JPH11290265A - Tube for endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tube for an endoscope provided with both flexibility and slip properties in good balance and with excellent strength and durability and inexpensive. SOLUTION: In a tube 1 for an endoscope, the inner surface of a tube body 2 through which a treating tool is inserted is coated with a coat 3 with excellent slip properties and the outer surface is coated with a coat 4 with excellent elasticity. As the intermediate tube body 2 is placed between both inner and outer coats 3 and 4 and it is stretched by this sandwich effect so as to hold the cross-sectional shape of the tube body 2, the tube body 2 becomes hardly broken and exhibits excellent flexibility and bending resistance and also exhibits excellent elasticity and elastic recovery.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope tube used in an endoscope, such as a treatment tool insertion channel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, among endoscope tubes, a channel tube for inserting a treatment tool, in particular, guides various treatment tools through and guides a body fluid in a body cavity. Also used for such. For this reason, a tube made of a fluororesin such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has been used because of its slipperiness and difficulty in being stained. However, such tubes lacked flexibility and flexibility.

In order to enhance flexibility, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 62-200301 uses a flexible tube having a porous structure, and at least one of an inner surface and an outer surface thereof has a fluororubber or a fluororesin. There has been proposed a device provided with a surface layer formed by applying and curing a fluororubber paint containing a coupling material and a liquid carrier.

In the case of such a flexible tube, since the core tube body has a porous structure, there is a disadvantage that the material of the tube is limited. In addition, since the tube structure is porous, the bonding to the coat layer has an anchor effect. Although it is expected that the coating layer and the tube body that is the core are bonded, after all, it is a fluororubber paint with poor adhesion, so if it is used over a long period, repeated bending and
Due to repeated insertion of the treatment tool, local deformation may be repeated, and the coating layer may float off the tube body and peel off. In addition, when a treatment tool having a sharp tip or a broken treatment tool is inserted through a flexible tube, the coating film on the inner surface of the tube may be torn, and a body fluid or the like may permeate the porous tube main body. In the case of (1), there is a risk that water leaks. That is, it was insufficient in terms of resistance.

Also, since the core tube body has a porous structure, there is a shortage in elastic recovery and resilience, and the tube tends to buckle. In order to prevent this buckling, it is conceivable that a coil is provided around the outer periphery of the flexible tube to reinforce it. However, when the coil is provided, the diameter of the tube becomes large or the price becomes high.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 8-259542 relates to a medical catheter, but proposes a synthetic resin tube having an inner surface coated with a synthetic resin layer mixed with an inorganic or organic fine powder. Have been.
Although this product can be improved in terms of repetition resistance and strength as compared with that of Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 62-200301, the inner surface is coated with a synthetic resin mixed with fine powder having excellent slipperiness, so that the slipperiness is improved. Since the fine powder excellent in the above is relatively hard, flexibility, bending resistance, elasticity and elastic recovery are inferior.

[0007] Accordingly, the present invention, based on these considerations, has a good balance between both flexibility and slipperiness, is excellent in strength and durability, covers the deficiencies of the conventional tube, and has an inexpensive endoscope. It is intended to provide a mirror tube.

[0008]

(Structure) The tube for an endoscope of the present invention is provided with a coating material having excellent slipperiness on the inner surface of a tube body into which a treatment tool is inserted, and on the outer surface thereof. Is provided with a coating material having excellent elasticity. As an example of this, a FEP fine powder is mixed with a fluororesin paint and applied to the inner surface of a flexible tubular body of a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer, and the FEP fine powder is similarly mixed with the polyurethane resin paint on the outer surface. And applied.

