JPH0117364B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an endoscope cleaning device for cleaning an endoscope.

In general, an endoscope cleaning device mainly cleans only the insertion section of the endoscope, and does not clean the operation section or light guide cable. However, recently there has been a desire to clean the entire endoscope, and efforts are being made to put this into practical use. In this case, if all the endoscopes are housed and installed in the same tank and cleaned by spraying cleaning liquid from a rotating cleaning liquid spraying nozzle, the following problems arise. In other words, in order to comfortably install the entire endoscope in the same tank, the endoscope expands widely, and the cleaning fluid is sprayed uniformly from the rotating cleaning fluid spray nozzle over the entire insertion section, light guide cable, and operation section. It becomes extremely difficult to spray onto the surface. Furthermore, in order to place as much of the endoscope as possible in the spray area of the rotating cleaning liquid spray nozzle, the rotation radius of the spray nozzle must be increased, and as a result, the entire tank becomes larger. There are drawbacks. In addition, if the endoscope is immersed in a disinfectant solution after cleaning for disinfection, the large-capacity tank must be filled with the disinfectant solution, which requires a large amount of disinfectant solution, which increases costs. It is uneconomical. Moreover, there are drawbacks such as a long operation time for supplying or collecting such a large amount of disinfectant.

The present invention has been made focusing on the above circumstances,
The purpose is to provide an endoscope cleaning device that can effectively clean every corner of the endoscope's insertion section, light guide cable, and operation section, as well as having a compact cleaning tank. .

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

1 in FIG. 1 is a main body of an endoscope cleaning device 2. As shown in FIG. An operation panel 3 is provided at the upper front of the main body 1 of the apparatus, and an indicator 4 is provided at the front for indicating the respective amounts of detergent and disinfectant. A tank 6 for housing the entire endoscope 5 is provided inside the device main body 1, as will be described later.
The upper opening of this tank 6 is closed by a cover 7 which can be opened and closed.

The cover 7 can be opened directly by hand using the handle 8, but it can also be opened indirectly by using the foot pedal 9.

A rotary cylinder 11 for attaching a nozzle is attached to the center of the interior of the tank 6 so as to be freely rotatable in the horizontal direction. As shown in FIG. 4, the bottom central wall of the tank 6 is raised in the shape of a truncated cone, and a rotating shaft 13 passes through the center of the truncated cone portion 12 in an airtight manner. A bearing sleeve 14 is provided in this penetrating portion, and the rotating shaft 1
3 is attached via its bearing sleeve 14. A ring-shaped packing 15 is inserted between the bearing sleeve 14 and the rotating shaft 13. A bottom plate 16 made of a non-magnetic material is provided at the lower opening of the truncated cone portion 12.
is attached and fixed via a mounting screw 17, and the inside of the truncated conical portion 12 is airtightly closed. A packing 18 is attached between the outer wall of the tank 6 and the bottom plate 16. moreover,
A thrust pin 19 is protruded from the center of the bottom plate 16, and the thrust pin 19 is attached to the rotation shaft 13.
It is designed to support a driven side yoke 21 attached to the lower end of the yoke. A driven magnet 23 is attached to the periphery of the driven side yoke 21. Further, a driving side yoke 24 is installed on the outside of the driven side yoke 21 with the bottom plate 16 interposed therebetween so as to face the driven side yoke 21 . A drive magnet 25 is attached to the drive side yoke 24, which faces the driven magnet 23 of the driven side yoke 21. A drive motor 27 is connected to the rotating shaft 26 of the drive side yoke 24 and is activated when performing a cleaning operation. Thus, the driving magnet 25 and the driven magnet 23 of the driving side yoke 24 and the driven side yoke 21 are connected by magnetic force, and the rotational power of the driving motor 27 can be transmitted to the rotating cylinder 11.

Furthermore, an upper nozzle 28 and a lower nozzle 29 are attached to the rotary cylinder 11, which protrude in the radial horizontal direction. The upper nozzle 28 is located above the endoscope 5 installed in the tank 6, and sprays cleaning liquid onto the endoscope 5 from above. Further, the lower nozzle 29 is located below the endoscope 5 installed in the tank 6, and sprays cleaning liquid onto the endoscope 5 from below. Each nozzle 28, 29 communicates with a cleaning liquid passage 31 formed in the rotary cylinder 11, as shown in FIG. The cleaning liquid passage 31 communicates with the internal space 33 of the truncated conical portion 12 via the inflow passage 32 formed within the rotary cylinder 11 described above. Further, a tube 35 connected to the inner space 33 via a connection mouthpiece 34 is in communication, and pressurized cleaning liquid is supplied from a cleaning liquid tank (not shown) using a water pump (not shown). ing.

By the way, the lower nozzle 29 is connected to the nozzle shaft cylinder 3.
6 and a nozzle tip 37, which are fixedly attached to the rotary cylinder 11. On the other hand, the upper nozzle 28 is attached so that it can move forward and backward. That is, the upper nozzle 28 consists of a nozzle shaft 38 and a nozzle tip 39, and the nozzle shaft 38 is inserted into a guide hole 41 formed in the rotary cylinder 11. Further, a large diameter piston portion 42 is integrally formed at the inner end of the nozzle shaft cylinder 38. This piston portion 42 is fitted into a cylinder hole 43 formed to have a large diameter and continuous with the guide hole 41 . The piston portion 42 is connected to the cylinder hole 43.
The nozzle shaft cylinder 3
8 can move forward and backward. Further, a return spring 44 wound around the nozzle shaft cylinder 38 is provided in the guide hole 41, and the upper nozzle 28 is drawn inward by the return spring 44. Further, a ring-shaped packing 45 is provided on the stepped wall between the guide hole 41 and the cylinder hole 43 to watertightly shield the gap between the guide hole 41 and the piston portion 42 during supply of cleaning liquid. I'm starting to do that.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the endoscope 5 consists of an operating section 5a, an insertion section 5b, and a light guide cable 5c, all of which are constructed in a watertight manner. Then, the entire structure is installed in the tank 6 as shown in FIG. 2 by installation support means to be described later. That is, the elongated insertion portion 5b and the light guide cable 5c are spirally wound around the rotary tube 11 in opposite directions, and the operation portion 5a
is installed in a bay portion 46 that is recessed laterally. As shown in FIG. 3, the installation support means is an endoscope support device consisting of a net 47 on which the insertion portion 5b and the light guide cable 5c are placed, and a shelf 48 on which the operating portion 5a is placed. It is configured.

Further, in the bay part 46, a plurality of cleaning nozzles 49 are provided, each facing the operating part 5a placed on the shelf 48.
...is permanently installed. That is, the fixedly installed cleaning nozzles 49 spray the cleaning liquid toward the operation part 5a, where the cleaning liquid jetted from the rotating upper nozzle 28 and lower nozzle 29 does not reach sufficiently. Note that these cleaning nozzles 49 are connected to the cleaning liquid tank via the water pump described above.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, a discharge port 51 is provided at the bottom of the tank 6, and a first on-off solenoid valve 52 and a second on-off solenoid valve 53 are arranged in parallel in a passage communicating with this discharge port 51. It is connected to the. The first on-off solenoid valve 52 is normally open, and the second on-off solenoid valve 53 is normally closed. Furthermore, the first on-off solenoid valve 52 is connected to a discharge pump 54.
In addition, the second opening/closing solenoid valve 53 is connected to the disinfectant tank 55.
The disinfectant tank 55 is connected to a disinfectant injection nozzle 57 provided on the upper wall of the tank 6 via a water pump 56.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, a small bay part 58 is formed in the tank 6 at a location other than the bay part 46, and inside this small bay part 58 there is a float for detecting the liquid level. A switch 59 is provided.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the bottom of the tank 6 is provided with a raised bottom part 61 whose bottom wall is raised to avoid the passage area in which the lower nozzle 29 rotates.

Next, the operation and effect of the above-mentioned cleaning device will be explained.

