Shiga University of Medical Science

Atsushi Yamada

Tohru Tani

Shigeyuki Naka

Shigehiro Morikawa

A bending and extending devicecomprises an elastic hollow guide unitand a movable partto be movably inserted into the guide unit. The movable partis constituted, either partially or entirely, of a plurality of belt-like flexible partsand, which extend in the axial direction of the guide unitand the flexible partsandare connected at distal ends. The bending and extending deviceis characterized in that, when, by the sliding operation of the flexible partsand, a cross-section in which a contact point T of the flexible partand the inner surface of the guide unitis present on an extending line Y extending from a line segment connecting the centroid P of the flexible partand the axial center G of the guide unitand in which the flexible partand the second flexible partare in contact with each other is generated, and when the cross-section is divided into two ranges by a predetermined straight line X, the centroid P of the flexible partis not positioned in a range in which the contact point T is present; and the predetermined straight line X is a line that passes through the axial center G of the guide unit, and that orthogonally crosses the extending line Y.

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Otsu, Japan

Atsushi Yamada