(Operation) An intermediate tube body is sandwiched between the inner and outer coating materials, and the sandwich effect stretches to maintain the cross-sectional shape of the tube body, so that the tube body is hardly broken. And it is excellent in flexibility and bending resistance, and also excellent in elasticity and elastic recovery. In addition, because the coefficient of friction of the inner surface is small, the slipperiness increases,
The frictional resistance and the feeling of snagging of the treatment tool are reduced, and the antifouling property is improved.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [First Embodiment] A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. (Configuration) FIG. 1 shows an endoscope tube 1 used as a treatment tool insertion channel tube of an endoscope. The tube 1 according to this embodiment is formed by extruding a tube body 2 having a rubber hardness of 90 degrees using a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer, for example, E590 manufactured by Nippon Milactran Co., Ltd. After this molding, an inner surface coat 3 is formed on the inner surface of the tube body 2, and an outer surface coat 4 is formed on the outer surface of the tube body 2. This inner surface coat 3 is composed of 29% of fine powder of a tetrafluoroethylene-hexafluoropropylene copolymer (FEP) having an average particle diameter of 0.1 μm and a mean particle diameter of 0.1 μm in a fluorine-linked polymer of a fluororesin paint.
5 micron meter polytetrafluoroethylene (PT
FE) powder was mixed at 5%, and a coating agent having a desired viscosity with N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF), an organic solvent that attacks the urethane resin, and methyl ether ketone (MEK) and xylene for dilution was thoroughly mixed. After agitating and sufficiently dispersing the fine particles, the inner surface of the tube body 2 is poured into the inner surface of the tube body 2 so as to have a thickness of 50 μm, and is applied.
To form Then, after inserting a metal core into the tube body 2, the inner surface coat 3 is dried. On the outer surface of the tube body 2, 65% of a two-component curable polyol-curable paint as a urethane resin paint and 35% of fine powder of tetrafluoroethylene-hexafluoropropylene copolymer (FEP) were used.
In addition, the mixture that has been mixed and stirred is applied to a thickness of 50 microns to form an outer surface coat 4. Then, after inserting the cored metal into the tube body 2, the outer surface coat 4 is dried. The inner coat 3 and the outer coat 4 may be dried simultaneously after being applied.

By utilizing the shrinkage of the tube 2 due to the drying of the inner coat 3 and the outer coat 4, a tube 1 having an inner diameter of 3.7 and an outer diameter of 4.9 was prepared. As a result, the inner surface of the tube body 2 is provided with an inner coat 3 having excellent slipperiness,
A tube 1 having an outer surface coat 4 having excellent resilience on the outer surface of the tube body 2 is obtained.

(Operation) Even if the above-mentioned tube 1 is bent at a radius of 5 mm (although the thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer tube alone of the same size buckled), the coats 3 and 4 on the inner and outer surfaces are not covered by the tube body. It is harder than material 2
As the tube cross section is kept circular and its deformation is suppressed,
No buckling. In addition, the elasticity of the outer coat 4 is strong, so that the outer coat 4 hardly bends and easily returns to its original shape. Also, even if you forcibly bend and buckle,
The cross-sectional shape was almost restored. Once buckled, a fluororesin tube of the same size is difficult to return to its original shape, and there is a possibility that the suction amount is reduced or that a treatment tool or a cleaning brush cannot pass. In addition, even if the maximum suction pressure used in the endoscope is −10 ⁵ Pa, it does not collapse. In addition, when a nylon bristle cleaning brush is inserted into and removed from the inner surface, the friction coefficient of the fluororesin paint itself is low, and the average particle diameter of the two types of fluororesins with extremely low friction coefficients is different, so that they do not aggregate. Evenly dispersed, the synergistic effect exposed on the inner surface reduces the frictional resistance compared to the elastomeric tube, so the feeling of snagging and resistance is reduced, and even when curved to a radius of 100 mm, it can be smoothly inserted and removed. It is possible and a slip property close to that of a PTFE tube can be obtained. Also, due to the effect of the solvent, the adhesion between the tube body 2 and the coats 3 and 4 is good, and the coats 3 and 4 do not peel off even by repeated bending or insertion / removal of brushes or forceps. Further, the inner surface characteristics excellent in antifouling property, drainage property and abrasion resistance were obtained. Since the tube main body 2 is made of a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer, it is particularly suitable for forming an elongated tube.

