JPH09164111A - Endoscope operating section - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase the strength of an operating section against the bending to allow the airtightness to be kept good even in the case wherein a light or thin chassis is used. SOLUTION: This endoscope operating section 1 comprises a front case body 1A and a rear case body 1B. In the rear case body 1B, a platelike chassis 16 made of a light-weight metal, such as aluminum, an air supply/water supply pipe 11 connected to an air supply/water supply valve member 9, and a suction pipe 12 connected to a suction valve ember 10 are provided. The suction pipe 12 is fixed to the plate like chassis 16 by fittings 20A, 20B so that the strength against the bending vertical to the chassis surface may be increased. Thus, the suction pipe 12 serves as a beam of the operating section 1 to increase the strength against a bending outer force.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an internal structure of an operating section for endoscopes, in particular, a plate-shaped chassis is used to maintain airtightness and which is covered with a synthetic resin material.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An endoscope (including an electronic endoscope) comprises an insertion portion having a tip portion and an angle portion, an operation portion connected to this insertion portion, and the like. Is
It is provided for performing a bending operation of the distal end portion and an operation for various treatments in the endoscope.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic structure of this kind of operating portion, and FIG. 5 shows a cross section taken along the line I--I of FIG. In FIG. 4, the operation unit 1 includes a front case 1A and a rear case 1A.
The front case 1A is divided into B parts, and the outer casing 3 made of synthetic resin is arranged in the cylindrical body 2. This front case 1
A is a forceps opening member 4 for inserting a treatment tool such as forceps.
Is disposed so as to be exposed to the outside, and is connected to the forceps port member 4 inside so that the treatment tool insertion / suction channel tube 5 is inserted.
Is formed.

On the other hand, the rear case body 1B is made of a synthetic resin material and is formed of outer casings 6 and 7 having a predetermined shape similar to a rectangular parallelepiped. The outer casings 6 and 7 and the front case 1A are formed. Are connected in an airtight state by using an O-ring or the like at each joint P1 and P2. Inside such a rear case body 1B, a chassis 8 is provided so as to be connected to the cylindrical body 2 of the front case 1A, and the chassis 8 is located at the center of the endoscope axis (FIG. 5) and is entirely in the case body. Will be placed across.

In addition, air is supplied to the upper side of the rear case body 1B.
A water supply valve member 9 and a suction valve member 10 are arranged, an air supply / water supply pipe 11 is connected to the air supply / water supply valve member 9, and a suction pipe 12 is connected to the suction valve member 10. These pipes 11 and 12 are connected to an external device via a connecting cable 13. As shown in FIG. 5, on the back side of the chassis 8, the wire guide member 14, etc.
A wire drive member is disposed for bending the tip.

According to the above construction, the outer shape of the rear case body 1B is held by the chassis 8 and the strength against bending can be maintained. Then, the treatment tool can be introduced from the forceps port member 4 to the distal end portion, and by operation of the suction valve member 10, an unnecessary object in the body to be observed through the suction tube 12 communicating with the treatment tool insertion / suction channel tube 5. Etc. can be removed. Further, by operating the air / water feeding valve member 9, it is possible to feed air / water to the observation window or the like at the tip. Although not described, the electronic endoscope is provided with a signal line or the like for taking out a video signal, and the video signal captured at the tip portion is taken out through the signal line to the outside.

[0007]

By the way, in the internal structure of the endoscope operation section, the chassis 8 is made of a cold rolled material such as stainless steel or mild steel, and these members are relatively heavy. However, since the operating portion also becomes heavy, there is room for improvement in terms of operability and reducing the burden on the operator. For this reason, the present applicant uses a lightweight metal such as aluminum for the chassis 8 or
It has been proposed to make the thickness of the product thinner than before.

However, when the lightweight metal material is used or the thickness is reduced as described above, the strength of the chassis 8 itself is decreased, and the role of maintaining the outer shape of the operating portion and maintaining the strength against bending of the external force described above is played. There is a problem that it cannot be achieved, and a state occurs in which the airtightness of the operating part cannot be maintained. That is, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, since the chassis 8 is arranged vertically, there is no problem in bending in the vertical direction,
If it becomes weak in lateral bending and an external force is applied in this bending direction, the airtight state may be impaired at, for example, the joint P2.

