Disclosure of Invention
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an adaptive bending tube with controllable maximum bending angle and less failure in bending.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a bending tube for an endoscope including the above-mentioned adaptive bending tube, which has both an active bending portion and a passive bending portion, and whose maximum bending angle of the passive bending portion is controllable, and which is less prone to failure in bending.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an insertion portion including the above-described bending tube for an endoscope, which has a good adaptability to a human body lumen.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an endoscope including the above insertion portion, which has a superior insertion performance.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following technical solutions:
The self-adaptive bending pipe comprises a plurality of bending rings which are coaxially arranged, wherein two adjacent bending rings are connected through a clamping structure, a preset gap is reserved between the two adjacent bending rings in a clamping state, and the clamping structure comprises:
The free end of the protruding part is provided with a first clamping hook;
The groove is arranged on the other of the two adjacent bending rings, a second clamping hook is arranged at the notch of the groove and is used for being matched with the first clamping hook to prevent the protruding part from being separated from the groove;
the protruding part can be embedded in the groove in a movable mode along the axial direction of the bending ring, and the protruding part can rotate relative to the groove.
In some embodiments, any two adjacent bending rings are respectively connected by at least two clamping structures, and all the clamping structures between the two adjacent bending rings are spirally distributed.
In some embodiments, the end face of the bending ring is provided with at least two step faces staggered along the axial direction of the bending ring, and two adjacent clamping structures along the circumferential direction of the bending ring are respectively positioned on different step faces.
In some embodiments, the end face of the bending ring is provided with at least two step surfaces which are staggered along the axial direction of the bending ring, and the clamping structure is arranged between two adjacent step surfaces along the circumferential direction.
In some embodiments, a countersink is provided at a junction of two circumferentially adjacent step surfaces, and the protrusion extends from a bottom of the countersink in an axial direction of the curved ring.
In some embodiments, the step surface is perpendicular to an axis of the curved loop.
In some embodiments, two adjacent clamping structures in the axial direction of the bending ring are staggered along the circumferential direction of the bending ring.
In some embodiments, the protruding portion and the first hook form a T-shaped structure, and two opposite sides of the notch are respectively provided with the second hook.
In some embodiments, the protruding portion and the first hook form an L-shaped structure, and the second hook is disposed on one side of the slot.
In some embodiments, the hooking directions of any two adjacent first hooks along the spiral travel direction of the fastening structure are opposite.
In some embodiments, the orientation of each boss is different.
In some embodiments, one side of the convex part facing the wall of the groove is provided with a first arc-shaped surface, and the side wall of the groove is connected with the bottom wall of the groove through a second arc-shaped surface.
In some embodiments, the protrusions and the grooves cooperate to limit in the circumferential direction of the bending ring to prevent relative twisting of adjacent two bending rings.
In some embodiments, the adaptive curved tube is cut from a unitary tubular member.
A bending tube for an endoscope, comprising:
The first end of the active bending tube is connected with a traction rope penetrating through the active bending tube, so that the active bending tube is driven to bend by traction of the traction rope;
any one of the above-mentioned adaptive bending tubes, wherein a first end of the adaptive bending tube is connected to a second end of the active bending tube, and the second end of the adaptive bending tube is adapted to be connected to a flexible tube of an endoscope.
In some embodiments, the adaptive bending tube is connected to the active bending tube by an adapter ring.
In some embodiments, an elastic tube is disposed in the adaptive bending tube in a penetrating manner, and is used for the traction rope to pass through, one end of the elastic tube is connected with the adapter ring, and the other end of the elastic tube is used for being connected with one end of the flexible tube away from the adaptive bending tube or an operation part of the endoscope.
An insertion section includes a distal end portion, a flexible tube, and any one of the above-described bending tubes for an endoscope.
An endoscope comprising an insertion portion as described above.
