JPS61175608A - Endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the frictional force between a guide coil and an operating wire, etc., and to improve wear resistance by coating at least one of the rotary joint part of a joint dowel, the element wire of the guide coil, a guide ring, and the element wire of the operating wire with soft metal. CONSTITUTION:At least one of the rotary joint part of the joint dowel, element wire of the guide coil, guide ring, and element wire of the operating wire is coated with soft metal such as tin, zinc, copper, or cadmium. For example, the guide coil 16 is made by using a metallic element wire 127 whose external surface is tinned, so that operating wire 15 running in the guide coil 16 contacts and slides on the plating layer 18 of the metallic element wire 17. Therefore, the frictional resistance at this time decreases. Namely, the plating layer 18 is a metallic thin film which is softer than the metal of the metallic element wire 17 as its base and this layer and operating wire 15 contact each other, so the frictional resistance is reduced through the lubrication of the thin film of the soft metal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an endoscope whose distal end curved portion can be bent.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Conventionally, in this type of endoscope, a plurality of operating wires are pulled and relaxed to remotely control the bending section of the distal end. Frictional force with the guide coil inside, etc.
Sufficient durability is required because a larger tension is applied.

Therefore, the diameter of the operating wire has been increased. However, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-28941, a ceramic coating is applied to at least a portion of the rotating joint of the joint fitting, the guide coil, and the operating wire, and We are trying to reduce the frictional force when pushing and pulling the operating wire. However, this treatment method is costly, and furthermore, it does not reduce the frictional force between each strand of each operating wire.

Further, the guide coil is manufactured by plastically working a wire, but the guide coil having a small inner and outer diameter has a high frictional force with jigs and tools during processing, making processing difficult.

[Purpose of the invention]

The invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide an endoscope that reduces frictional force between guide coils, operating wires, etc. and improves wear resistance. There is a particular thing.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention provides an endoscope in which at least one of the rotating joint of the joint piece, the wire of the guide coil, the guide ring, and the wire of the operating wire is coated with a soft metal of at least one of tin, zinc, copper, and cadmium. It is.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an endoscope, which consists of an insertion section 1, an operating section 2, and a light guide cable 3.

The insertion section 1 also includes a flexible tube 4 located on the operation section side, a curved tube 5 connected to the distal end of the flexible tube 4, and a distal end section 6 attached to the distal end of the curved tube 5. Further, the light guide cable 3 is connected to the operating section 2. Further, the operation section 2 is provided with an operation knob 7 for bending operation.

As shown in FIG. 2, the flexible tube 4 is a spiral tube 8 whose outer periphery is covered with a braid 9, and whose outer periphery is further covered with an outer skin 10. In addition, the bending tube 5 has a plurality of joint pieces 11 each formed into a short tube shape, which are rotatably connected via their rotary joints 11k, and constitute a bendable core member as a whole. Grade 12 and outer skin 13f are coated on the outer periphery in the same manner as above. Note that the flexible tube 4 and the curved tube 5 are connected via a connecting tube 14.

Furthermore, inside the flexible tube 5, there is a relatively hard material such as SUS.
A multi-rate bending operation wire 15 made of braided wires consisting of
A guide coil 16 is inserted through the guide coil 16 to guide each of the parts individually. This guide coil 16 is made by plastically working a relatively hard metal wire 17 such as SUS into a tightly wound coil shape. The outer surface of the metal wire 17 is coated with a tin plating layer 18, as shown in FIG. Further, a metal guide ring 9 is attached to each inner wall surface of the joint piece 11 of the bending tube 5, through which the corresponding operating wire 15 is inserted and guided. The tip of each of the operating wires 15 is connected to the tip 6, respectively. The operation wire 15f is pushed and pulled by the operation of the aforementioned operation knob 2 to bend the bending tube 5.