(Effect) Since the endoscope tube 1 is hardly buckled and has increased durability by the above-described operation, the tube itself and an endoscope incorporating the tube can be used for a long time. In addition, it becomes easy to insert and remove the treatment tool and clean the treatment tool. It can be provided at a significantly lower cost than a single tube made of fluororesin. Compared to the fluororesin tube alone, the coating film has better wear resistance, which not only improves local perforation resistance due to repeated insertion of treatment tools, etc., but also provides slipperiness, stain resistance, and chemical resistance. Overall characteristics such as properties are improved.

The endoscope tube 1 is also suitable as a suction tube connected to a treatment tool insertion channel tube of an endoscope. [Modification of First Embodiment] The material of the tube body 2 may be another thermoplastic elastomer, polyester, or the like, and the base material of the inner surface coat 3 may be an antifouling product of Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc. A suitable surface coating agent, Defenser TR220, etc. are suitable. Further, in order to make the inner tube 3 and the inner tube 3 more closely adhere to each other, an acrylic urethane resin paint may be used as the coating agent, or a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer solution, paraprene of Hodogaya Chemical, or the like may be used. .

The inner diameter of the tube 1 is also set at 3.
It is not limited to 7 mm. When the inside diameter is small, the tube 1 is difficult to physically break, so the inside diameter is 2.2 mm.
As a result, a tube 1 having a thickness of 0.4 mm and a similar coating was obtained, which did not buckle even when bent at 180 degrees with a radius of 6 mm, and was suitable as a tube for an endoscope.

In particular, as shown in FIG. 2, for an endoscope tube 1 such as a treatment instrument insertion channel tube which has a large inner diameter and is bent slightly, a tube portion 5 corresponding to the bending portion of the endoscope insertion portion is provided. A step 6 is formed on the outer surface portion to reduce the thickness, and the outer surface coat 4 is doubled and tripled (4a, 4b) on the thinned outer surface portion to improve resilience. In this case, it is not necessary to mix fine powder having good slipperiness into the first outer coat 4a.

Further, in order to make the endoscope tube 1 easily bendable, as shown in FIG. 3, the outer surface of the tube portion 5 corresponding to the curved portion of the endoscope insertion portion is corrugated like a hose. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 4, a coil or flex 8 may be wound for reinforcement, and an outer coat 4 in which fine powder having excellent slipperiness is mixed and dispersed is applied thereon. In any case, it is desirable that the outer diameter of the endoscope tube 1 be the same diameter over almost the entire length.

[Second Embodiment] A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The endoscope tube according to the present embodiment constitutes a guide tube used to guide the endoscope insertion section into a body cavity. For this reason, fine powder of PTFE is coated on the acrylic urethane resin paint on the inner and outer surfaces of a flexible tube body 2 formed of a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer having an inner diameter of 9 mm and a thickness of 0.9 mm.
Mix and stir 0%, apply a 50 micrometer thick base coat 9 and then dry. Next, both ends of the tube body 2 were plugged, and only the outer surface of the tube body 2 was overcoated with a top coat 10 in which 40% of FEP fine powder was mixed with a fluorine resin paint to a thickness of 50 μm.

(Operation) Since the endoscope tube has a low coefficient of friction in the portions of the coats 9 and 10, the feeling of snagging and frictional resistance are reduced. Since the coats 9 and 10 have excellent water repellency, dirt hardly remains and can be easily removed by wiping.
Since the chemical resistance of the coats 9 and 10 is excellent, this serves as a barrier and improves the chemical resistance. Especially the outer surface is FE
Since the top coat 10 containing 40% of the fine powder of P is formed, the amount of fine particles is larger than that of the coat 9 on the inner surface side, so that it is easy to slide.

(Effect) When inserted into the body cavity, the sliding property is good on the outer surface where the body cavity wall and the flexible tube are in contact, and the insertion into the body cavity is easy. Since the inner surface is also slippery, it is easy to insert and remove the endoscope insertion portion. Cleaning time can be reduced for both inside and outside. As in the case of the above-described embodiment, the endoscope tube is strong against buckling and crushing and has a long life. Since the bending habit hardly occurs, the insertion portion can be kept straight when the endoscope insertion portion is inserted.