The self-adaptive bending tube provided by the invention is formed by a plurality of bending rings which are coaxially arranged, two adjacent bending rings are connected through a clamping structure, the clamping structure comprises a protruding part and a groove, the protruding part can move in the groove along the axial direction of the bending rings and can rotate relative to the groove, therefore, when the bending rings of the self-adaptive bending tube bear the action of a force with a certain angle or a right angle to the axial direction of the bending rings, if a preset gap between the two adjacent bending rings is not zero in an initial state, the clamping structure between the bending rings on the stress side is axially compressed, so that the free ends of the protruding parts on the stress side and the groove bottoms of the grooves are mutually close, and meanwhile, the clamping structure between the bending rings on the non-stress side which is completely opposite to the stress side is axially stretched, namely, the free ends of the protruding parts on the non-stress side and the groove bottoms of the grooves are mutually far away, and in addition, the combined motion along the axial direction of the bending rings and the relative rotation is generated between the protruding parts and the grooves in other directions, so that the whole self-adaptive bending tube bends. When the free end of the protruding part on the stress side is in abutting contact with the bottom of the groove, or when the first clamping hook of the protruding part on the non-stress side which is completely opposite to the stress side is in abutting contact with the second clamping hook at the notch of the groove, or when the preset gap between the two adjacent bending rings is reduced to zero, the corresponding end surfaces of the two adjacent bending rings are in abutting contact, the self-adaptive bending pipe is indicated to reach the maximum bending angle, and the self-adaptive bending pipe cannot continue to bend at the moment.
When the bending rings of the self-adaptive bending tube are acted by a force with a certain angle or a certain perpendicular to the axis of the bending rings, if the preset gap between the two adjacent bending rings is zero in an initial state, namely, the two adjacent bending rings are in a mutually abutted state, the clamping structures between the bending rings on the stressed side are kept mutually abutted, the clamping structures between the bending rings on the non-stressed side which is completely opposite to the stressed side are axially stretched as rotating supporting points, the free ends of the protruding parts on the non-stressed side and the groove bottoms of the grooves are mutually separated, and compound motions along the axial directions and the relative rotation of the bending rings are generated between the protruding parts and the grooves in other directions, so that the whole self-adaptive bending tube bends until the first clamping hooks of the protruding parts on the non-stressed side which is completely opposite to the stressed side are in abutting contact with the second clamping hooks at the groove grooves, the self-adaptive bending tube reaches the maximum bending angle, and at the moment, the self-adaptive bending tube cannot continue to bend.
Therefore, the maximum bending angle of the adaptive bending tube can be controlled by reasonably designing the size of the preset gap between the two adjacent bending rings, the stroke of the axial movement of the protruding part relative to the groove and the angle range of the rotation of the protruding part relative to the groove, so that the maximum bending angle of the adaptive bending tube can be controlled, and in addition, the bending of the adaptive bending tube is realized by utilizing the preset gap between the two adjacent bending rings, the axial movement of the protruding part relative to the groove and the rotation of the protruding part relative to the groove.
The bending tube for the endoscope comprises the active bending tube and the adaptive bending tube, wherein the active bending tube is provided with the passive bending portion, the maximum bending angle of the passive bending portion is controllable, and the bending is not easy to fail.
The insertion part provided by the invention comprises the bending tube for the endoscope, and has good adaptability to human body cavities.
The endoscope provided by the invention comprises the insertion part and has better insertion performance.
Detailed Description
The following description of the embodiments of the present invention will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which it is apparent that the embodiments described are only some embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.
The core of the invention is to provide an adaptive bending tube, the maximum bending angle of which is controllable, and bending is not easy to fail. Another core of the present invention is to provide a bending tube for an endoscope including the above-described adaptive bending tube, which has both an active bending portion and a passive bending portion, and whose maximum bending angle of the passive bending portion is controllable, and which is less prone to failure in bending. A further core of the present invention is to provide an insertion portion including the above-described bending tube for an endoscope, which has a good lumen adaptability. It is still another object of the present invention to provide an endoscope including the above insertion portion, which has a superior insertion performance.
Please refer to fig. 1-12, which are drawings illustrating the present invention.
As shown in fig. 1, the present invention provides an adaptive bending tube, which includes a plurality of bending rings 11 coaxially disposed, wherein two adjacent bending rings 11 are connected by a clamping structure 12, and a preset gap 111 is provided between the two adjacent bending rings 11 in a clamped state, wherein the clamping structure 12 includes a convex portion 121 and a groove 122, which are engaged with each other in a concave-convex manner, the convex portion 121 is disposed on one of the two adjacent bending rings 11, the groove 122 is disposed on the other of the two adjacent bending rings 11, a first hook 1211 is disposed at a free end of the convex portion 121, a second hook 1221 is disposed at a notch of the groove 122, and the first hook 1211 and the second hook 1221 are engaged and limited, so as to prevent the convex portion 121 from disengaging from the groove 122, thereby ensuring the connection reliability of the two adjacent bending rings 11.
