JPH0717286Y2 - Angle control device for endoscope - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application] The present invention relates to an angle operation device for orienting a distal end portion of an insertion portion of an endoscope in a desired direction.

[Prior Art] An endoscope is configured by connecting an insertion section 2 to a main body operation section 1 as shown in FIG. 5, and a medical endoscope has a human body or the like. It is inserted into a body cavity and is used for inspection, diagnosis, and simple treatment.
In addition, an industrial endoscope is inserted into a mechanical device or the like and used for inspection, repair, and the like.

The insertion part 2 is formed of a flexible part 2a that bends along the insertion path from the part continuously connected to the main body operation part 1, and the angle part 2b and the tip hard part 2c are sequentially connected to this flexible part 2a. It is set up. An illumination window, an observation window, etc. are provided on the tip surface or the side surface of the hard tip portion 2c.
The angle part 2b is a node ring that can be curved by pivotally connecting a plurality of rings to each other in order to guide the body along the insertion path in the body or to change the observation field of view. It has a structure. An angle operation mechanism is provided so that the operation of bending the angle portion 2b, that is, the angle operation can be performed with the permission of the person who operates the endoscope.

As shown in FIG. 6, the angle operation mechanism includes a pair of operation wires 3a, 3p that are pushed and pulled during an angle operation.
It is configured to have b. Here, in the structure in which the angle portion 2b is bent only up and down, only one pair of operation wires is provided in the up and down direction, and in the structure in which it can be bent up and down and left and right, the operation wire is Also, a pair is provided above and below and left and right. Each of these operation wires
3a and 3b each have a tip end fixed to an angle ring or a tip hard portion, and a base end portion of the main body operation portion 1
Slack absorbers 4a and 4b
Is attached to. Further, connecting wires 5a and 5b are connected to the slack absorbers 4a and 4b, and the connecting wires 5a and 5b are attached to the grooved pulley 4. This grooved pulley 6
The outer peripheral surface of the groove is formed with annular grooves 6a and 6b, and the operation wires 3a and 3b are wound around the grooves 6a and 6b, respectively, and guided. The rotary shaft 7 connected to the grooved pulley 6 is extended to the outside of the main body operation portion 1, an angle knob 8 is attached to the rotary shaft 7, and the pulley 6 is operated by operating the angle knob 8 with fingers. By rotating one of the connecting wires 5a and 5b into the groove 4a.
Alternatively, the operation wires 3a and 3b are pushed and pulled by winding them around 4b and unwinding the other.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, the ends of the connecting wires 5a and 5b must be fixed to the grooved pulley 6, but in the above-described conventional angle operating device, As shown in FIG. 7, the ends of the connecting wires 5a and 5b are fixed to the pulley 6 by means of soldering, bonding or the like. Here, this wire fixing part is the pulley 6 groove part 6
Since the operation wires 3a and 3b are located below the a and 6b, the work of mounting and assembling the operation wires 3a and 3b on the pulley 6 is not only troublesome, but also when an excessive force is applied during the operation, the ends of the operation wires 3a and 3b deviate. In addition, there is a drawback that the connecting wires 5a and 5b are troublesome to attach and detach when the connecting wires 5a and 5b are damaged or replaced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is easy to assemble and remove the connecting wire of the operating wire from the grooved pulley, and the connecting wire does not deviate from the grooved pulley in an attached state. To provide an angle operation device that can be held as described above.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention has one end fixed to the distal end portion of the insertion portion in order to perform an angle operation of the distal end portion of the insertion portion of the endoscope. A pair of operation wires, a connecting wire connected to each of the operation wires via a slack absorber, and a grooved pulley having a pair of circumferential groove portions on the outer peripheral surface around which the connecting wires are wound. Having a bulge portion in the middle portion of the connecting wire, the grooved pulley has a connecting wire and the bulging portion in order to transfer the connecting wire from one groove portion to the other groove portion. An annular slit having an intermediate width is formed at a position inside the groove, and a concave groove for accommodating and locking the bulging portion is formed at an intermediate position of the slit. It is a feature.