[Other Modifications] In the tube 1 for an endoscope according to the first embodiment, the type and thickness of the resin coating of the coats 3 and 4 on the inner and outer surfaces of the tube body 2 and the type of the fluororesin to be mixed are determined. We changed the performance (characteristics) inside and outside by changing
In addition, by changing the effect conditions of the paint on the inner and outer surfaces, the performance of the coats 3, 4 such as elasticity, elastic recovery,
Slipperiness and the like can be changed. In this case, the outer surface can be made more slippery than the inner surface, for example, by changing the drying temperature between the inner and outer surfaces in the steps of inner surface application → drying / curing → outer surface application → drying / curing. This is due to the property that when the drying temperature is increased, the fine particles of the fluororesin tend to agglomerate on the surface layer, and the performance can be changed only in the necessary places without making the whole tube harder than necessary. In addition, the curing conditions may be partially changed, the thickness may be increased, or the fluororesin or the synthetic resin may be changed. This makes it possible to reduce the slipperiness of the part gripped by the surgeon from the part in contact with the inner wall of the body cavity, thereby improving operability.

As another example, a method of changing the thickness of the coating on the inner and outer surfaces and changing the average particle diameter of the mixed fluororesin in accordance with the thickness can be considered. This means that if the thickness of the coating film is large and the fine particles are small, the fine particles will sink during drying, and they will not appear and the slipperiness will not be improved, so the particle diameter of the surface where you want to make the coating thicker will be increased. It is.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional view showing an example in which the diameter of the particles to be mixed is suitable for the thickness and viscosity of the coating film, and the particles are not dispersed and settled even after drying and curing. In this state,
Some of the fine particles 12 dispersed in the coat 11 are exposed fine particles 13.

The endoscope tube used is not only a forceps insertion channel tube but also a suction tube,
Air supply tube, water supply tube, insertion tube serpentine tube, universal cord, light guide fiber bundle or image guide fiber bundle, electric signal cable protection tube for solid-state imaging device, bending part protection braid, bending part protection rubber, There are various types of sliding tubes that are inserted into a body cavity and guide insertion and removal of an insertion portion of an endoscope, and the configuration of the present invention can be applied to these.

According to the above description, at least the following items and items obtained by arbitrarily combining them can be obtained. <Supplementary notes> 1. An endoscope characterized in that a coating material having excellent slipperiness is applied to the inner surface of a tube body into which a treatment tool is inserted, and a coating material having excellent elasticity is applied to the outer surface. For tubes. 2. An endoscope characterized in that the inner and outer surfaces of a flexible tube body are coated with a synthetic resin obtained by mixing and diffusing fine powder having excellent slipperiness, and that the performance of the coating material on the inner surface is different from that of the outer surface. For tubes. 3. The tube according to claim 1, wherein the tube is a tube made of a thermoplastic elastomer. 4. The thermoplastic elastomer according to claim 3, wherein the thermoplastic elastomer is a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer.

5. The thermoplastic elastomer according to claim 3, wherein the thermoplastic elastomer is a thermoplastic polyester elastomer. 6. The powder according to claim 2, wherein the fine powder having excellent slip properties is a synthetic resin.

7. The material according to claim 2, wherein the fine powder having excellent slipperiness is a fluororesin. 8. The coating material of the above-mentioned items 1 to 7, wherein the coating material of the synthetic resin is a fluororesin paint. 9. The coating according to items 1 to 7, wherein the coating material of the synthetic resin is a urethane resin paint. 10. The material according to any of items 1 to 7, wherein the coating material of the synthetic resin is a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer solution. 11. The powder according to claim 2, wherein the fine powder is a mixture of two or more kinds.

