JPH05161597A - Method for fixing protective net at angle part - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve a simple fixing of a protective net and moreover, a prevention of a bigger diameter of a fixed part by a method wherein an end fixing member is mounted at a part with an end thereof flatted to fix the end of a protective net and the member is welded by laser at an angle ring through the protective net. CONSTITUTION:An angle part comprises a plurality of angle rings 4. A protective net 6 is fitted into a multi-node structural body 5 comprising the angle rings 4 and fixed at both ends thereof, for example, using a fixing ring 8 as end fixing members. A jig 10 for shaping is mounted to perform a end rolling treatment of the protective net 6 and then, after the jig 10 for shaping is detached once, the fixing rings 8 are fitted onto the protective net 6. Then, the jig 10 for shaping is inserted into a tip ring 4a again and a welding is performed from the side of the outer circumferential surface of the fixing rings 8 by a laser beam from a laser welding means 12 turning the jig 10 for shaping.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of fixing an end portion of a protective net at an angle portion of an endoscope.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The insertion portion of an endoscope is composed of a flexible portion which is designed to be bendable along the insertion path for most of the length from the portion connected to the main body operation portion. An angle portion is continuously connected to the angle portion, and a hard tip portion is further connected to the tip of the angle portion. As is well known, the angle portion interposed between the soft portion and the hard tip portion is for orienting the hard tip portion in a desired direction, and a plurality of angle rings are pivotally attached to the left, right, up and down sequentially. A protective net made by braiding thin metal wires is applied to the hollow multi-segment structure formed by the above, and the protective net is made of a flexible member such as synthetic resin or synthetic rubber. The outer skin layer is covered.

Thus, the protective net to be covered by the multi-section structure in the angle portion must be fixed at its both ends to the end ring of the angle rings forming the multi-section structure. However, conventionally, in order to fix the protective net, as an end fixing member that fixes the end of the protective net, for example, after covering the end ring with the protective net, the end of the protective net is cut. Then, the fixing ring is fitted and provided, and the fixing ring is fixed by soldering or brazing means. For this reason, a through hole is formed in the peripheral body portion of the fixing ring, and the protective net is fixed by pouring solder or solder into the through hole.

[0004]

By the way, as described above, when fixing the protective net by soldering or brazing means, in order to securely fix the protective net, it is necessary to supply a certain amount of excess solder or solder. Therefore, there is a problem in that a finishing step for removing the extra solder and brazing is required, and the number of steps for attaching the protective net is increased by the amount corresponding to the finishing step. In addition, if there is a large diameter portion even in a part of the insertion portion, it becomes difficult for this large diameter portion to pass through the narrow portion of the insertion path, so the insertion portion should have a uniform outer diameter as much as possible. However, as described above, when the fixing ring is used to fix the protective net, the insertion portion locally increases in diameter by the thickness of the fixing ring. There is also.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and its purpose is to easily fix the end portion of the protective net provided at the angle portion. The purpose is to prevent the fixed portion from increasing in diameter.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is to flatten the end of the protective net by a rolling means in order to fix the end of the protective net. An end fixing member is attached to the converted portion, and the end fixing member is fixed to the angle ring through the protective net by laser welding means.

[0007]

The protective net is put on the multi-joint structure consisting of the angle ring, and the end of the protective net is cut at an appropriate length to arrange the end at a predetermined position. In this state, the end portion of the protective net is rolled by using a rolling roller or the like to roll and flatten the wire constituting the protective net, thereby reducing the thickness of the protective net in that portion. Next, for example, a fixing ring is attached as an end fixing member to the rolled portion of the end of the protective net, and the fixing ring is turned into an angle ring through the protective net by laser welding means. Fix by welding.

As a result, the thickness of the relevant portion can be reduced by the amount corresponding to the thickness of the protective net which has been reduced by rolling, and even if the fixing ring is fitted on this portion, the diameter of this portion can be increased almost. There is no. Moreover, since welding and fixing are performed by laser welding means without using means such as soldering or brazing, it is not necessary to carry out a separate finishing process, and the number of steps can be reduced. Can be done easily. The laser welding may be spot welding in the circumferential direction of the fixing ring at predetermined pitch intervals or continuous welding in the circumferential direction. By flattening the protective net, the gap between the fixing ring and the angle ring is narrowed, and the stitches of the protective net are reduced, so that the welded portion can be more firmly fixed.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 1 shows the distal end portion of the insertion portion of the endoscope. In the figure, 1 is a flexible portion, 2 is an angle portion, 3
Is a hard tip portion, and the angle portion 2 is composed of a plurality of angle rings 4, and is a hollow multi-joint structure 5 formed by vertically and horizontally pivotally connecting adjacent angle rings 4, 4 alternately. Members such as a light guide, an image guide (a signal cable in the case of an electronic endoscope), a treatment instrument insertion channel, etc. are inserted into the multi-section structure 5. A protective net 6 formed by braiding a metal element wire such as a stainless wire with a predetermined number of holding wires and striking wires is attached to the multi-joint structure 5 and fixed by applying an adhesive. Further, on the outer side of the protective net 6, an outer skin layer 7 made of a member having flexibility such as chemical resistance and slipperiness, such as urethane rubber, is provided.