More importantly, as shown in fig. 2, the protruding part 121 is movably embedded in the groove 122 along the axial direction of the bending ring 11, and the protruding part 121 can rotate relative to the groove 122. That is, after the protruding portion 121 is embedded in the groove 122, the dimension of the first hook 1211 along the axial direction of the curved ring 11 is smaller than the distance between the second hook 1221 and the bottom of the groove 122 along the axial direction of the curved ring 11, so that a certain gap is formed between the first hook 1211 and the bottom of the groove 122 or between the second hook 1221, so that the first hook 1211 has a certain moving space along the axial direction of the curved ring 11 in the groove 122, so as to ensure that two adjacent curved rings 11 have axial movements close to each other or far from each other. In addition, the protrusions 121 and the grooves 122 are rotatable relative to each other to ensure relative rotation between the adjacent two bending rings 11 so as to achieve bending of the adaptive bending tube.
In the present invention, the specific size of the preset gap 111 between the two adjacent bending rings 11 is not limited, and a person skilled in the art may set the preset gap 111 according to actual needs, for example, the preset gap 111 may be zero, in this case, after the two adjacent bending rings 11 are connected by the clamping structure 12, the parts of the two adjacent bending rings 11 except for the clamping structure 12 are mutually close to each other and are adhered to each other on the surface, and of course, the preset gap 111 may also be any value greater than zero, so long as the formed adaptive bending tube has bending performance and can ensure structural strength.
Further, the present invention does not limit the axial movement stroke of the protrusion 121 relative to the groove 122, and the axial movement stroke of the protrusion 121 relative to the groove 122 may be the same as or different from the preset gap 111 between two adjacent bending rings 11. When the stroke of the axial movement of the protrusion 121 with respect to the groove 122 is the same as the preset gap 111 between the adjacent two curved rings 11, the preset gap 111 between the adjacent two curved rings 11 is zero when the free end of the protrusion 121 contacts the groove bottom of the groove 122, and the preset gap 111 between the adjacent two curved rings 11 is maximum when the first hook 1211 of the protrusion 121 contacts the second hook 1221 at the notch of the groove 122. When the preset gap 111 between two adjacent bending rings 11 and the axial movement travel of the protruding part 121 relative to the groove 122 are different, the maximum bending angle is reached only when one corresponding characteristic matching surface abuts during the movement.
When the preset gap 111 between two adjacent bending rings 11 is not zero in the initial state, the bending rings 11 of the self-adaptive bending tube are subjected to a force having a certain angle or a right angle with respect to the axis thereof, the clamping structure 12 between the bending rings 11 on the stress side is axially compressed, so that the free ends of the convex parts 121 on the stress side and the bottoms of the grooves 122 are mutually close, and simultaneously, the clamping structure 12 between the bending rings 11 on the non-stress side which is completely opposite to the stress side is axially stretched, namely, the free ends of the convex parts 121 on the non-stress side and the bottoms of the grooves 122 are mutually far away, and in addition, a compound motion along the axial direction and the relative rotation of the bending rings 11 is generated between the convex parts 121 and the grooves 122 in other directions, thereby bending the whole self-adaptive bending tube.
As shown in fig. 2, when the first mating surface 1213 of the free end of the protruding portion 121 on the force-receiving side is in abutting contact with the second mating surface 1223 of the bottom of the groove 122, or when the third mating surface 1214 of the first hook 1211 of the protruding portion 121 on the non-force-receiving side, which is diametrically opposite to the force-receiving side, is in abutting contact with the fourth mating surface 1224 of the second hook 1221 at the notch of the groove 122, or when the preset gap 111 between the adjacent two bending rings 11 is reduced to zero, such that the fifth mating end surface 114 and the sixth mating end surface 115 of the adjacent two bending rings 11 are in abutting contact, it is indicated that the adaptive bending tube reaches the maximum bending angle, at which time the adaptive bending tube will not be able to continue bending.