[Operation] By adopting such a configuration, in order to transfer the bulging portion provided on the connecting wire from one groove portion of the grooved pulley to the other groove portion, the connecting wire and the bulging portion thereof are An engaging portion formed by forming an annular slit having an intermediate width of and a concave groove that is accommodated in an intermediate position of the slit so that the bulging portion is retained so as not to deviate. These operation wires can be easily attached to and detached from the pulley by locking them to the pulley, and at the time of attachment, they are held in an extremely stable state, and even if an excessive force is applied,
The bulging portion can be held so as not to deviate from the locking portion.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, a pair of operation wires
There is no particular difference from the above-mentioned conventional technique in that the tip portions of 10a and 10b are attached to the tip angle ring of the angle portion 2b or the tip hard portion 2c. Therefore, the portion on the base end side via the slack absorbers 11a and 11b is composed of one connecting wire 12. And the operating wire 10
The a and 10b are detachably connected to the slack absorbers 11a and 11b by screw connection.

A substantially spherical bulging portion 13 is formed at an intermediate position of the connecting wire 12, and the bulging portion 13 causes the connecting wire 13 to operate with the one-side wire portion 12a forming a part of the operating wire 10a. The other side wire portion 12b constitutes a part of the wire 10b. The connecting wire 12 is wound around the winding pulley 14.

Here, the grooved pulley 14 around which the connecting wire 12 is wound has a rotary shaft 15 rotated by an angle knob.
It is similar to that of the prior art in that annular grooves 14a and 14b are formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof for winding the connecting wire 12. However, as is apparent from FIGS. 2 to 4, the grooved pulley 14
In the lower part of the formation position of these groove portions 14a and 14b is a thin portion 16, and an arc-shaped slit 17 is formed in this thin portion 16. This slit 17 is a connecting wire
It is for migrating 12 from one groove portion 14a to the other groove portion 14b, and its groove width is such that the connecting wire 12 can pass through but the bulging portion 13 cannot pass through. . Further, at a substantially intermediate position in the groove length direction of the slit 17, when the connecting wire 12 is hung from the groove portion 14a to the groove portion 14b, the bulging portion 13 is passed and the connecting wire 12 is formed in the groove portion.
14a, wound around the groove 14b, and slackened at both ends by the absorbers 11a, 1
In the state of being connected to 1b, a concave groove 18 for fixing the bulging portion 13 is provided.

As a result, the connecting wire 12 is inserted into the slit 17, and by positioning the bulging portion 13 in the groove 18, the bulging portion 13 can be locked so as not to move along the slit 17. become able to. Then, in order to insert the connecting wire 12 into the slit 17, the grooved pulley 14 is provided with a wire inserting portion 19. This wire insertion part 19
Is provided so as to communicate with the slit 17 and extend over the entire length in the width direction of the grooved pulley 14 above the mounting position of the groove 18.

Furthermore, in order to guide the connecting wire 12 from the slit 17 into the groove portions 14a, 14b, a part of the outer wall portion 20c that defines the groove portion 14a and the outer wall portion 20c that forms the groove portion 14b is cut out, and the wire Lead-out parts 21a and 21b are formed.

This embodiment is constructed as described above, and the operation wire
To attach the connecting wire 12 formed by connecting the 10a and 10b to each other to the grooved pulley 14, the connecting wire 12 is attached to the wire inserting portion.
The slit 17 is inserted through 19. In this state, the bulging portion 13 provided on the connecting wire 12 is formed into the concave groove in the slit 17.
Engage 18 Therefore, both side portions of the bulging portion 13 of the connecting wire 12, that is, the wire portions 12a, 12b are extended along the slit 17 so as to be pulled in mutually opposite directions, respectively, from the wire lead-out portions 21a, 21b to the pulleys. The groove portions 14a and 14b provided on the outer peripheral surface of 14 are exposed. After that, the wire portions 12a, 12b are wound around the groove portions 14a, 14b respectively by about half a turn and extended in the same direction, so that the connecting wire 12 can be attached to the winding pulley 14. Then, in this state, by connecting the distal end side portions of the operation wires 10a and 10b and the slack absorbers 11a and 11b, the angle operation device can be assembled very easily.