Here, the protective net 6 is the angle ring 4
Both ends of the multi-joint structure 5 consisting of are fixed by using, for example, fixing rings 8 as end fixing members. Therefore, a method of fixing the end portion of the protective net 6 with the fixing ring 8 will be described below. In addition to the fixing ring 8, a metal wire is used as the end fixing member, and the protection net 6 can be fixed by winding the metal wire around the end of the protection net 6. ..

First, the end portion of the protective net 6 applied to the multi-joint structure 5 is adjusted so as to be arranged at a predetermined position. This adjustment can be performed, for example, by cutting the end portion of the protective net 6. However, when the protective net 6 is cut into a predetermined length in advance, it may be covered up to a predetermined position of the multi-node structure 5. Further, when the protective net 6 is covered with the multi-joint structure 5 and the end thereof is cut, the end portion 4a of the angle ring 4 constituting the multi-joint structure 5 is placed in the end ring 4a. By inserting the shape-retaining jig 10 (see FIG. 2) described later, the end ring 4a is prevented from being deformed.

After performing the pretreatment as described above, as shown in FIG. 2, the shape-retaining jig 10 is mounted and the end portion rolling treatment of the protective net 6 is performed. The shape-retaining jig 10 is fitted into the end ring 4a in a substantially close-fitting manner, and the large-diameter step portion 1
0a is abutted against the end face of the end ring 4a. Also,
The shape-maintaining jig 10 can be rotated about its axis by a rotation driving means such as a motor (not shown). In addition, as described above, when the shape-retaining jig 10 is previously inserted to cut the end portion of the protective net 6, the end-rolling process is performed as it is. Here, for the end rolling, a roller 11 for rolling is used, and the shape-maintaining jig 10 is rotated while the roller 11 is pressed against the end of the protective net 6 with a constant pressing force over a predetermined length. As a result, the wires 6a forming the protection net 6
The protective net 6 is deformed so that its cross-sectional shape becomes flat, and the thickness of the protective net 6 is reduced.

When the rolling process of the protective net 6 is completed in this way, the shape-retaining jig 10 is once detached from the end ring 4a and, as shown in FIG. 8 is fitted. Here, the fixing ring 8 is
The inner diameter of the base end side 8a thereof is slightly larger than the outer diameter dimension of the tip ring 4a, and thus the end ring 4a is fitted in a substantially close-fitting manner. It is designed so that it can be fitted in the absence. Then, as described above, the base end side 8a of the fixing ring 8 is reduced by the amount by which the protective net 6 is rolled to reduce its thickness.
It is possible to reduce the step difference between the tip end side 8b and.

As described above, when the fixing ring 8 is fitted onto the protective net 6, the shape-retaining jig 10 is inserted into the tip ring 4a again and, as shown in FIG. 4, laser welding is performed. While the shape-retaining jig 10 is rotated by using the means 12, laser welding is performed from the outer peripheral surface side of the fixing ring 8 by the laser beam from the laser welding means 12. This laser welding can be performed continuously while the shape-retaining jig 10 is rotated, or intermittently at predetermined pitch intervals. In consideration of the welding strength, it is preferable to perform welding not only on one line but also on a plurality of lines in the circumferential direction of the fixing ring 8 or by performing plural windings in a spiral shape. Then, as described above, by rolling the protective net 6,
The protective net 6 itself is thinned so that the distance between the tip ring 4a and the fixed ring 8 is narrowed, and the stitches are narrowed by the flattened strands. Can be welded.

Even when the protective net 6 is fixed by winding a metal wire instead of the fixing ring 8, the protective net 6 is rolled in advance and then the metal wire is wound. Further, laser welding may be performed on the winding portion of the metal wire.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, in order to fix the end of the protective net to the multi-joint structure composed of the angle ring, the end of the protective net is flattened by the rolling means, Since the end fixing member is attached to the flattened portion and the end fixing member is fixed to the angle ring through the protective net by the laser welding means,
The outer diameter of the part where the end fixing member is provided can be reduced by the amount of flattening the protective net, and it is possible to suppress local thickening of the angle part and perform laser welding. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform a finishing process for removing excess solder or brazing, such as soldering or brazing, and therefore, it is possible to reduce the number of steps for fixing the end portion of the protective net. Play.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional external view showing a configuration of a portion near a distal end of an insertion portion of an endoscope.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an end rolling process step of a protective net.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a mounting process of a fixing ring.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a laser welding process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Angle part 4 Angle ring 4a Tip ring 5 Multi-node structure 6 Protective net 8 Fixing ring 10 Shape retention jig 11 Roller 12 Laser welding means

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── --- Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Shinichi Koshitaka 700 Konaka-cho, Sano-shi, Tochigi Prefecture Sano Fujikoki Co., Ltd. Machine Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Mitsunori Machida 1-324 Uetakecho, Omiya City, Saitama Prefecture Fuji Photo Koki Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An angle portion interposed between a rigid tip portion and a flexible portion in order to control the direction of the rigid tip portion in an insertion portion of an endoscope, and a protective net on the outside of the angle ring. In a case where the protective net is covered with a covering layer, the end of the protective net is flattened by a rolling means in order to fix the end of the protective net. A method for fixing a protective net in an angle portion of an endoscope, characterized in that an end fixing member is attached to the portion, and the end fixing member is fixed to an angle ring by a laser welding means via a protective net.