For this reason, there is also a method of bending the chassis 8 itself as shown in FIG. That is, it is possible to increase the strength against bending by processing the convex portion 8A in a wide area in the central portion of the chassis 8 and increasing the second moment of area of the plate. However, since this operating portion functions as a grasping portion for the operator, there is a limitation in its size, and the above method has a problem that the internal space becomes small and inconvenience occurs.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to perform a bending process or the like on a chassis itself even if a lightweight or thin chassis is used.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an endoscope operating section in which the strength of the operating section against bending is increased and the airtightness can be maintained well.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the endoscope operating portion according to the invention of the first aspect is connected to the rear end side of the insertion portion to be inserted into the body to be observed, and is a plate. -Shaped chassis and a tubular member that communicates with the insertion portion inside the endoscope operation unit, the tubular member is attached to the plate-shaped chassis so as to increase the strength of the chassis surface against vertical bending. It is characterized by being integrally fixed by. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the tubular member is communicated with a treatment instrument insertion / suction channel on the insertion portion side,
A suction pipe fixed to an opening / closing valve arranged in the operation section is provided, and the suction pipe is fixed to the chassis. In the above description, the tubular member such as the suction tube serves as a beam of the operating portion, which has the advantage that the strength against bending is enhanced.

[0012]

1 to 3 show the internal construction of an endoscope operating portion, which is an example of an embodiment, FIG. 1 shows a state in which an operating valve member is up, and FIG. It is a state in which it is rotated 90 degrees and the bending operation knob of the tip end is turned up.
1A is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3B is of FIG.
It is a sectional view taken along the line III-III. In the figure, the configuration of the operation unit 1 is almost the same as that described with reference to FIG. 4, and the front case 1A has a configuration in which the cylindrical body 2 is covered with the outer cover 3 made of synthetic resin. A forceps opening member 4 for inserting a treatment tool such as forceps is arranged in the front case 1A, and a treatment tool insertion / suction channel tube 5 is internally connected to the forceps opening member 4.

On the other hand, the rear case body 1B comprises outer casings 6 and 7 made of a synthetic resin material having a predetermined shape.
There is no cylinder like A. The joint P1 between the front case 1A and the outer casing 6 and the joint P2 between the outer casing 6 and the outer casing 7 are connected via an O-ring (not shown). Therefore, the inside of the operation unit 1 becomes airtight,
Ingress of water etc. is prevented. Further, an air / water feed valve member 9 and a suction valve member 10 are arranged on the upper side of the rear case body 1B, and an air / water feed pipe 11 is connected to the air / water feed valve member 9 to form a suction valve member. 10 has a suction tube 12
Are connected and arranged. This suction pipe 12 is a stainless steel pipe 1.
2A, a synthetic resin tube 12B, and a stainless tube 12C. The stainless tube 12A is connected and fixed to the suction valve member 10, and the stainless tube 12C is connected to the treatment instrument insertion / suction channel tube 5.

With the forceps port member 4 and the insertion / suction channel tube 5 described above, the treatment tool can be introduced from the distal end portion into the body to be observed, and the image inside the body to be observed displayed on the monitor by the electronic endoscope can be observed. Meanwhile, a predetermined treatment is performed. The insertion / suction channel tube 5 is also used as a suction tube on the distal end side of the suction tube 12, and by operating the suction valve member 10, unnecessary substances in the body to be observed are removed from the distal end portion to the outside. It becomes possible to do.

A plate-shaped chassis 16 made of, for example, aluminum is provided inside the rear case body 1B so as to cover the entire inside of the case body at the center position of the axis of the endoscope. Metal fitting 1 on the front side
7A, 17B and a screw 18 [FIG. 3 (A)] are connected to the cylindrical body 2 of the front case 1A, and at the rear end, they are fixed to a supporting portion (not shown) at two places by screws 19. Then, the suction pipe 12 is fixed to the chassis 16 at two positions of the stainless pipe 12A by pipe fittings 20A and 20B.

