JPS6012031A - Endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to endoscopes, and particularly to improvements in endoscopes having a liquid-tight structure as a whole.

When it comes to endoscopes, used endoscopes are typically cleaned and disinfected, but recently, in addition to cleaning and disinfecting local parts such as the insertion site, the entire endoscope has been designed to have a liquid-tight structure. The entire endoscope itself is cleaned and disinfected. For this reason, it is essential that endoscopes be free of pinholes and cracks, and as a countermeasure for this, tasks such as water leakage detection have traditionally been carried out by users.

However, water leak detection involves injecting air into the endoscope body to pressurize the entire interior of the endoscope body, and then immersing the entire pressurized endoscope body in liquid. It is determined whether the endoscope can be used or not based on the presence or absence of air (bubbles) leaking from the outer wall of the endoscope.

By the way, the air injection necessary for water leak detection is as follows.
Conventionally, the connector constituting the endoscope body has been provided with an air injection cap that communicates the inside and outside of the endoscope body for leak detection, and this air injection cap has the following features: Connect an injection connector such as an air supply pump built into the light source device, or a socket connected to the pump separately, and supply pressurized air through the injection connector (= air injection mouthpiece) to the endoscope body. I try to inject it into the entire interior of the body.

However, the structure in which such a sonnector is provided with a cap exclusively for leakage detection means that the connector itself has a water supply cap, a CO6
A plurality of caps of various types, such as metal fittings, are provided, and a cap specifically designed for leak detection is sometimes used only when detecting water leaks, which poses a problem in that it gets in the way when handling the endoscope.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to provide an entire endoscope in which a cap dedicated to detecting water leakage, which tends to be a nuisance, can be removed from the endoscope body.

In other words, the present invention provides a communication switching mechanism for communicating the CO3 cap provided in the endoscope body with the CO1 cap to the inside of the endoscope body as necessary, so that the CO1 cap that originally receives CO and gas can be removed. The cap is intended to be replaced with an air injection part g2 for leakage detection that can inject the air necessary for water leakage detection.

The present invention will be described below based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the entire endoscope, and numeral 1 in the figure is the endoscope main body, which is constructed by continuously glazing an insertion section 2, an operation section 3, a universal cord 4, and a connector 5. The interiors of the respective components that make up the entire endoscope main body 1 are in communication with each other. The operation unit 3 also includes an eyepiece unit 6 and
A cylinder for air and water supply operations, a cylinder 8 for suction operation, a cylinder 9 for CO8 gas operation, and an angle knob 10 for bending the insertion section 2 are provided, respectively.

Furthermore, the connector 5g is provided with a light guide section 11 located at its tip to receive illumination light, an air supply pipe 12 to receive air supply, and a ground terminal 13 located at the side. , a suction cap 14, a water supply cap 15 for receiving water, and a CO7 cap 16 for receiving Co and gas, respectively.
The front of the insertion section 2 can be visually observed from the eyepiece section 6 using the illumination light incident from the light guide section 11, and the air supply/mother tube 12, suction port 14, water supply mouthpiece 15, CO
, the cap 16 and each of the cylinders 7, 8, and 9' can be used to perform air supply, water supply, and suction gas operations.

A communication switching mechanism 17 is provided in the CO3 cap 16 of the endoscope main body 1 configured as described above. This Chu J
The detailed structure of the communication switching mechanism 17, which is the main part of the system, is shown in FIG. This communication switching mechanism 17 (if explained in two parts, 20 in the figure is a cylinder tube. This cylinder tube 2
At the bottom of 0, there are two ports 21g along the vertical direction,
21b are parallel (knees are provided. Also, the cylinder tube 2
As shown in FIG. The inside of the connector 5 is installed in a state where it protrudes to the
The above-mentioned CO constitutes the base 16. Note that 23 is a mounting seat for mounting the cylinder tube 20 onto the connector main body 5al. Further, a piston 24 is slidably disposed inside the cylinder tube 20, and the piston 24
A coil spring 25 is interposed between the piston 24 and the inner bottom of the cylinder square 20, and elastically supports the piston 24. - One end of the piston 24 is in communication with the opening of the cylinder tube 20, and the other end of the piston 24 is connected to the opening of the cylinder tube 20.
An L-shaped communication path 2'6 is provided which opens to the inner circumferential surface portion on the port side. The piston 24 is set so that the coil 21a and the communication passage 26 communicate with each other in a state in which the piston 24 is not pressed, that is, in a normal state.
Also, the piston 24 is pressed as required (port 21a'lf on the upper stage side than the second) (closed and the port 21b on the lower stage side).
and the communication path 26 are in communication with each other. The upper port 21a is connected to the C connector 5 through the tube 26 disposed inside the universal cord 4.
It is connected to the cylinder 9 for Ot gas operation, and the lower port 21b communicates with the entire interior of the endoscope main body via the connector main body 5a. ! The piston 24 is now in a state where it is possible to inject the air necessary for water leakage detection into the endoscope body 1. Here, the structure of the connecting fitting 27 on the CO, /7 gas supply side that supplies CO2 gas and the connecting fitting 28 on the air supply side that performs water leakage detection will be explained. As shown in FIG. 4, a socket 28b that can be screwed into the collar 22 of the conventionally used cylinder tube 20 having a threaded portion 28af carved on the inner circumferential surface.
is used. In addition, the base of the Sokkal-21Nh is connected to the co! via the tube 28c, etc. Of course, the two gas supply sources C are connected. In addition, the air supply source connector 28 is
A socket 29 having a shape and size compatible with the above-mentioned socket 28b is provided, and the center of the inner bottom of the socket 29 (2. A tubular body portion 30 is integrally provided so as to be pushed down and fully communicated with the communication path 26 and the port 1-21b on the lower stage side.
Due to the change in the operation of the piston 24 due to the difference between 8b and 29,
CO! The cap 16 can be switched to communicate with the inside of the endoscope body 1 in conjunction with the connection of the socket 29 when injecting the air necessary for water leak detection (2), and can be used as an air injection part for leak detection. Accordingly, as the cylinder tube 20, piston 24, and tube body 30f component parts, the C02 gas flow gold 16 is connected to the inside of the endoscope body 1 as necessary (at the time of leakage) based on the ford replacement. It constitutes a switching mechanism 17.

