JPH0749461Y2 - Endoscope - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to an endoscope in which an image guide fiber and a light guide fiber inserted into an insertion portion are branched.

[Prior Art] Generally, a member built in an insertion portion of an endoscope is guided to a distal end constituent portion through the elongated insertion portion. These built-in components are designed to be branched in the operation section on the near side of the endoscope.

When each of the above-mentioned built-in objects is incorporated in the insertion portion, all the ends of each built-in object are fixed to the tip forming portion, and the longest built-in object is pulled in from the opposite side in order and assembled.

In order to reduce the diameter of the insertion part, in the one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-238839, the image guide fiber and the light guide fiber are put in one covering tube, and after being pulled into the insertion part in this state, the operation part The part corresponding to the side was cut open and the internal components were separated.

However, this method has a problem that the image guide fiber and the light guide fiber therein are easily damaged when the portion of the covering tube is torn.

Therefore, generally, the method shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 is adopted. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the image guide fiber 1 and the coating tube 2, the light guide fiber 3 and the coating tube 4, and the image guide fiber 1
Then, the protective tube 5 covering the portion including the tying portion with the light guide fiber 3 is assembled. Then, all the ends of each of these built-in objects are fixed to the distal end forming section 7 of the insertion section, and the flexible tube 7 is sequentially installed from the opposite side to the longest built-in object.
It is pulled in and assembled.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned general method, at the branch portion A between the image guide fiber 1 and the light guide fiber 3, the coating tubes 2 and 4 are thickened by the wall thickness. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, since the branch portion A is inside the operation portion, when pulling these built-in objects into the insertion portion 6, the thick branch portion A is divided into the long curved pipe portion 8 and the flexible pipe portion 9. Since it is necessary to pull in over the entire length, wrinkles sometimes occur in the protective tube 5 and it becomes impossible to pull in. Further, the work of assembling the built-in object was troublesome.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and its purpose is to reduce the diameter of the insertion portion without thinning the built-in object itself or reducing the amount of the built-in object itself, though it has a simple structure. (EN) Provided is an endoscope which is capable of relatively easily assembling its built-in components.

[Means and Actions for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides at least an image guide fiber and a light guide in an insertion portion provided with a curved tube portion on the front end side and a flexible tube portion on the rear end side. In an endoscope in which a built-in component of a fiber is inserted and at least the image guide and the light guide fiber of the built-in component are covered with a single protective tube, the branched portion of the internal component in the protective tube is curved. It is located inside the flexible tube portion on the rear side of the.

Generally, the branch part of the built-in object becomes thicker, but since the branch part is arranged in the flexible tube part after the bending tube part in the insertion part, when the built-in part is pulled into the insertion part, the branch part having a thicker diameter is branched. The length to pull in the part is short. Therefore, it can be retracted and is simple, and the work of assembling the built-in object is facilitated. Further, even though the structure is simple, it is not necessary to make the built-in object itself thin or reduce its amount.

[Embodiment] FIGS. 1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the endoscope 9 includes an operation section 10, for example, an insertion section 11 to be inserted into a body cavity, and the operation section 10 described above.
And a rat guide cable 12 connected to the.

The insertion portion 11 is formed by connecting a distal end constituent member 15 to a distal end of a flexible tube portion 13 via a bending tube portion 14, and the bending tube portion 14 operates a bending operation mechanism (not shown) in the operation portion 10 by operating a lever.
By operating with 16, it can be remotely bent via an operation wire described later.

As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of built-in objects such as an image guide fiber 17 and a light guide fiber are provided in the insertion portion 11.
18, a pair of operating wires 19a, 19b and wire guides 20a, 2
0b is inserted. The bending tube portion 14 has a plurality of node rings 21 arranged along its axial direction, and adjacent tubes of the node rings 21 are connected by shaft bodies 22 ... Further, the outer circumference of the curved tube 23 is covered with a cylindrical blade 24 and an outer skin 25 made of fluororesin or the like. The tip forming member 15 is made of a metal tubular member 26, and has a tubular tip member 27.
And the cylindrical lens frame 28 inside the tip frame 27.
Is inserted and placed. The objective lens group 29 is fitted in the lens frame 28, and the tip of the image guide fiber 17 is fitted in the rear end of the lens frame 28.