That is, one end of this stainless steel pipe 12A is connected and fixed to the suction valve member 10 and is arranged toward the tip along the surface of the chassis 16. In particular, in this example, the bending is made at the joint P2. In consideration of the occurrence of
Fix with B. As shown in FIG. 3, for example, the fittings 20A and 20B fix the stainless steel tube 12A by pressing the periphery of the tube with a ring-shaped body and attaching both ends with screws 22.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the operation portion 1 has left and right lock knobs 23, left and right operation knobs 24, up and down operation knobs 25, and up and down lock knobs 26 as operation members for bending and driving the tip portion. Is provided inside the vertical operation knob 25 on the side opposite to the suction pipe 12.
A vertical drive take-up wheel 27 connected to and a horizontal drive take-up wheel 28 connected to the left and right operation knobs 24 are attached to the shaft 29. A drive wire 31 is wound around the take-up wheels 27 and 28, and the drive wire 31 is guided to the guide portion 32 and is arranged up to the tip end portion.

A support plate 33 for mounting the shaft 29 and the guide portion 32 is provided, and the support plate 33 is provided.
Are arranged so as to contact the back side of the chassis 16. Therefore, in this example, like the chassis 16, the support plate 33 also plays a role of maintaining the outer shape and maintaining the strength against bending of external force. However, the support plate 33 and the chassis 16 are not integrally connected.

As described above, in the embodiment, the suction pipe 12 is attached to the chassis 1 by the mounting hardware 20A, 20B.
Since it is fixed to 6, the strength against the bending in the lateral direction of FIGS. 1 and 3 is strengthened, and even the plate-shaped chassis 16 made of aluminum can maintain the predetermined strength of the operation portion 1. It will be possible. The above chassis 16
May be formed thinner than before by using stainless steel or mild steel, and in this case, the above effect can be expected. Therefore,
Even if an external force for bending the operation portion 1 in the lateral direction is applied, the operation portion 1 does not bend at the joint P2 and the airtightness is not impaired.

In the example of the above embodiment, the suction pipe 12 is fixed to the chassis 16, but instead of or together with the suction pipe 12, another pipe, for example, the air supply / water supply pipe 1
1 may be fixed.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since a tubular member such as a suction tube is integrally fixed to the plate-shaped chassis in the operation portion by a mounting member so as to increase the strength of the chassis surface against bending in the vertical direction, this tubular member functions as a beam. Even when a lightweight or thin chassis is used, it is possible to maintain a predetermined strength against bending of the operating portion. Therefore, there is no inconvenience that the airtightness is impaired by receiving an external force, and there is no need to bend the chassis itself, so that the effective space inside is not narrowed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an internal structure of an endoscope operating section as an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure in a state in which the operation portion of FIG. 1 is rotated 90 degrees and the back side bending operation knob is directed upward.

3 is a cross-sectional view [FIG. (A)] taken along line II-II and a cross-sectional view [FIG. (B)] taken along line III-III of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an internal configuration of a conventional endoscope operation section.

5 is a cross-sectional view of the operating portion of FIG. 5 taken along line I-I.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of another example of the endoscope operation section.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Operation part, 5 ... Treatment tool insertion / suction channel, 8, 16 ... Plate chassis, 12 ... Suction tube, 20A, 20B ... Mounting metal fittings.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An endoscope operation section in which a tubular member connected to a rear end side of an insertion portion to be inserted into an object to be observed and communicating with the plate-shaped chassis and the insertion portion is arranged inside, An endoscope operating section, wherein the tubular member is integrally fixed to a chassis by a mounting member so as to enhance the strength of the chassis surface against bending in the vertical direction. 2. The tubular member is provided with a suction tube communicating with the treatment instrument insertion / suction channel on the insertion section side and fixedly attached to an opening / closing valve arranged in the operation section. The endoscope operation section according to claim 1, wherein the endoscope operation section is fixed to the endoscope operation section.