JP6697291B2 - Endoscope bending tube - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an endoscope bending tube which is configured to be bendable by providing a hard pipe with a plurality of slots.

  The endoscope includes an elongated insertion portion, and an observation optical system is provided on the distal end side of the insertion portion. Some endoscopes are provided with a bending portion on the distal end side of the insertion portion, the bending portion being configured to bend in two directions of up and down or four directions of up, down, left and right. In an endoscope provided with a bending portion, an operator appropriately bends the bending portion to improve the insertability of the insertion portion and change the visual field direction to perform wide-range observation.

  In general, the bending portion is composed of a bending piece set in which a plurality of bending pieces are rotatably connected, a mesh tube covering the bending piece set, and a bending rubber covering the mesh tube. A wire guide, through which a bending wire corresponding to the bending direction is inserted, is provided on the inner surface of the bending piece set.

After passing through the wire guide, the tip of the bending wire is fixed to the bending piece that constitutes the leading end of the bending piece set. The proximal end side of the bending wire is fixed to a bending operation device provided in the operation portion located on the proximal end side of the insertion portion.
Therefore, when the operator operates the bending operation device, the bending wire is pulled and loosened to bend the bending portion.

  In recent years, a metal pipe has been used instead of the bending piece set. The metal pipe is a metal hard pipe made of nickel titanium alloy, stainless steel, or the like, and can be bent by providing a plurality of slots.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an endoscope shaft. The endoscope has a shaft, which includes a frame, a cover, and an objective head. The frame includes a tube configured to be bent by providing a plurality of grooves. The tube is further provided with a groove forming a protrusion and a pocket. The protrusion is adapted to be able to slide longitudinally forward and backward within the pocket while the tube is bent. When the tube receives the axial torque or the twisting force, the side surface of the protrusion and the side surface of the pocket contact each other, and the axial twist of the tube or the deformation of the tube is limited.

Special table 2012-528651 gazette

  However, the projection and pocket of the tube shown in Patent Document 1 are formed by processing a groove in the tube. Therefore, the amount of contact between the side surface of the protrusion and the side surface of the pocket depends on the wall thickness of the tube. Then, the contact amount when receiving the twisting force is the largest when the tube is in the straight state, and decreases as the tube is bent. Therefore, when a twisting force larger than a previously assumed value is applied to the curved tube, it is difficult to limit the deformation of the tube by mutual contact between the side surface of the protrusion and the side surface of the pocket. . Then, if the protruding portion falls out of the pocket, a twisting force is directly applied to the tube, which may damage the tube.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an endoscope bending tube having excellent bendability while improving the twist resistance of a pipe that can be bent by providing a plurality of slots. I am aiming.

An endoscope bending tube according to an aspect of the present invention is a pipe having a through hole extending from a distal end to a proximal end, and a plurality of slots communicating with an outer peripheral surface and an inner peripheral surface are formed along a circumference of the pipe. A rigid pipe that can be bent by means of the above, a tip-side ridge portion that forms a ridge portion on the tip side of the slot, and a ridge portion on the base end side of the slot that faces the tip-side ridge portion. Is provided along the longitudinal axis of the pipe in the through hole of the rigid pipe, which is capable of contacting the distal ridge portion provided in the direction of the longitudinal axis. One of the plurality of bending wires that bends the rigid pipe by changing the distance between the tip side ridge and the tip side ridge by being moved back and forth, and one of the tip side ridge or the base side ridge. In the direction of the longitudinal axis, and a locking recess formed in the direction of the longitudinal axis, and the proximal ridge or the distal side facing the distal ridge or the proximal ridge in which the locking recess is formed. a locking protrusion provided to be disposed locking in the recess in one of ridge protrudes in the direction of the central axis of the pipe from the inner circumferential surface of the pipe in the locking recess, the hard A thick portion provided in a twist prevention member fixed to the pipe and protruding in the central axis direction .

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The endoscope bending tube of the present invention can realize an endoscope bending tube having excellent bendability while improving twist resistance of a pipe that can be bent by providing a plurality of slots.