A cap 30 is provided at the tip of the image guide fiber 17, and the cap 30 is made of stainless steel (SUS420).
Materials with low coefficient of thermal expansion such as F) are used. Further, the tip portion of the light guide fiber 18 is densely arranged in an annular shape between the tip frame 27 and the lens frame 28.

Further, the image guide fiber 17 and the light guide fiber 18 are covered together by one protective tube 31 in the bending portion 14, and in the bending portion 14, as shown in FIG. An image guide fiber 17 is arranged, and a light guide fiber 18 is arranged on the peripheral side. It should be noted that, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, every other one of the nodal rings 21 ...
32 are provided, and the operation wires 19a and 19b are inserted into the upper and lower wire receivers 32, respectively.

Further, the image guide fiber 17 and the light guide fiber 18 which are collectively covered by the protection tube 31 are branched in the connection pipe 33 connecting the bending tube portion 14 and the flexible tube portion 13 or immediately thereafter. The image guide fiber 17 is guided to the eyepiece part 36 and the light guide fiber 18 is guided to the light guide cable 12 side in a state where the image guide fiber 17 is branched at the part 34 and thereafter covered with the respective protective tubes 35 and 36. .

Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the image guide fiber 17
Are arranged on the side having the larger cross-sectional area divided by the wire guides 20a and 20b.

On the other hand, when assembling the insertion portion 11 of the endoscope 9,
First, as shown in FIG. 4, the tubular member 26 of the tip forming member 15 is shown.
On the other hand, the built-in components such as the image guide fiber 17, the light guide fiber 18, and the tip frame 27 are fixed by adhesion or the like.
Next, the end of the image guide fiber 17 on the side of the eyepiece 36, and the light guide cable 12 of the light guide fiber 18.
From the side end, the curved tube portion 14 and the flexible tube portion 13 are pulled into the connected one.

At this time, since the branch portion 34, which is the maximum diameter portion of the built-in object, only needs to pass through the connection pipe 33, which is the connection portion between the bending pipe portion 14 and the flexible pipe portion 13, or a slight amount thereof, a long flexible portion is provided. In tube 13,
The protective tube 31 does not roll up and become unremovable.

Further, since the image guide fiber 17 is located in the central portion of the bending tube portion 14, the bending operation can reduce the movement of the image guide fiber 17, so that the fiber does not easily break.

Since a material having a low coefficient of thermal expansion is used for the base 30 of the image guide fiber 17, even if the temperature suddenly changes, stress is unlikely to be applied to the optical fiber bundle itself,
Hard to cause conduit cracking.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made without changing the gist thereof.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the diameter of the insertion portion without thinning the built-in object itself or reducing the amount thereof, while having a simple structure. It is possible to provide an endoscope in which the built-in components can be easily pulled into the insertion portion and the assembling work is relatively easy.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of an insertion portion of an endoscope, and FIG. 2 is AA in FIG.
A sectional view taken along the line, FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the assembly process of the insertion portion, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the entire endoscope, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a side sectional view of a conventional built-in object, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of a conventional process of assembling the built-in object of the insertion portion. 9 ... Endoscope, 10 ... Operation part, 11 ... Insertion part, 13 ... Flexible tube part,
14 ... Curved tube part, 17 ... Image guide fiber, 18 ... Light guide fiber, 31 ... Protective tube, 34 ... Branch part, 35
… Protective tube, 36… Protective tube.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. At least a built-in component of an image guide fiber and a light guide fiber is inserted into an insertion portion having a curved pipe portion on the front end side and a flexible pipe portion on the rear end side, and at least the image of the built-in components is inserted. In an endoscope in which the guide fiber and the light guide fiber are covered with a single protective tube, a branch portion of the image guide fiber and the light guide fiber among the internal components in the protective tube is provided with a bending tube portion and a flexible tube. An endoscope characterized in that it is located inside or immediately after a connecting pipe for connecting to a section.