When the preset gap 111 between two adjacent bending rings 11 is zero in the initial state, when the bending rings 11 of the self-adaptive bending tube are acted by a force with a certain angle or a certain vertical direction to the axis of the bending rings, the clamping structures 12 between the bending rings 11 on the stress side are kept close to each other, the clamping structures 12 between the bending rings 11 on the non-stress side which is completely opposite to the stress side are used as rotation supporting points, the clamping structures 12 between the bending rings 11 on the non-stress side are axially stretched, the free ends of the protruding parts 121 on the non-stress side and the bottoms of the grooves 122 are mutually far away, and the combined motion of axial motion and relative rotation along the bending rings 11 is generated between the protruding parts 121 and the grooves 122 in other directions, so that the whole self-adaptive bending tube is bent until the first clamping hooks 1211 of the protruding parts 121 on the non-stress side which are completely opposite to the stress side are in abutting contact with the second clamping hooks 1221 at the notch of the grooves 122, the self-adaptive bending tube reaches the maximum bending angle, and at the moment, the self-adaptive bending tube cannot continue bending.
Therefore, the maximum bending angle of the adaptive bending tube can be controlled by reasonably designing the size of the preset gap 111 between the two adjacent bending rings 11, the axial movement stroke of the protruding part 121 relative to the groove 122 and the rotation angle range of the protruding part 121 relative to the groove 122, so that the maximum bending angle of the adaptive bending tube can be controlled, and in addition, the bending of the adaptive bending tube is realized by utilizing the preset gap 111 between the two adjacent bending rings 11, the axial movement of the protruding part 121 relative to the groove 122 and the rotation of the protruding part 121 relative to the groove 122, compared with the prior art, the bending fatigue life of the adaptive bending tube can be improved by reducing the rigidity of a section of the flexible part close to the bending part, which avoids bending fatigue caused by the elastic deformation of the adaptive bending tube, and the bending failure can be prevented.
In view of the reliability of the connection between two adjacent bending rings 11, as an alternative, on the basis of the above embodiment, any two adjacent bending rings 11 are connected by at least two clamping structures 12, respectively. That is, two or more clamping structures 12 are distributed between two adjacent bending rings 11 along the circumferential direction of the bending rings 11, so that the connection between the two adjacent bending rings 11 is realized by the combined action of the clamping structures 12, and the connection reliability between the bending rings 11 is ensured.
Further, in order to make the adaptive bending tube have a better structural strength, all the clamping structures 12 between two adjacent bending rings 11 are spirally distributed on the basis of the above embodiment.
In addition, to ensure uniformity of bending rigidity of the adaptive bending tube in various directions, in some embodiments, all the snap structures 12 between the adjacent two bending rings 11 are uniformly distributed along the circumferential direction of the bending rings 11, that is, angles between the adjacent two snap structures 12 between the adjacent two bending rings 11 are the same, which is advantageous in ensuring uniformity of bending rigidity of the adaptive bending tube in various directions.
Further, in order to achieve that two adjacent clamping structures 12 in the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11 are staggered with each other along the axial direction of the bending ring 11, on the basis of the above embodiment, as shown in fig. 1, the end surface of the bending ring 11 is provided with at least two step surfaces 112 staggered along the axial direction of the bending ring 11, and two adjacent clamping structures 12 in the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11 are respectively located on different step surfaces 112. It will be appreciated that, since the different step surfaces 112 are offset from each other along the axial direction of the curved ring 11, when the engaging structures 12 (e.g., the protrusions 121 or the grooves 122) are disposed on the different step surfaces 112, the engaging structures 12 on the different step surfaces 112 may be offset along the axial direction of the curved ring 11.
It should be noted that, two adjacent clamping structures 12 along the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11 may be disposed on two adjacent step surfaces 112, or may be disposed on two non-adjacent step surfaces 112, that is, there may be more than one step surface 112 between two adjacent clamping structures 12 along the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11, where no clamping structure 12 (such as the protrusion 121 or the groove 122) is disposed.