The figure which shows an example of the endoscope which equips a bending part with the endoscope bending tube. Diagram illustrating an endoscope bending tube Sectional drawing orthogonal to the central axis shown in the arrow Y3A-Y3A line of FIG. Sectional view in the longitudinal direction of the central axis taken along line Y3B-Y3B of FIG. Sectional view in the longitudinal direction of the central axis taken along line Y3C-Y3C in FIG. Diagram illustrating a hard pipe Illustration explaining the wire guide Diagram illustrating the twist prevention member The figure explaining the relationship between a twist prevention member and a hard pipe. The figure explaining the procedure which attaches a twist prevention member to a hard pipe. The figure explaining the twist prevention member which also serves as a wire guide. It is a figure explaining the other structural example of a twist prevention member, and is a figure explaining the relationship between the locking convex part provided with the bending part which functions as an inner side convex part, and a locking recessed part. Longitudinal step view for explaining the relationship between the locking projection and the locking recess having a bent portion that functions as an inner projection. The figure which looked at the locking convex part provided with the bending part, and the locking recessed part from the arrow Y10 direction of FIG. The figure explaining the structural example which arrange | positioned the locking convex part provided with the bending part arrange | positioned in the locking recessed part between the bending wires.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In addition, in each drawing used in the following description, in order to make each constituent element a size that can be recognized in the drawing, there are some constituent elements that have different scales. That is, the present invention is not limited to only the numbers of components, the shapes of the components, the ratios of the sizes of the components, and the relative positional relationships of the components described in these drawings.

The endoscope 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes an endoscope bending tube in the insertion portion 2.
The endoscope 1 mainly includes a small-diameter insertion portion 2, an operation portion 3, and a universal cord 4.

The insertion portion 2 includes a distal end portion 2a made of a hard member, a bending portion 2b configured to bend in the vertical direction, and a flexible tube portion 2c that is a flexible tube body from the distal end side. It is constructed by connecting in order.
An observation window (not shown), an illumination window (not shown), a treatment tool opening (not shown), etc. are provided on the tip surface of the tip portion 2a.

The bending portion 2b can be actively bent in the upper and lower two directions. A bending wire (see reference numeral 8 in FIG. 3) described later is inserted into the bending portion 2b so as to be able to move back and forth.
The flexible tube portion 2c is configured to passively bend. The operation portion 3 is provided on the proximal end side of the flexible tube portion 2c.
The operation unit 3 is provided with, for example, an L-shaped bending operation lever 5, an opening 6 such as a treatment instrument insertion port, a plurality of remote switches 7, a suction port (not shown), and the like.

  The bending operation lever 5 is rotatably supported by the operation unit 3. The bending operation lever 5 is a bending operation device for performing a bending operation on the bending portion 2b. When the operator turns the bending operation lever 5, the bending wire is pulled and loosened, and the bending portion 2b is bent upward or downward.

  A forceps plug (not shown) or a T-shaped tube (not shown) is attached to the opening 6. The suction port is provided on a surface (not shown) on the opposite side (also referred to as the back side) to the one surface of the operation section 3 on which the bending operation lever 5 is provided.

  A remote switch (not shown) different from the remote switch 7 described above is provided on the opposite surface of the operation unit 3. The plurality of remote switches are switches for stopping the endoscopic image displayed on the screen of a display device (not shown), recording, enlarging the image, switching illumination light, and the like.

  The universal cord 4 extends from the side portion of the operation unit 3. An endoscope connector (not shown) is provided at the base end of the universal cord 4. The endoscope connector is connected to a light source device that is an external device.

  An electric cable (not shown) extends from the side portion of the endoscope connector. An electric connector (not shown) is provided at the end of the electric cable. The electrical connector is electrically connected to a control unit that is an external device.

The endoscope bending tube will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 6B.
The bending portion 2b of the present embodiment is provided with an endoscope bending tube (hereinafter abbreviated as bending tube) 9.

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 3C, the bending tube 9 includes a hard pipe 10, a plurality of wire guides 20, a plurality of twist preventing members 30, and a plurality of bending wires 8.
The hard pipe 10 is a pipe member formed of a super elastic alloy or stainless steel and having a through hole extending from the tip to the base. Examples of the superelastic alloy material include Ni-Ti (nickel titanium), titanium alloy, beta titanium, pure titanium, 64 titanium, A7075, aluminum alloy and the like.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the hard pipe 10 includes, for example, a plurality of partial arc-shaped slits (hereinafter, abbreviated as slots) 11, 12 communicating with an outer peripheral surface and an inner peripheral surface along a circumference, and a plurality of mounting holes 15. , 16 and.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the plurality of slots 11 and 12 are arranged so that the hard pipe 10 can be bent in a predetermined direction. The first slot 11 and the second slot 12 are formed so as to be separated from each other by a predetermined distance in the axial direction and displaced by 180 degrees in the circumferential direction.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the first slot 11 and the second slot 12 are formed with a spread angle of, for example, 200 degrees from the central axis O1 along the circumferential direction with respect to the outer peripheral surface of the hard pipe 10.