By mounting the operation wires 10a, 10b on the grooved pulley 14 in this manner, the bulging portion 13 of the connecting wire 12 is provided in the groove 18 provided in the slit 17 without fixing the operation wires 10a, 10b. It can be fixed in the state of being locked. Moreover, since the slit 17 is formed in an arc shape, and the concave groove 18 for locking the bulging portion 13 formed in the connecting wire 12 is formed in the intermediate portion of the slit 17, the connecting wire 12 is impossible. Since it is guided to the groove portions 14a and 14b of the grooved pulley 14 in a shape close to a linear state without being bent to the bulge portion 13
Does not move away from the groove 18, and therefore the connecting wire 12 does not slide along the grooves 14a, 14b. Therefore, the angle operation can be performed in an extremely stable state, and even if a large force is applied to the operation wires 10a and 10b, they do not deviate from the grooved pulley 14.

Further, the operation wires 10a and 10b can be attached to and detached from the grooved pulley 14 by an operation reverse to that at the time of attachment. Thus, since the connecting wire 12 is not fixed to the grooved pulley 14, the connecting wire 12 can be attached / detached to / from the grooved pulley 14 very easily. Here, among the operation wires 10a and 10b, the most vulnerable portions are the winding portion around the grooved pulley 14 and the portion in the vicinity thereof. Since it can be attached to and detached from the grooved pulley 14, the slack absorbers 11a and 11b of the operation wires 10a and 10b are removed.
If the part on the tip side is detached, the connecting wire 12 can be detached from the grooved pulley 14 together with the slack absorbers 11a and 11b, and can be replaced with a new one.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention forms a connecting wire connected to a pair of operation wires through a slack absorber by a single wire, and provides a bulge portion in the middle thereof. In order to transfer the connecting wire from one groove portion of the grooved pulley to the other groove portion, an annular slit having an intermediate width between the connecting wire and its bulging portion is formed, and an intermediate position of this slit is formed. Since the locking portion configured by forming the concave groove for accommodating the bulging portion so as not to deviate is provided, it is possible to easily attach and detach the connecting wire to and from the grooved pulley, and With this connecting wire attached, by accommodating the bulging portion in the concave groove, even if an excessive force is applied to the connecting wire, it does not slip on the groove portion of the grooved pulley or deviate from the groove portion. Occur In addition, since there is an arcuate slit from the concave groove formation part toward both sides in the rotation direction, without bending the connecting wire forcibly, the winding path from one groove to the other Since the transition to the winding path to the groove portion is performed, bending force does not act on the connecting wire and force in the direction in which the bulging portion deviates from the concave groove does not act, and the angle operation is extremely smooth. There are effects such as being able to perform.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 4 show one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main portion of an angle operating device, FIG. 2 is a front view of a grooved pulley, FIG. 3 and FIG. FIG. 4 is a left and right side view of FIG. 2 showing a state in which connecting wires are attached,
FIG. 5 is an overall configuration diagram of an endoscope, FIGS. 6 and 7 show a conventional technique, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a main part of an angle operating device.
FIG. 7 is a side view of FIG. 10a, 10b: operation wire, 11a, 11b: slack absorber, 12: connecting wire, 13: bulge, 14: grooved pulley, 14a, 14b: groove, 1
7: slit, 18: concave groove, 19: wire insertion passage, 21a, 21b: wire lead-out part.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A pair of operation wires each having one end fixed to the distal end portion of the insertion portion for performing an angle operation of the distal end portion of the insertion portion of the endoscope, and each of the operation wires via a slack absorber. A connecting wire to be connected, and a pulley with a groove having a pair of circumferential groove around which the connecting wire is wound are provided on the outer peripheral surface, and a bulge portion is provided in the middle of the connecting wire, In order to transfer the connecting wire from one groove portion to the other groove portion, the grooved pulley has an annular slit having an intermediate width between the connecting wire and the bulge portion at a position inside the groove portion. An angle operating device for an endoscope, characterized in that a concave groove for accommodating and locking the bulging portion is formed at an intermediate position of the slit.