In addition, the connection manner between the adjacent two step surfaces 112 is not limited in this embodiment, and in some embodiments, as shown in fig. 1, the adjacent two step surfaces 112 are connected by a connection surface 113 parallel to the axis of the bending ring 11. It will be appreciated that, in order to avoid that the junction of two adjacent step surfaces 112 affects the bending of the adaptive bending tube, the corresponding connection surfaces 113 of two adjacent bending rings 11 are arranged opposite to each other with a certain gap between the corresponding two connection surfaces 113.
Or in order to realize that two adjacent clamping structures 12 in the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11 are staggered with each other along the axial direction of the bending ring 11, based on the above embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, the end surface of the bending ring 11 is provided with at least two step surfaces 112 staggered along the axial direction of the bending ring, and the clamping structures 12 are arranged between the two adjacent step surfaces 112 in the circumferential direction, that is, the two adjacent step surfaces 112 are transited by the clamping structures 12 (such as the convex part 121 or the groove 122).
Further, in order to minimize the width dimension of each bending ring 11 along the axial direction thereof, it is convenient to arrange more clamping structures in the adaptive bending tube without increasing the axial length of the adaptive bending tube, so that the adaptive bending tube is more flexible as a whole, in some embodiments, a sink 1121 is provided at the connection between two adjacent step surfaces 112 along the circumferential direction, and the protruding portion 121 extends from the bottom of the sink 1121 along the axial direction of the bending ring 11. That is, the protruding portion 121 protrudes from the inside of the countersink 1121, so that the dimension of at least part of the protruding portion 121 along the axial direction of the bending ring 11 coincides with the dimension of part of the bending ring 11 itself along the axial direction thereof, so that the maximum width dimension of the bending ring 11 as a whole is reduced, which corresponds to the distance between the clamping structures 12 located between different bending rings 11 along the axial direction of the bending ring 11, thereby reducing the rigidity of the adaptive bending tube and improving the flexibility of bending the adaptive bending tube.
It should be noted that, in the above embodiments, the specific arrangement manner of the step surface 112 is not limited, for example, the step surface 112 may be an inclined surface having a certain inclination angle with respect to the axis of the bending ring 11, and in consideration of convenience of processing, as an alternative, as shown in fig. 1 and 3, the step surface 112 may be perpendicular to the axis of the bending ring 11 based on the above embodiments. In other embodiments, the step surface 112 may be inclined at an angle to the axis of the curved ring 11.
It will be appreciated that in order to make the rigidity of the adaptive bending tube as low as possible, it is necessary to minimize the axial distance between two adjacent engaging structures 12 in the axial direction of the bending ring 11, and when the axial distance between two adjacent engaging structures 12 in the axial direction of the bending ring 11 is small, the structural strength of the adaptive bending tube will be affected, and therefore, in order to secure the structural strength of the adaptive bending tube, the two adjacent engaging structures 12 in the axial direction of the bending ring 11 are offset in the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11, on the basis of the above-described embodiment. That is, the two axially adjacent clamping structures 12 of the bending ring 11 are not completely aligned, but are staggered from each other along the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11, which is beneficial to reducing the axial dimension of the bending ring 11 on the premise of ensuring the strength of the bending ring 11, thereby reducing the rigidity of the adaptive bending tube and improving the bending flexibility thereof.
In addition, in order to ensure that the protruding portion 121 can rotate relative to the groove 122, as shown in fig. 2, a side of the protruding portion 121 facing the groove wall of the groove 122 is provided with a first arc-shaped surface 1212, and a side wall of the groove 122 is connected with the bottom wall of the groove 122 through a second arc-shaped surface 1222. That is, in this embodiment, the first arcuate surface 1212 and the second arcuate surface 1222 cooperate to form a revolute pair such that the protrusion 121 is rotatable relative to the recess 122.
In addition, in the above embodiments, the specific shapes of the first hook 1211 and the second hook 1221 are not limited, as long as the first hook 1211 and the second hook 1221 can cooperate to limit, and prevent the protrusion 121 from being separated from the groove 122.
For example, as shown in fig. 1-3, the protruding portion 121 and the first hook 1211 form a T-shaped structure, and two opposite sides of the notch 122 are respectively provided with a second hook 1221. In this embodiment, since the two ends of the first hook 1211 are respectively hooked with the two second hooks 1221 disposed on two opposite sides of the notch of the groove 122, the adaptive bending tube can achieve better anti-torsion performance through the hooking structures on two sides no matter the adaptive bending tube receives the force along the left-handed direction or the force along the right-handed direction, that is, the torsion strength in the circumferential direction of the adaptive bending tube can be ensured no matter in the clockwise direction or the anticlockwise direction.
