-processing as described above, and can be joined in 6 to 10 seconds. I can do it. It is also easy to automate. In addition, we can supply products with high quality, consistent quality, and low cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 5 relate to the manufacturing method of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a principle explanatory diagram showing the state of welding according to the manufacturing method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the principle of welding according to the manufacturing method of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway side view of the sheath to which the manufacturing method of the present invention is applied, and FIG.
FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing the vicinity of the connection part of the sheath shown in the figure, and FIG. 5 shows a test piece welded by the manufacturing method of the present invention,
Figure (a) shows a longitudinal sectional view, and figure (b) shows an enlarged front view. 1... Optical viewing tube 2... Insertion section 3... Eyepiece section 4... Sheath 5... Sheath insertion section
6... Fitting part 7... Sheath main body part 9... Connection part 10... Mandolin 19... Connection ring 22
... Attachment/detachment operation lever 32... Block-shaped test piece 33... Tubular test piece 34... Laser firing unit 36... Collimator lens 38a... Upper edge of fitting part 39... Condensing lens 41...Full viewing department procedure
Amendment Old (spontaneous) September 4, 1980 1, Indication of the case 1982 Patent Application No. 123143 2, Name of the invention Endoscope exterior unit and its manufacturing method 3, Person making the amendment Related Patent Applicant Address 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Name (037) Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. Representative Satoshi Shimoyama Department 4, Agent 1, 1 on the 1st line of the 1st page of the specification Correct the phrase "Konanuyo" to "Nokoranuyo." 2. In the 15th line of the first page of the specification, the text "[Laser] f-beam sheath welding" will be corrected to "laser beam seam welding." 3. Specification, page 18, item 15 (correct the word ``a lot'' in j to ``largely''.)

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In the exterior unit that forms the exterior part of the endoscope, a block-shaped member and a tubular member each made of corrosion-resistant alloy steel are fitted together with a clearance of approximately 50 μm or less at the fitting portion where these two members fit. An endoscope exterior unit characterized by being joined by welding the edges of the joint. (2) In a method for manufacturing an exterior unit that forms the exterior part of an endoscope, a block-shaped member and a tubular member each made of corrosion-resistant alloy steel are connected to each other with a clearance of approximately 50 μm.
a step of fitting the fitting portion in the following conditions; and a step of irradiating the edge of the fitting portion exposed to the outside with an energy beam to form a welded portion at the edge of the fitting portion. A method for manufacturing an endoscope exterior unit, characterized in that: (3) The method for manufacturing an endoscope exterior unit according to claim 2, wherein the energy beam is a laser beam.