By the way, since the guide coil 16 is made using a metal wire 17 whose outer surface is tin-plated, the operating wire 15 passing through the guide coil 16 touches the plating layer 18 of the metal wire 17 and slides. move. Therefore, the frictional resistance at this time becomes small. In other words, the plating layer 1
8 is a metal thin film that is softer than the metal of the underlying metal wire 17, and since the operating wire 15 comes into sliding contact with this thin metal film, a lubricating action is produced by the soft metal thin film, reducing frictional resistance. Incidentally, this frictional resistance during sliding contact is caused by the formation of adhesion at the contact portion between metals and its breakage.

In other words, in this respect, it is difficult for the soot thin film to form an adhesive part with the strands of the operating wire 15 made of SUS, and in addition, when pressure is applied to the operating wire 5 and the metal thin film and the metal thin film slides, the thin film of soot will not easily adhere to the strands of the operating wire 15 made of SUS. It takes less force to break the adhesive part.

Therefore, frictional resistance is reduced.

Furthermore, when making the guide coil 16 by plastic working the metal element ftM17 on which the plating layer 18 has been applied, the coefficient of friction with the processing jig is small for the same reason, so it is easy to make the guide coil 16 with smaller inner and outer diameters. And it can be made cheaply.

The invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

For example, in the configuration of the above embodiment, the operating wire 1
The operation wire 15 may be made by plating the surface of each relatively hard SUS wire used in braiding the wires with tin, and using these wires.

In this way, the plastic working of the strands becomes easy, and the stress and frictional force between each strand of the operating wire 15 is reduced, which, together with the action of the guide coil 16, can further reduce the frictional force.

In addition, in the first embodiment, the plating layer 18 was applied only to the strands 17 of the guide coil 16 (, 5), but the plating layer 18 was not applied to the strands 17 of the guide coil 16, and instead, the plating layer 18 was applied to the strands 17 of the guide coil 16. A plating layer may be formed on each strand of the wire 15.

Furthermore, the metal to be plated is not limited to the above-mentioned tin, but may also be soft metals such as zinc, cadmium, copper, etc.

The coating method is not limited to plating, but may also be vapor deposition, sputtering, or the like.

Furthermore, in the present invention, a more excellent friction reduction effect can be obtained by coating the soft metal in two or more layers.

For example, double layer plating of copper and cadmium can be considered.

Furthermore, the present invention can also be applied to a case where the sliding surfaces of the rotating joints 11 of the joint pieces 11 are coated with the soft metal described above, and in this case as well, the frictional force between them can be reduced.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the sliding friction force in each part can be reduced. Therefore, the operability is improved, and the wear resistance and the life of each component are improved.Furthermore, it is easy to manufacture coils with small inner and outer diameters, and costs can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of the endoscope insertion part, FIG. 2 is a side view of the endoscope,
FIG. 3 is a side view of the coil wire, and FIG. 4 is a front view of the coil wire.ノ...insertion part, 5...curved tube, 1...joint piece,
15... Operation wire, 16... Guide coil, 17
...metal wire, 18...plated layer, J9...guide ring. Applicant's representative Patent attorney Atsushi Tsuboi Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Showa 6IO, May 28, 1986 Manabu Shiga, Commissioner of the Patent Office1, Indication of the case Patent application No. 16815-1982, Title of the invention Mirror 3. Relationship with the case of the person making the amendment Patent applicant name (037) Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. 4, Agent 5, Voluntary Revision 7, Contents of the amendment

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A curved section configured to be freely curved by connecting a plurality of joint pieces, a flexible tube connecting this curved section and an endoscope operation section,
The flexible tube is inserted through a guide coil provided in the flexible tube, and is guided through a guide ring provided on the joint piece within the curved portion, and one end thereof is fixed to the tip of the curved portion. In the endoscope, at least one of the rotating joint of the joint piece, the wire of the guide coil, the guide ring, and the wire of the operating wire is coated with at least one soft metal of tin, zinc, copper, and cadmium. An endoscope that is characterized by: