JPH0734062B2 - Laser optical path blocking device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a laser beam path blocking device which interrupts a laser beam emitted from a laser oscillator.

[Conventional technology]

The laser device that irradiates the affected area in the body cavity with laser light is
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 3, it has a YAG laser oscillator 1. This YAG laser oscillator 1 is provided with an excitation lamp 3 for exciting the YAG laser rod 2 with laser light, a total reflection mirror 4 and an output mirror 5 which resonate the excited laser light to increase the output. The laser light emitted from the output mirror 5 is guided to the laser guide 8 via the reflection mirror 6 and the dichroic mirror 7. The laser guide 8 is inserted into, for example, a forceps channel of an endoscope, and its tip is guided to an affected part in a body cavity, and laser irradiation is performed from this tip toward the affected part.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 9 indicates a He-Ne laser oscillation tube that outputs a visible light for guiding laser light, and 10 indicates a power supply section of the excitation lamp 3.

By the way, on the laser light path 11 through which this laser light is guided, for example, it is located between the total reflection mirror 4 and the YAG laser rod 2 and interrupts the emission of the laser light.
Twelve are provided. The shielding device 12 is provided with a plate-shaped shutter 13 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
The shutter 13 has a first arm portion 14a that extends downward and a second arm portion 14b that extends laterally continuously from the upper end portion of the first arm portion 14a. The tip of the portion 14b extends toward the laser optical path 11. The shutter 13 is reciprocally rotated by a rotary solenoid 15 between a closed position where the second arm portion 14b blocks the laser light path 11 and an open position where the second arm portion 14b departs from the laser light path 11. The shutter 13 is connected to the rotary shaft 16 (driving shaft portion) of the rotary solenoid 15 via a holder 17.

To explain this connecting structure, the holder 17 has the rotary shaft 16 inserted into the insertion hole 18 opened at one end surface thereof,
It is integrally fixed to the rotary shaft 16 by tightening with a fixing screw 19, and a continuous portion of the first arm portion 14a and the second arm portion 14b of the shutter 13 is formed on the tip end surface of the holder 17. It is overlaid. And this shutter 13 is a holder 17
Insert the screw 20 as a tightening tool into the abutting part with
The insertion end of the screw 20 is screwed into the screw hole 21 on the tip surface of the holder 17 so that the holder 17 is tightened and fixed.

Below the shutter 13, a pair of optical sensors 22a for detecting which rotation position the shutter 13 is located,
22b is arranged. In these optical sensors 22a and 22b, the shutter 13 is in the open position when the optical path of one optical sensor 22a is blocked by the first arm portion 14a and the optical path of the other optical sensor 22b is not blocked. If the optical path of the other optical sensor 22b is blocked by the first arm portion 14a and the optical path of one optical sensor 22a is not blocked, the shutter 13 is in the closed position. It is designed to detect that And these optical sensors 22
A detection signal from a, 22b and a laser emission command signal, that is, a signal indicating whether or not laser light is being emitted is input to a control unit (not shown), and this control unit is based on the above two types of signals. It is determined whether the function of the shutter 13 is normal or abnormal.

That is, during the emission of laser light, the shutter
Only when 13 is in the open position and the optical path of the one optical sensor 22a is blocked by the first arm 14a, the control unit determines that the shutter 13 is normal, and emits the laser beam. When the shutter 13 is stopped, the shutter 13 is determined to be normal only when the shutter 13 is in the closed position and the optical path of the other optical sensor 22b is blocked by the first arm portion 14a. In other states, for example, during the emission of laser light, if the optical path of the other optical sensor 22b is blocked even though the shutter 13 is in the open position, the control unit has an abnormality in the shutter 13. Therefore, the operation of the laser device is stopped.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional shielding device 12, the rotary shaft 16 of the rotary solenoid 15 is inserted and fixed to the holder 17, but the shutter 13 does not penetrate, and this shutter 13 is simply It was only tightened and fixed to the tip surface of the holder 17 with the screw 20. For this reason,
For example, if the shutter 13 is frequently rotated and the intermittent laser beam is repeated, the screw 20 may be loosened due to vibrations accompanying the rotation of the shutter 13, and the shutter 13 may fall off.

When the shutter 13 falls off in this way, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, when the first arm portion 14a of the shutter 13 falls into a state of blocking the optical path of the other optical sensor 22b, the optical sensor 22
The a and 22b output a detection signal that the shutter 13 is in the closed position. Then, in the state where the laser emission is stopped, the control unit will determine that the shutter 13 is normal although the shutter 13 is dropped.

However, since the shutter 13 is actually removed, the laser optical path 11 remains open,
When the power supply unit 10 is turned on to excite the laser light, there occurs a problem that the laser light is emitted to the outside.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a laser beam path blocking device capable of reliably preventing the shutter from falling off the drive shaft portion and moving in the axial direction of the drive shaft portion.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above object, a laser beam path closing device of the present invention comprises a shutter for opening and closing a laser beam path through which a laser beam is guided, and a shutter for blocking the laser beam path that is fixed to the shutter by a fastening tool. It is provided with a drive shaft portion that rotates to a closed position and an open position that opens the laser optical path.

Further, the drive shaft portion is characterized in that it is provided so as to penetrate the shutter, and that it is provided with a regulation means for regulating the movement of the drive shaft portion of the shutter in the axial direction.