  As shown in FIG. 4, in the present embodiment, for example, a locking projection 13 is provided on the first tip side ridge 11f of the first slot 11. The locking protrusion 13 is formed in a convex shape in the longitudinal axis direction.

  On the other hand, the locking recess 14 is provided in the first base end side ridge 11e of the first slot 11 which faces the first tip side ridge 11f. The locking concave portion 14 is formed in a concave shape in the longitudinal axis direction, and the locking convex portion 13 is arranged in the locking concave portion 14.

A locking projection 13 is provided on the second tip side ridge 12f of the second slot 12, and a second base end side ridge 12e facing the second tip side ridge 12f of the second slot 12 is provided. A locking recess 14 is provided.
The plurality of slots 11, 12, the locking projection 13, the locking recess 14, and the mounting holes 15, 16 are formed by, for example, laser processing.

  Contrary to the above-described configuration, the locking recess 14 is provided on the first tip side ridge 11f of the first slot 11, and the locking projection 13 is provided on the first base side ridge 11e of the first slot 11. Alternatively, the locking recess 14 may be provided on the second tip side ridge 12f of the second slot 12 and the locking projection 13 may be provided on the second base end ridge 12e of the second slot 12. Good.

  Further, in the hard pipe 10, the bending radius can be set and the ease of bending can be adjusted by appropriately setting the widths of the slots 11 and 12, the distance between the first slot 11 and the second slot 12, and the like. Specifically, by setting the interval between the first slot 11 and the second slot 12 to be small, the bending radius becomes small and the bending becomes easy. The curved shape of the hard pipe 10 changes due to the change in the distance between the base end side ridge and the tip end side ridge of each slot 11, 12. Then, the ridges on the base end side and the ridges on the tip end side of each of the slots 11 and 12 can come into contact with each other.

  The first mounting hole 15 is, for example, a square hole, and is provided at a position corresponding to the upward direction and the downward direction of the curved portion 2b. The first mounting hole 15 is a through hole for mounting the wire guide 20 shown in FIG. 5A. The wire guide 20 has a retaining portion 21 and a protruding portion 22.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, the protruding portion 22 is arranged in the pipe by protruding from the inner peripheral surface of the hard pipe 10 toward the central axis O1. The retaining portion 21 is arranged on the outer peripheral surface of the hard pipe 10.

Then, the wire guide 20 is integrally fixed to the hard pipe 10 by, for example, an adhesive applied between the outer peripheral surface of the hard pipe 10 and one surface of the retaining portion 21.
Reference numeral 23 is a wire insertion hole. As shown in FIG. 3B, the bending wire 8 inserted into the wire insertion hole 23 is arranged along the central axis O1 which is the longitudinal axis of the pipe.

  The second mounting hole 16 is, for example, a square hole, and is provided at a position corresponding to the left direction and the right direction of the curved portion 2b. The second mounting hole 16 is a through hole for mounting the twist prevention member 30 shown in FIG. 5B. The twist prevention member 30 has a retaining portion 31 and a twist regulating convex portion 32.

  As shown in FIG. 3C, the twist regulation convex portion 32 is an inner convex portion that protrudes from the inner peripheral surface of the hard pipe 10 toward the central axis O1 by a predetermined amount. The twist regulation convex portion 32 is a thick portion and is arranged along the pipe inner peripheral surface 10f and the locking convex portion inner surface 13f so as to be arranged in the locking concave portion 14.

That is, the width dimension of the twist regulation convex portion 32 is substantially the same as the width dimension of the locking convex portion 13, and the side surfaces 33 and 34 of the twist regulation convex portion 32 can be arranged in the locking concave portion 14. .. Reference numeral 35 is a tapered portion, for example, a hemispherical surface.
As shown in FIG. 3, the retaining portion 31 is arranged on the outer peripheral surface of the hard pipe 10 like the retaining portion 21 described above.

  As shown in FIG. 6A, the twist prevention member 30 has a structure in which the tip end side of the twist regulating convex portion 32 is arranged in the second mounting hole 16 as shown by an arrow 6a, and then the center axis is indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. It is arranged in a state of being inclined with respect to O1. After that, by moving straight as shown by arrow Y6b and rotating as shown by arrow Y6c, it is arranged in the second mounting hole 16 as shown by the broken line. Reference numeral 36 is a relief surface.