First, the cover 7 is opened and the endoscope 5 to be cleaned and disinfected is placed in the tank 6. At this time, the rotary cylinder 11 is not rotating, and both the upper and lower nozzles 28 and 29 are stopped. Also,
Since there is no supply of cleaning liquid, the upper nozzle 28 is retracted by the biasing force of the return spring 44, and therefore does not protrude far enough to be an obstruction. Therefore, it does not interfere with the installation work of the endoscope 5 that will be performed from now on.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
The operating section 5a of the endoscope 5 is placed on top, and the insertion section 5b and light guide cable 5c are also placed thereon. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, after closing the cover 7, the operation panel 3 is operated to start the cleaning operation. That is, the water pump for supplying the cleaning liquid is activated, pressurizing the cleaning liquid from the cleaning liquid tank to each cleaning nozzle, that is, the upper nozzle 2.
8. Cleaning liquid is sprayed onto the entire endoscope 5 through the lower nozzle 29 and the nozzle 49. The upper nozzle 28 and the lower nozzle 29 are connected to the drive motor 2.
The cleaning liquid is spouted out while rotating inside the tank 6 together with the rotary cylinder 11 rotated by the rotary cylinder 7 . By the way, when pressurized cleaning liquid is supplied into the cylinder hole 43 of the nozzle shaft cylinder 38 of the upper nozzle 28, the piston portion 42 thereof is pushed and the spring 44 returns.
move against the restoring force of Then, the piston portion 42 reaches a position where it crushes the packing 45 and stops. Also, at this time, by crushing the packing 45, that part is kept liquid-tight, so
No liquid leaks to the outside. Furthermore, this causes the upper nozzle 28 to protrude from the rotating barrel 11, and its nozzle tip 39 to protrude more than that of the stationary lower nozzle 29. Looking at this in FIG. 2, the upper nozzle 28 and the lower nozzle 29 have different rotation radii at their respective nozzle tips 37 and 39, and can spray the cleaning liquid in a distributed manner. The upper nozzle 28 sprays from above, the lower nozzle 29 sprays from below, and the other nozzles 49 spray mainly onto the operating portion 5a located in the bay 46.

In this way, the outer surface of the endoscope 5 is cleaned with the cleaning liquid, and the internal passages such as the forceps channel of the endoscope 5 are also cleaned by connecting a liquid feeding tube (not shown) and supplying the cleaning liquid.

In addition, the cleaning liquid that has fallen to the bottom of the tank 6 is discharged from the outlet 51.
From there, the liquid is discharged to the outside by a discharge pump 54 through a first on-off solenoid valve 52.

Once this cleaning operation is complete, the disinfection process will begin if specified. That is, the water pump 56 is operated while the first on-off solenoid valve 52 is closed and the second on-off solenoid valve 53 is kept closed. As a result, the disinfectant in the disinfectant tank 55 is injected into the tank 6 from the disinfectant injection nozzle 57. Disinfectant is then supplied until the float switch 59 detects the liquid level. As a result, the entire endoscope 5 is immersed in the disinfectant solution. Disinfection is performed by allowing a predetermined period of time to pass.
After the disinfection is completed, the second on-off solenoid valve 53 is opened to collect the disinfectant in the tank 6 into the disinfectant tank 55. Thereafter, the same cleaning operation as described above is performed again to perform rinsing.

Furthermore, when the endoscope 5 is taken out after cleaning and disinfection, the rotary barrel 11 and the upper and lower nozzles 28 and 29 have stopped rotating, and there is no supply of cleaning liquid.
The upper nozzle 28 is retracted by the biasing force of the return spring 44 and becomes shorter. Therefore, the endoscope 5 can be easily taken out without being hindered.

As explained above, the present invention arranges the insertion portion of an endoscope and the light guide cable in a spiral in a cleaning tank, and cleans the endoscope with a cleaning liquid sprayed from a rotating cleaning liquid injection nozzle. The operating section of the endoscope, which is disposed laterally away from this part, is cleaned by another operating section cleaning nozzle. Therefore, the entire endoscope can be reliably cleaned. Further, each part of the endoscope can be thoroughly cleaned without expanding the entire endoscope. Therefore, since the volume inside the cleaning tank can be reduced, the entire apparatus can be downsized.

Furthermore, since the volume inside the tank is smaller, even if the endoscope is to be immersed and sterilized after cleaning, the amount of disinfectant required for that purpose will be small, and costs can be saved. Furthermore, the time required for supplying and discharging the disinfectant can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the cleaning and disinfecting device, Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the state inside the tank, and Fig. 3 is a side sectional view of a portion near the tank. , FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of the vicinity of the rotating nozzle. 2...Cleaning disinfection device, 5...Endoscope, 5a...
Operation section, 5b...insertion section, 5c...light guide cable, 28...upper nozzle, 29...lower nozzle, 47...net, 48...shelf, 49...nozzle.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A tank that accommodates the endoscope to be cleaned, and in this tank, the insertion section of the endoscope and the light guide cable are arranged in a spiral manner, and the operation section of the endoscope is shifted to the side. an endoscope support that supports the endoscope in a fixed state, a cleaning liquid injection nozzle that rotates around the center of the spiral of the insertion section and the light guide, and a cleaning liquid injection nozzle that is installed on the wall of the tank and that rotates around the center of the spiral state of the insertion section and the light guide. 1. An endoscope cleaning device comprising: an operation section cleaning nozzle that sprays cleaning liquid toward an operation section of an endoscope.