[Action]

According to this configuration, since the drive shaft portion penetrates the shutter, even if the tightening tool that fastens the shutter and the drive shaft portion is loosened, the shutter is retained on the drive shaft portion. As a result, it is possible to prevent the drive shaft from falling off.

In addition, even if the tightening tool comes off, the movement of the shutter in the axial direction of the shutter is restricted by the restricting means, so that the shutter can be prevented from coming off the drive shaft. Therefore, the shutter can be securely held on the drive shaft portion.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

In addition, in this embodiment, since the basic configuration of the shield closing device is the same as the conventional one described above, only the difference from the conventional technique will be described here, and the other same components are the same. The numbers are attached and the description is omitted.

That is, in this embodiment, the insertion hole 18 of the holder 17 is
Is provided so as to penetrate in the axial direction, and a through hole 31 that is continuous with the insertion hole 18 is opened at the center of rotation of the shutter 13.

And the rotary solenoid inserted in the insertion hole 18
The rotating shaft 16 of 15 is further extended in the axial direction, and an extension 32 of the rotating shaft 16 is led out to the outside through a through hole 31 of the shutter 13.

The extension portion 32 of the rotary shaft 16 is provided with a fitting groove 51 extending in the circumferential direction at a portion which penetrates the shutter 13 and is led out. An E-shaped snap ring 52 is fitted in the fitting groove 51. As is apparent from FIG. 1, the retaining ring 52 sandwiches the shutter 13 in cooperation with the front end surface of the holder 17, and as a result, the rotating shaft of the shutter 13 is rotated.
16 axial movements are restricted.

Therefore, in the case of the present embodiment, the E-shaped retaining ring 52 constitutes the movement restricting means of the shutter 13.

According to such a configuration, since the rotation shaft 16 penetrates the rotation center of the shutter 13, even if the screw 20 is loosened by the vibration caused by the rotation of the shutter 13, the shutter is released.
13 will be retained on the axis of rotation 16.

Moreover, the shutter 13 and the holder 17 are
Since the shutter 13 is sandwiched between the holder 17 and the retaining ring 52 even when the fixing of the shutter 13 is released, the shutter 13 does not move in the axial direction of the rotary shaft 16, and the rotary shaft 16 does not move. It is possible to prevent getting out of the outer circumference of 16.

Therefore, it is possible to prevent the shutter 13 from coming off from the holder 17.

Then, by removing the screw 20 in this way, the shutter 13
Even when the rotation of the shutter 13 becomes impossible, if the rotation center of the shutter 13 is located on the rotation shaft 16, the optical sensors 22a, 22b
The abnormality of the shutter 13 can be detected by.

That is, for example, during the laser emission, the shutter
Even if the rotary shaft 16 is rotated to rotate the shutter 13 from the closed position to the open position, the rotation force is not transmitted to the shutter 13 due to the screw 20 falling off, so the shutter 13 should be kept in the closed position. become.

Therefore, since the optical path of the other optical sensor 2b remains blocked, a detection signal sent from the optical sensors 22a, 22b to the control unit, and a command signal indicating whether or not laser light is being emitted. Will not match. As a result, the control unit determines that the shutter 13 is abnormal,
The operation of the laser device is stopped immediately.

Therefore, there is no possibility that laser light is undesirably emitted, and safety is improved.

In the above embodiment, the rotary shaft of the rotary solenoid penetrates the holder and the shutter, but the relationship between the rotary shaft and the holder is the same as the conventional one shown in FIG. A special shaft as a drive shaft portion may be provided so as to project coaxially with the rotation shaft on the tip end surface of the holder, and the special shaft may be inserted into the through hole of the shutter.

In addition, the installation position of the shutter is the total reflection mirror 4 and
It is not specified between the YAG laser rod 2 and the YAG laser rod 2, but may be installed between the output mirror 5 and the reflection mirror 6 in the laser optical path 11 as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention described in detail above, since the drive shaft portion penetrates the shutter, it is assumed that the tightening tool connecting the shutter and the drive shaft portion is loosened due to vibrations accompanying the rotation of the shutter. Also, the shutter is held on the drive shaft.

In addition, even if the shutter and the drive shaft are unfixed due to the fastening tool falling off, the shutter is restricted from moving in the axial direction of the drive shaft through the restricting means, so that the shutter is driven by the shutter. There is an advantage that the shutter can be prevented from coming off from the drive shaft without moving in the axial direction of the part.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a side view in which a part of a shielding device is partially sectioned, FIG. 2 is a front view of the shielding device, and FIGS. FIG. 6 shows a conventional technique, FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the entire laser device, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a shielding device, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a state where the shutter has fallen off. 11 …… Laser optical path, 12 …… Shrouding device, 13 …… Shutter, 16 …… Drive shaft (rotating shaft), 20 …… Clamping tool (screw), 52 …… Regulator (E-ring).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A shutter that opens and closes a laser light path through which laser light is guided, and a shutter that is fastened and fixed to the shutter with a fastener, and that has a shutter closed position that blocks the laser light path and an open position that opens the laser light path. A drive shaft portion for rotating the drive shaft portion, the drive shaft portion being provided so as to penetrate through the shutter, and further provided with a restricting means for restricting movement of the shutter in the axial direction of the drive shaft portion. Laser optical path blocking device.