The base of the socket 290 is connected to an air supply source such as an air pump of a light source device (not shown) via the tube 3.

In addition, in FIG. 2, 35 indicates an O-ring 136 that seals between the connector main body 5a and the mounting seat 23.
O-rings 37 . . . seal between the metal 16 and the respective sockets 28b and 29 connected thereto are O-rings that seal between the piston 24 and the cylinder tube 2°.

When using the endoscope configured as described above, connect the connector 5 to the gold light source device (not shown), and connect the caps 14, 15, 161 = suction source, water supply source, c
o! By connecting a gas supply source, it becomes possible to perform various tests using the endoscope. Here, CO□
The CO gas supply source connected to the CO6 metal 16 is the socket shown in Figure 4): If the zsb, y2, and collar 22 are screwed to the CO6 metal 16 with male threads, the piston 24 will not change. The cap 16 communicates with the tube 26 through the communication path 26 and the port 21a in the same manner as before, and the C
The COt gas sent from the 02f gas supply source is connected to the socket 28.
b1 cylinder simple 2θ, communication path 26, port 21aXCQ
It is led to the cylinder 9 of (?0. lf gas action) through the gas flow path 26g.

Further, when performing water leakage detection after use of such an endoscope, the socket 29 is fixed with the COR cap 1672 and the flange 22 with male screws in the same manner. At this time, the piston 24 is pushed down by the tube body 30 in conjunction with the movement of the socket 29 due to the connection l2, and the opening of the communication passage 26 matches the port 21b on the lower stage side, and the communication passage 26 and 3= - The inside of the endoscope main body 1 and the CO20 metal 16 communicate with each other via the port 2xb. However, due to Niport replacement, the flow path leading to the tube 31 side is connected to the endoscope body 1.
The air necessary for water leakage detection flows from the air supply source to the inside of the pipe body 30, the communication path 26, and the port 2.
It is injected into the endoscope body 1 through 1b.

Note that, at this time, it goes without saying that the ports on the upper stage side are closed by the outer circumferential surface of the screw thread 24.

In this way, C020 gold 16 can be used as an alternative to the air injection part for water leakage detection.
This makes it possible to eliminate from the endoscope body 1 a cap dedicated to detecting water leakage, which tends to get in the way as in the past.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the communication switching mechanism was constructed using a piston mechanism as an example, but it is not limited to this, and CO3
Of course, it is also possible to switch the communication between the cap and the inside of the endoscope body, or to switch the communication regardless of the water leakage detection socket.

As explained above, ≦2 This invention≦: According to the above, originally C0
It is now possible to replace the COt cap that receives two gases with an air injection part for leak detection that can inject the air necessary for water leak detection, and the cap dedicated to water leak detection, which tends to get in the way, can be replaced with the endoscope body. can be excluded from.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a front view of the endoscope, FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the communication switching mechanism, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the structure of the tip of the cylinder. FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a socket on the CO2 gas supply side connected to the CQ and the base. 1... Endoscope body, 16... CO20 gold, I7...
・Communication switching mechanism. Applicant's agent: Takehiko Suzue, Patent attorney, 2-43-2, Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Lymphus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. Inventor: Akifumi Ishikawa, 2-43-2, Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan Lymphus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. Inside the company, i! llh, 58.73.2 Mr. Kazuo Wakasugi, Commissioner of the Kame Patent Office1, Indication of the case Japanese Patent Application No. 1989-1189752, Name of the invention Endoscope3, Person making the amendment Relationship with the case list Patent applicant ( 037) Orinogusu Kogaku Kogyo Co., Ltd. 4, Agent 5, Voluntary Amendment 7, Contents of the Amendment (1) From the second half of line 9 to the first half of line 10 on page 7 of the specification, "Also, connection of air supply source" The ingredient 28 is...
”, and the connection 28 on the air supply side is...
” he corrected. (2) In the drawings, the code ``37'' indicating the ``0 ring'' is added together with the leader line, as shown in the attached sheet of Figure 2. Kazuo Wakasugi, Commissioner of the Patent Office1. ．． Display of the case Japanese Patent Application No. 118975/1982 2, Name of the invention Endoscope 3, Person making the amendment Relationship to the case Patent applicant name (037) Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. 4, Agent 6 Specification subject to amendment , Drawing 7, Contents of correction (1) All drawings will be corrected as shown in the attached sheet. (2) Change "...Opening end..." on page 5, line 7 of the specification to - "...Opening end...
"..." I corrected myself. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 = 171

Claims (1)

[Claims] CO installed in the endoscope body and takes in CO2 gas! An endoscope characterized in that the cap is coated with a gold film with a communication switching mechanism for communicating all of the C020 gold with the inside of the endoscope body as necessary.