Alternatively, as shown in fig. 4, the protrusion 121 and the first hook 1211 may form an L-shaped structure, and the second hook 1221 is disposed on one side of the notch of the groove 122. It can be seen that the latter solution is simple in construction and easy to machine compared with the former solution. In particular, in this embodiment, the hooking directions of any two adjacent first hooks 1211 along the spiral travel direction of the fastening structure 12 are opposite, and are opposite. For example, as shown in fig. 4, if the axial direction of the adaptive bending tube is positive, two first hooks 1211 arbitrarily adjacent to each other in the spiral travel direction are hooked with their corresponding second hooks 1221 in the left direction and the other are hooked with their corresponding second hooks 1221 in the right direction, so that the adaptive bending tube can have better anti-torsion performance regardless of the force applied in the left direction or the force applied in the right direction. Of course, in other embodiments, in the case that the anti-twisting performance in a certain direction is not required, the hooking directions of any two adjacent first hooks 1211 along the spiral travel direction of the fastening structure 12 may be the same for convenience of processing.
It can be understood that, because two sides of the T-shaped structure are respectively provided with a hooking structure, under the premise that the pipe diameters are the same and the sizes of the hooks are the same, the number of the hooking structures is 2 times that of the hooking structures of the L-shaped structure, so that under the condition that the sizes of the hooks are the same, the hooking structures of the T-shaped structure can be distributed more than the L-shaped structure, and further, when the T-shaped structure is adopted in the self-adaptive bending pipe, higher structural strength can be obtained.
In the above embodiments, the specific manner of connecting the clamping structures 12 between the adjacent bending rings 11 is not limited, as long as the clamping state of the clamping structures 12 between the adjacent bending rings 11 can be maintained, and as an alternative, the adaptive bending tube is formed by cutting an integral tubular member on the basis of the above embodiments. That is, the bending ring 11 and the clamping structure 12 having the predetermined gap 111 are formed by cutting, and the structure is simple and the processing cost is low.
In addition, in each of the above embodiments, in order to ensure a better anti-twisting performance of the adaptive bending tube, the protrusions 121 and the grooves 122 are engaged and limited in the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11 on the basis of the above embodiments, so as to prevent the adjacent two bending rings 11 from being twisted relatively. That is, the size of the protrusion 121 and the groove 122 is the same or there is a small gap along the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11, so long as the protrusion 121 and the groove 122 can be ensured to rotate relatively, and the relative rotation between the bending rings 11 about the axes thereof is prevented by utilizing the cooperation limit of the protrusion 121 and the groove 122 along the circumferential direction of the bending ring 11, thereby providing the adaptive bending tube with better torsional rigidity.
Further, in the above embodiments, the directions of the protrusions 121 may be the same or different, and the directions of the corresponding grooves 122 may be the same or different. Specifically, for convenience of processing, the respective protruding portions 311 may be made to be the same in orientation, that is, each of the bending rings 11 is provided with a protruding portion 121 at one end and a groove 122 at the other end.
As shown in fig. 5 and 7, in addition to the above-described adaptive bending tube, the present invention also provides a bending tube for an endoscope including the adaptive bending tube disclosed in the above-described embodiment, the bending tube for an endoscope further including an active bending tube 2, a first end of the active bending tube 2 being adapted to be connected to a pulling rope 21 penetrating therein to bend the active bending tube 2 by pulling the pulling rope 21, and a second end of the active bending tube 2 being connected to the first end of the adaptive bending tube, the second end of the adaptive bending tube being adapted to be connected to a flexible tube 3 of the endoscope. The flexible tube 3 is mainly used for realizing the connection between the endoscope insertion part and the operation part located outside the body cavity of the human body.