The anti-twist member 30 is integrally fixed to the hard pipe 10 by applying an adhesive between the outer peripheral surface of the hard pipe 10 and one surface of the retaining portion 31.
As a result, the bending tube 9 shown in FIG. 3A is configured with the twisting prevention member 30 provided between the bending wires 8.

The bending portion 2b is formed by providing the bending tube 9, a reticulated tube (not shown) that covers the outer peripheral side of the curved tube 9, and a curving rubber that further covers the outer peripheral side of the reticulated tube.
The bending portion 2b is configured such that the bending wire 8 is pulled or loosened by operating the bending operation lever 5, and is bent upward or downward.

The operation of the bending tube 9 provided with the twist prevention member 30 will be described.
When the operator twists the insertion portion 2, the bending portion 2b receives a twisting force. When the twisting force at this time is small, the convex side surface of the locking convex portion 13 arranged in the locking concave portion 14 abuts against the concave side surface of the locking concave portion 14 to prevent the bending tube 9 from being twisted. ..

  However, as the operator continues to perform the twisting operation, the twisting force received by the bending portion 2b gradually increases. Then, in the present embodiment, it is possible to prevent the bending tube 9 from being twisted by the first side surface 33 or the second side surface 34 of the regulation convex portion 32 constituting the twist prevention member 30 contacting the concave side surface of the locking concave portion 14. You can

As described above, since the bending prevention tube 30 forming the bending portion 2b is provided with the anti-twist member 30 having the restriction projections 32 arranged in the locking recesses 14 in addition to the locking projections 13, the insertion portion 2 is provided. It is possible to more reliably prevent the bending tube 9 from being damaged when a twisting force is applied.
As a result, the operator can perform a twisting operation by applying a larger amount of twisting force to the insertion portion as compared with the conventional endoscope.

  As shown in FIG. 7, a wire insertion hole 37 may be provided in the twist regulation convex portion 32 of the twist prevention member 30A so as to also serve as a wire guide. As a result, it becomes possible to insert and arrange the bending wire 8 as shown by the broken line in FIG. 3C without newly providing the wire guide 20.

  That is, it is possible to bend the bending portion 2b in four directions of up, down, left and right by inserting four bending wires 8 while more reliably preventing the bending tube 9 from being damaged when a twisting force acts on the insertion portion 2. It will be possible.

  By providing a twist prevention member 30A having a wire insertion hole 37 that also serves as a wire guide instead of the wire guide 20 at a predetermined position, a bending portion 2b capable of bending in four directions with further improved twist resistance is realized. it can.

In the above-described embodiment, the twist preventing member 30 including the twist restricting convex portion 32 serving as the inner convex portion is arranged in the second mounting hole 16 to prevent the bending tube 9 from being damaged by the twisting force.
However, it is possible to prevent the bending pipe 9 from being damaged by a twisting force without forming the second mounting hole 16 in the hard pipe 10, that is, without providing the twist preventing member 30 including the twist limiting convex portion 32. May be.

As shown in FIG. 8, the locking projection 40 is arranged in the locking recess 14 of the hard pipe 10A of the present embodiment. A bent portion 41 serving as an inner convex portion that functions in the same manner as the twist restriction convex portion 32 is provided on the tip end side of the locking convex portion 40. A plurality of first mounting holes 15 are arranged along the longitudinal axis of the locking projection 40.
Reference numeral 42 denotes a wire escape groove, which is provided on the tip side of the bent portion 41 so that the bending wire 8 can be inserted into the groove.
The locking protrusion 40 is provided on the first tip side ridge portion 11f, similarly to the locking protrusion 13.

As shown in FIG. 9, the bent portion 41 is formed by bending so as to project in the direction of the central axis O1. The wire guide 20 is arranged in the first mounting hole 15.
Reference numeral 43 shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 is a wire contact portion. The wire contact portion 43 is a convex portion having a curved surface such as a hemispherical surface, and the bending wire 8 is arranged in contact with the wire contact portion 43.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the projecting portion 22 of the wire guide 20 is arranged in the pipe by projecting from the inner peripheral surface 10f of the hard pipe 10 toward the central axis O1 as described above. The wire guide 20 is integrally fixed to the hard pipe 10 as described above.

As shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, in the present embodiment, the bending wire 8 is placed in the wire escape groove 42 and comes into contact with the wire contact portion 43, and then passes through the wire insertion hole 23 of the wire guide 20 to be centered. It is inserted in the longitudinal direction along the axis O1.
Other configurations are similar to those of the above-described embodiment, and the same members are denoted by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

  In this way, the bent portion 41 protruding in the direction of the central axis O1 is provided in the locking convex portion 40 arranged in the locking concave portion 14. Therefore, when the operator twists the insertion portion 2 and a large twisting force is applied to the bending portion 2b, the side surface of the bending portion 41 comes into contact with the recess side surface of the locking recess 14 and the bending tube 9 is twisted. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the bending tube 9 from being damaged.

  In the above-described embodiment, the locking projection 40 having the bent portion 41 is arranged at a position where the bending wire 8 is inserted to prevent the bending tube 9 from being damaged by being twisted.

However, the arrangement position of the bent portion 41 of the locking convex portion 40 arranged in the locking concave portion 14 is different from the position where the bending wire 8 is inserted as shown in FIG. 11, for example, four in the circumferential direction. It may be provided between the bending wires 8 to prevent the bending tube 9 from being damaged by being twisted.
In this configuration, the wire escape groove 42 and the wire contact portion 43 provided on the tip side of the bent portion 41 are unnecessary. Further, the number of bending wires 8 may be two.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention.
Further, the bending portion provided with the above-described endoscope bending tube is not limited to a medical endoscope, but an active bending portion of a rigid endoscope with a bending portion, an industrial endoscope, a medical treatment tool, a medical catheter, or the like. May be used for.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Endoscope 2 ... Insertion part 2a ... Tip part 2b ... Bending part 2c ... Flexible tube part 3 ... Operation part 4 ... Universal cord 5 ... Bending operation lever 6 ... Opening part 7 ... Remote switch 8 ... Bending wire 9 ... Endoscope curved pipe 10 ... Hard pipe 10f ... Pipe inner peripheral surface 11 ... First slot 11e ... First base end side ridge 11f ... First tip side ridge 12 ... Second slot 12e ... Second base end side ridge Part 12f ... Second tip side ridge
13 ... Locking convex part 13f ... Locking convex part inner side surface 14 ... Locking concave part 15 ... First mounting hole 16 ... Second mounting hole 20 ... Wire guide 21 ... Fall prevention part 22 ... Projection part 23 ... Wire insertion hole 30 ... Twist prevention member 31 ... Retaining portion 32 ... Twisting regulation convex portion 33 ... First side surface 34 ... Second side surface 35 ... Tapered portion 36 ... Relief surface 37 ... Wire insertion hole 40 ... Locking convex portion 41 ... Bent portion 42 ... Wire Escape groove 43 ... Wire contact part

Claims (4)

A pipe having a through hole extending from the distal end to the base end, the hard pipe being bendable by forming a plurality of slots communicating with the outer peripheral surface and the inner peripheral surface along the circumference of the pipe,
A tip side ridge portion which constitutes a tip side ridge portion of the slot,
A base end side ridge portion that constitutes a base end side ridge portion of the slot and is capable of contacting with the tip end side ridge portion provided facing the tip end side ridge portion;
It is arranged along the longitudinal axis of the pipe in the through-hole of the hard pipe, and is moved back and forth in the direction of the longitudinal axis to change the interval between the tip side ridge and the tip side ridge. A plurality of bending wires for bending the rigid pipe,
A locking recess formed in one of the distal ridge and the proximal ridge in the direction of the longitudinal axis,
Provided to be disposed in the locking concave portion at one of the base end side ridge portion or the tip end side ridge portion facing the front end side ridge portion or the base end side ridge portion in which the locking concave portion is formed. Locking projections,
A thick portion projecting in the central axis direction of the pipe from the inner peripheral surface of the pipe in the locking recess, the thick part projecting in the central axis direction provided on the twist prevention member fixed to the hard pipe ;
An endoscopic bending tube comprising: The thick portion, the endoscope bending tube according to claim 1, characterized in that disposed between the deflection wire and the curved wire disposed in a circumferential direction of the through hole. The thick portion, the endoscope bending tube according to claim 1, characterized in that also serves as a wire guide having a wire insertion hole through which the deflection wire is inserted. The said thick part is a bending part formed by bending the front end side of the said locking convex part in the central axis direction of the said pipe, The endoscope bending of Claim 1 or Claim 2 characterized by the above-mentioned. tube.

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