JPS61122619A - Endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain remote control of the curved part of an inserting part by only rotating one set of motor in one direction, by constituting a titled endoscope so that a rotational force is transferred by making a roller of the motor contact selectively to rotating bodies for the up and down use, and the right and left use, to which an operating wire is wound. CONSTITUTION:In an endoscope which has a curved part 24 in the tip side of an inserting part 21, and is provided with an electrically-driven curve operating mechanism 26 for bringing the curved part 24 to a curve operation remotely in the upper and lower, and the right and left directions by operating wires 38a, 38b, 39a and 39b, a rotational force of one set of motor 27 is transferred selectively by rollers 31, 32 to rotating bodies 34, 35 for the up and down use, to which said operating wires 38a, 38b are wound, and rotating bodies 36, 37 for the right and left use, to which the operating wires 39a, 39b are wound.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an endoscope that operates a bending section of an insertion section by driving a bending operation mechanism using a motor.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

In recent years, in order to improve the operability of the bending operation of an endoscope, an endoscope has been proposed in which an electric bending operation mechanism is built into the operation section so that the bending section of the insertion section can be operated remotely.

For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-78635 is an example, and this is constructed as shown in FIG. That is, 1 is an insertion section of the endoscope, and 2 is its operation section.

This operation unit 2 has a motor 3 for up and down and a motor 4 for left and right.
are arranged in parallel, and a pulley 5.6 is provided on the rotating shaft of both motors 3.4. An operating wire 7.8 is wound around each pulley 5.6, and both ends of these operating wires 7.8 are inserted through the insertion section 1 and guided to the distal end side, and are guided to the distal end side. It is connected to 9. The motor 3.4 rotates the pulley 5.6 and the operating wire 7.8 is moved forward and backward, thereby bending the bending portion 10 in the vertical and horizontal directions. Said motor 5.6 is selectively controlled by an operating lever 11, by means of which said bending part 1
0 can be automatically bent vertically and horizontally.

However, the conventional endoscope requires two motors 3.4 for up and down and left and right motors in the operating section 2, making the operating section 2 large and heavy, making it difficult to handle. be. Moreover, the motor 3.4 needs to be capable of forward and reverse rotation in order to move the operating wire 7.8 forward and backward.
It is also a cause of increased costs.

Therefore, in order to reduce the size and weight of the operating section 2, research is underway on a bending operation mechanism that has the same function as described above using a single motor. As shown in the figure, a two-axis motor 12 capable of forward and reverse rotation is required. One rotating shaft 13 of this two-shaft motor 12
A pulley 15 for up and down is provided on the other shaft via a clutch 14, and a pulley 18 for left and right is provided on the other rotating shaft 16 via a clutch 17. With this configuration, switching between forward and reverse rotation of the two-shaft motor 12 and clutch 14 can be performed.
．． Pulley 15.1 for up and down and left and right by engaging and disengaging 17
8 can be selectively rotated forward and backward, but 2
Two clutches 14 and 17 are required, and two-shaft motor 12
The switching between the forward and reverse rotation directions and the switching of the clutches 14 and 17 are troublesome, and the causes of increased costs have not been resolved.

[Purpose of the invention]

This invention was made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to remotely bend the curved portion of the insertion tube vertically and horizontally by simply rotating one motor in one direction. It is an object of the present invention to provide an endoscope that can reduce the size and weight of the operating section, as well as reduce costs.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an electric bending operation mechanism provided in an operation section with a vertical rotating body and a horizontal rotating body around which an operating wire is wound, and selectively rotates the electric bending operation mechanism on these rotating bodies. It consists of a single motor with a roller that transmits force.

(Embodiments of the invention) Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

1 to 3 show a first embodiment, in which 21 is an insertion section of an endoscope, and 22 is an operation section. The insertion section 21 is composed of a flexible section 23, a bending section 24, and a tip structure section 25, and the operation section 22 is provided with an electric bending operation mechanism 26 that remotely operates the bending section 24 in vertical and horizontal directions. It is being

To explain the electric bending operation mechanism 26, 27 is a two-axis motor that can rotate in only one direction, and the motor body 28 has two first rotation shafts and a second rotation shaft in the front and back direction of the operation section 22 at both ends of the motor body 28. A shaft 30 is provided to protrude. Rollers 31 and 32 are fitted to the tip ends of these two first and second rotating shafts 30, respectively. Furthermore, the two-axis motor 27 is pivotably supported to be rotatable in the front-rear and left-right directions, and an operating lever 33 for rotating the two-shaft motor 27 in the front-rear and left-right directions is protruded from the upper surface of the motor body 28. has been done. Further, upper and lower pulleys 34 and 35, which serve as vertical rotating bodies, are rotatably supported on both sides facing the roller 31 in front of the two-axis motor 27. Further, left and right pulleys 36 and 37 as left and right rotating bodies are rotatably supported on both sides facing the rear roller 32. One surface of these upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 34 to 37 facing the rollers 31 and 32 is formed into a friction surface, and rotation is transmitted through contact with the rollers 31 and 32. Further, the upper and lower pulleys 34.35 are provided with operation wires 38a, 381).
One end of is wound. Roughly, the left and right pulleys 3
One end side of the operating wires 39a and 39b is wound around 6.37. .

These operation wires 38a, 38b, 39a, 3
The other end side of 9b is inserted into the insertion portion 21 and connected to the tip structure portion 25, and the operation wires 38a, 38k),
The curved portion 24 is moved forward and backward through 39a and 39b.
It is configured so that it can be bent vertically and horizontally.