That is, the bending tube for an endoscope provided in the present embodiment has both an active bending portion (i.e., the active bending tube 2) and a passive bending portion (i.e., the adaptive bending tube). When the bending tube for an endoscope is applied to an endoscope, one end of the pulling rope 21, which is far from the active bending tube 2, is connected with an angle control knob of the operation part 200 of the endoscope, so that the pulling rope 21 is pulled by the angle control knob to further drive the active bending tube 2 to bend by the pulling rope 21, so that the active bending tube 2 smoothly passes through a human body cavity, and at the same time, under the limitation of the bending shape of the human body cavity, the effect is generated on the adaptive bending tube, so that the adaptive bending tube can freely bend along the shape of the human body cavity, and the maximum bending angle of the adaptive bending tube is controllable, therefore, the maximum bending angle of the adaptive bending tube can be reasonably designed according to the shape of the human body cavity, so that the maximum bending angle of the adaptive bending tube can meet the shape requirement of the human body cavity, and in addition, the bending fatigue life of the adaptive bending tube is long, and the bending fatigue failure can be prevented, so that the endoscope can be applied to a disposable endoscope and a reusable endoscope.
It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the specific structure of the active bending tube 2 and the bending principle thereof are not limited, as an alternative, as shown in fig. 5 and 7, the active bending portion includes a plurality of bending units 22 coaxially disposed, and a certain interval is provided between two adjacent bending units 22, and the adjacent bending units 22 are rotationally connected by a rotating shaft (such as a rivet 23), so that the two adjacent bending units 22 can relatively rotate around the axis 24 of the rotating shaft. In some embodiments, two adjacent bending units 22 are connected by two rotating shafts (e.g., rivets 23) symmetrically disposed about the axis of the bending unit 22, and the rotating shafts (e.g., rivets 23) of one bending unit 22 connected to the bending units 22 on both sides thereof are disposed at an angle offset in the circumferential direction of the bending unit 22. Further, in some embodiments, the rotating shafts (such as rivets 23) of one bending unit 22 respectively connected to the bending units 22 on both sides thereof are vertically arranged (as shown in fig. 9), so that the active bending tube 2 can be respectively rotated back and forth around two mutually perpendicular rotating shaft axes 24 by operating the traction rope 21, for example, when the rotating shafts (such as rivets 23) of one bending unit 22 respectively connected to the bending units 22 on both sides thereof are respectively in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction, the active bending tube 2 can be rotated up and down, left and right, and bending of the active bending tube 2 in any 360 ° direction can be realized by combining the motions.
It will be appreciated that in order to facilitate control of the rotation of the active bending tube 2 in various directions, in some embodiments the number of hauling ropes 21 is the same as the number of rotational axes (e.g. rivets 23) of different angles in the circumferential direction of the bending unit 22. For example, as shown in fig. 9, when one bending unit 22 is respectively connected with four rotating shafts (such as rivets 23), the four rotating shafts (such as rivets 23) are respectively and symmetrically arranged in pairs about the axis of the bending unit 22, the rotating shafts (such as rivets 23) of different pairs are vertically arranged, and the four rotating shafts (such as rivets 23) of different bending units 22 are respectively aligned one by one and are respectively positioned on four straight lines, the number of traction ropes 21 is four, and the four traction ropes 21 are respectively arranged in the active bending tube 2 in a penetrating manner, as shown in fig. 6 and 8, the positions of the bending units 22 corresponding to each rotating shaft (such as rivets 23) are respectively provided with a guide ring 25, and when an operator pulls the corresponding traction rope 21 through an angle control knob of the operation part 200, the traction ropes 21 are transmitted to the bending unit 22 through the guide rings 25, so that the bending unit 22 rotates about the axis of the corresponding rotating shaft (such as rivets 23), and thus the active bending tube 2 is bent in a certain direction (such as upward or downward or leftward or rightward).
In addition, in the above embodiment, the specific connection manner between the adaptive bending tube and the active bending tube 2 is not limited as long as the connection between the adaptive bending tube and the active bending tube 2 can be achieved, and in consideration of the convenience of the connection between the adaptive bending tube and the active bending tube, as an alternative, the adaptive bending tube is connected to the active bending tube 2 through the adapter ring 5 on the basis of the above embodiment. As shown in fig. 6 and 8, in some embodiments, the adapter ring 5 includes a first socket portion for being sleeved with the active bending tube 2 and a second socket portion for being sleeved with the adaptive bending tube, and the active bending tube 2 and the first socket portion and the adaptive bending tube and the second socket portion are respectively connected by fasteners or fixed by riveting or fixed by welding or other manners.