12. The powder according to claim 7, wherein the fine powder of the fluororesin is ethylene tetrafluoride / propylene hexafluoride resin. 13. The device according to claim 1, wherein the inner surface and the outer surface are coated with different kinds of synthetic resins. 14. The material according to claim 2, wherein the coating material has different resilience between the inner surface and the outer surface. 15. The material according to claim 2, wherein the coating material has different slipperiness between the inner surface and the outer surface. 16. The material according to claim 2, wherein the fine powder is different between the inner surface and the outer surface. 17. The material according to claim 16, wherein the type of the fine powder is different between the inner surface and the outer surface.

18. The material according to claim 16, wherein two or more kinds of fine powders are mixed with the coating material, and the mixing ratio is different between the inner surface and the outer surface. 19. An additional feature wherein the mixing amount of the fine powder with respect to the synthetic resin to be coated is different between the inner surface and the outer surface.
Stuff. 20. An article according to claim 16, wherein the average particle diameter of the fine powder is different between the inner surface and the outer surface. 21. Additional item 2 characterized in that the curing condition of the synthetic resin is different between the inner surface and the outer surface. 22. The method according to claim 2, wherein the coating thickness is different between the inner surface and the outer surface. 23. The coating according to claim 2, wherein at least one surface of the coating is a multilayer coating, and the number of layers is different between the inner surface and the outer surface.

24. The thickness of the above coating material is 30
Additional item 2 characterized by having a size of about 100 μm. 25. The article according to claim 2, wherein the coating material is coated on a part of the entire length of the tube body. 26. The tube according to claim 2, wherein a predetermined portion of the entire length of the tube body is thinner than other portions. 27. The article according to claim 26, wherein the thin portion of the thermoplastic elastomer tube is formed in a wavy shape, and at least both surfaces are smoothed by coating.

28. The thin part of the thermoplastic elastomer tube is characterized in that a reinforcing member is provided and an outer surface coat for filling the gap is coated on the same surface as the outer diameter of the tube. , 27 things. 29. The reinforcing member according to claim 28, wherein the reinforcing member is a braided body.

30. The device according to claim 28, wherein the reinforcing member is a spiral band. 31. The method according to claim 2, wherein the coating on the inner surface and the outer surface is formed by coating at least two or more kinds of synthetic resins.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, 1) Since the tube body is coated on both sides, the endoscope is sandwiched by the sandwich effect obtained by sandwiching the core tube body between the coating materials on both sides. Even if the mirror tube is bent, the cross-sectional shape is maintained in the original shape,
The resistance to bending can be greatly improved, and buckling becomes difficult.

2) Since the outer surface of the tube body is coated with a highly resilient coating, when used as a treatment instrument insertion channel tube, the elastic recovery is improved as compared with a fluororesin tube, and the tube returns to its original state even when bent. , It becomes difficult to bend.

3) From the same effect, even if buckling occurs once, the cross-sectional shape returns to almost the original shape, and an unprecedented effect that the treatment tool and the suctioned object can pass is obtained. 4) A coating material with excellent slipperiness is applied to the inner surface of the tube body through which the treatment tool is inserted, and a coating material with excellent elasticity is applied to the outer surface, so that the tube is not hardened more than necessary. In addition, the slipperiness of the inner surface can be ensured, and the flexibility / flexibility and the slipperiness can be both balanced. For this reason, the force required to bend by the curved portion or the like of the endoscope insertion portion is smaller than that of the tube made of fluororesin itself as the treatment instrument insertion channel tube, so that the operator's fatigue is reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an endoscope tube according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an essential part cross-sectional view of a modified example of the endoscope tube according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an essential part cross-sectional view of another modification of the endoscope tube according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an essential part cross-sectional view of still another modified example of the endoscope tube according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a main part of an endoscope tube according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an essential part cross-sectional view of a modified example of the endoscope tube according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Endoscope tube, 2 ... Tube body, 3 ... Inner coat, 4 ... Outer coat.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An inner surface of a tube body through which a treatment tool is inserted is coated with a coating material having excellent slipperiness.
An endoscope tube characterized in that the outer surface is coated with a highly elastic coating material.