Next, the operation of the endoscope configured as described above will be explained. First, when the two-axis motor 27 is energized, the first
Via the second axis of rotation 29.30 the roller 31.32 rotates in one direction, ie in the direction of the arrow. At this time, as shown by the solid line in FIG. 3, when the two-axis motor 27 is in the neutral state B (neutral state), the rollers 31 and 32 are in a stopped state because they are not in contact with any of the upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 34 to 37. It is in. If you want to bend the bending portion 24 upward from this state, operate the operating lever 33 and tilt it backwards as shown by the broken line in FIG. 2, so that the roller 31 faces the upper pulley 34, and Operation lever 3 as shown
3 in the C direction to bring the roller 31 into contact with the upper pulley 34. When the roller 31 contacts the upper pulley 34, O-
The rotation of the roller 31 is transmitted to the upper pulley 34, and the upper pulley 34 rotates to the right. Therefore, to the upper pulley 34
The operating wire 38a being turned is wound around the upper pulley 34 and moves backward, while the operating wire 38b wound around the lower pulley 35 is let out and moved forward. Therefore, the curved portion 24 can be curved upward. In addition, when bending the bending portion 24 downward, the operating lever 3
3 is tilted backward as described above, by rotating in the b direction and bringing the roller 31 into contact with the lower pulley 35, the lower pulley 35 can be rotated to the left. Therefore, the operating wire 38b is wound around the lower pulley 35, and the operating wire 38a is wound around the upper pulley 34.
Since it is drawn out, the curved portion 24 can be curved downward.

Further, when bending the bending portion 24 to the right, the operating lever 33 is moved forward as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 2, so that the roller 32 is opposed to the left pulley 36. When the operating lever 33 is rotated in the C direction in this state, the O-ra 32 comes into contact with the left pulley 36.

Therefore, the rotation of the roller 32 is transmitted to the left pulley 36, and the left pulley 36 rotates to the left. Therefore, the operating wire 39a is wound around the left pulley 36, and the operating wire 391) wound around the right pulley 37 is let out. Therefore, the curved portion 24
curves to the left. When bending the bending portion 24 to the right, the operating lever 33 is tilted forward as described above, and rotated in the C direction to bring the roller 32 into contact with the right pulley 37. 37 can be rotated to the left. Therefore, the operating wire 39
b is wound around the right pulley 37, and conversely, the operating wire 39a wound around the left boot 936 is let out, so that the bending portion 24 can be bent to the right.

In this way, the two-axis motor 27 is rotated to rotate the roller 31.3.
By selectively bringing 2 into contact with the upper and lower, left and right pulleys 34 to 37, the bending portion 24 can be bent in any direction. Note that the upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 34 to 37 are provided with a half brake mechanism, and are stopped by braking force when no power is transmitted from the rollers 31 and 32. Therefore, during the bending operation, the operating wire 38
Even if tension is applied to a, 38b, 39a, and 39b, the upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 34 to 37 will not be reversed.

Furthermore, if potentiometers are provided on the upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 34 to 37 to detect the amount of pulley rotation, the direction and amount of curvature of the bending portion 24 can be displayed within the field of view or outside the endoscope.

The fourth factor and FIG. 5 show a second embodiment, in which upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 40 to 43 are arranged at equal intervals, and a tapered roller 46 is fitted onto a rotating shaft 45 of a motor 44. Then, this roller 46 is connected to the upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 4o.
- 43, and connect the O-ra 46 to the motor 4.
4, it is configured to be rotatable in the up, down, right, left, and right directions of the pulleys 40 to 43. With this configuration, the roller 4
6 selectively contacts the upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 40 to 43 to transmit rotational force, and similarly to the first embodiment, by rotating the upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 40 to 43, the operating wires 38a, 38b, and 39a , 39b can be moved back and forth to curve the curved portion 24 in any direction.

Further, the roller 46 is connected to the adjacent upper, lower, left, and right pulleys 40 to 40.
43, the 2fJA boob can be rotated at the same time, and the curved portion 24 can be curved upward and leftward at the same time, for example.

In the first and second embodiments, the motor was moved manually and the rollers were selectively inserted into the boot. It may be configured to be moved by other drive mechanisms. Furthermore, by using a pulse motor as the motor, the rotating layer can be easily controlled and the bending operability can be further improved. - [Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the roller of the motor is selectively brought into contact with the vertical and horizontal rotating bodies around which the operating wire is wound to transmit rotational force. Since I configured it,
A single motor that rotates only in one direction can bend the curved portion vertically and horizontally. Therefore, unlike conventional methods, there is no need to install two motors in parallel or to provide a motor that can rotate in forward and reverse directions, making it possible to reduce the size and weight of the operating unit, and also to reduce costs. play.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 3 show a first embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an endoscope, FIG. 2 is a side view of the electric bending operation mechanism, and FIG. The figure is also a plan view, the fourth
5 and 5 show a second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the endoscope, FIG. 5 is a side view of the electric bending operation mechanism, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a conventional endoscope, and a plan view of a conventional electric bending operation mechanism. 21... Insertion section, 22... Operation section, 24... Curving section, 26... Electric bending operation mechanism, 27... Motor,
31.32... Roller, 34-37... Pulley (rotating body), 38a, 38b, 39a, 39b-... Operation wire, 40-43... Pulley (rotating body), 44...
Motor, 46...roller. Applicant's representative Patent attorney Jun Tsuboi Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An endoscope that has a curved section on the distal end side of the insertion section, and has an electric bending operation mechanism in the operating section that remotely operates the curved section in the vertical and horizontal directions using an operating wire,
The electric bending operation mechanism includes a vertical rotating body and a horizontal rotating body around which the operating wire is wound, and one motor having a roller that selectively transmits rotational force to these rotating bodies. An endoscope that is characterized by: (2) The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the motor is a pulse motor.