It will be appreciated that the pull cord 21 penetrates from the flexible tube 3 of the endoscope, sequentially through the adaptive bending tube and the active bending tube 2 to the first end of the active bending tube 2, and is connected to the first end of the active bending tube 2, so that when the pull cord 21 is pulled to control the bending of the active bending tube 2, the rigidity of the pull cord 21 will be enhanced, which will affect the performance of the adaptive bending tube and the flexible tube 3, in order to reduce the influence of the rigidity of the pull cord 21 on the adaptive bending tube and the flexible tube 3, in some embodiments, as shown in fig. 6 and 8, an elastic tube 6 is penetrated into the adaptive bending tube and the flexible tube 3, the elastic tube 6 is used for the pull cord 21 to penetrate, and in some embodiments, one end of the elastic tube 6 is connected to the adapter ring 5, and the other end of the elastic tube 6 is connected to one end of the flexible tube 3 remote from the adaptive bending tube or the operation portion of the endoscope, so as to ensure the performance of the adaptive bending tube and the flexible tube 3 when the active bending tube 2 is bent, in view of the convenience of fixing the elastic tube 6.
It should be noted that the number of the elastic tubes 6 is the same as the number of the traction ropes 21, and the elastic tubes 6 are arranged in a one-to-one correspondence, that is, each elastic tube 6 is internally provided with one traction rope 21. For example, when the number of the traction ropes 21 is four, the number of the elastic tubes 6 is also four, and the elastic tubes 6 are sleeved on the outer periphery of each traction rope 21, at this time, four bending directions are controlled by the four traction ropes 21, so as to realize traction with multiple degrees of freedom.
In addition to the above-described adaptive bending tube and endoscope bending tube, the present invention also provides an insertion portion including the endoscope bending tube disclosed in the above-described embodiment, and an endoscope including the insertion portion. The structure of the other parts of the endoscope is referred to in the prior art.
As shown in fig. 10, the endoscope includes an insertion portion 100, an operation portion 200, a connector 300, and a connection tube 400, wherein the insertion portion 100 is used for entering a human body for examination, and includes a distal end portion 4, a bending tube for an endoscope, and a flexible tube 3, the distal end portion 4 is connected to a first end of an active bending tube 2 of the bending tube for an endoscope, the flexible tube 3 is connected to a second end of an adaptive bending tube of the bending tube for an endoscope, and the distal end portion 4 is provided with a structure such as an imaging unit, an instrument channel, and a moisture channel for visually observing a target region of the human body and facilitating auxiliary treatment by an instrument. The end of the flexible tube 3 far away from the adaptive bending tube is connected with the operation part 200, and the operation part 200 is provided with an angle control knob for controlling the bending of the active bending tube 2 of the insertion part 100 and other various function buttons, so that an operator can realize various corresponding functions according to the needs. The operation unit 200 is connected to the connector 300 via the connection pipe 400, the connector 300 is used for connection to external devices such as a processor and a light source of the endoscope, and the connector 300 is used for transmission and connection of signals, illumination light, or other functions to the insertion unit 100 via the connection pipe 400 and the operation unit 200.
The insertion part and the endoscope comprise the bending tube for the endoscope, and the bending tube for the endoscope comprises the self-adaptive bending tube disclosed by the embodiment, so that the maximum bending angle of the self-adaptive bending tube is controllable, and the bending of the self-adaptive bending tube is not easy to fail, thereby the insertion part has better cavity channel adaptability, and further, the endoscope has better insertion performance.
As shown in fig. 11 and 12, a schematic view of the insertion section 100 of the endoscope inserted into the human body cavity is shown.
It should also be noted that in this specification, relational terms such as first and second, and the like are used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.
In the present specification, each embodiment is described in a progressive manner, and each embodiment focuses on the difference from other embodiments, and the same similar parts between the embodiments are all enough to refer to each other.
The adaptive bending tube, the endoscope bending tube, and the endoscope provided by the present invention are described in detail above. The principles and embodiments of the present invention have been described herein with reference to specific examples, the description of which is intended only to facilitate an understanding of the method of the present invention and its core ideas. It should be noted that it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and adaptations of the invention can be made without departing from the principles of the invention and these modifications and adaptations are intended to be within the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.