Pentax Corporation

Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

The Jikei University School of Medicine

Minoru Matsushita

Kikuo Iwasaka

Akira Sugiyama

Masanao Abe

Tadashi Kasai

Kenichi Ohara

Shinji Hayakawa

Hideo Nanba

Tetsuya Nakamura

Satoshi Takami

Tetsuya Tarumoto

Toshiyuki Hashiyama

Naoya Ouchi

Tomoko Iwasaki

Naoki Suzuki

Kazuki Sumiyama

Naoshi Koizumi

Motoko Kawamura

A flexible tube for an endoscope has an elongated tubular core body, and an outer cover which is provided over the core body. The outer cover is composed of an inner layer, an outer layer and at least one intermediate layer. In this flexible tube, any one of the layers is different from one of the other layers in its property. Further, at least one of the layers has a thickness-varying region where the thickness of the layer varies in its longitudinal direction. In addition, the inner layer of the outer cover has projections which are integrally formed on the inner layer so that the projections project into holes and/or the recesses formed on the core body. This structure makes it possible to produce a flexible tube for an endoscope that has high durability, high flexibility and high chemical resistance as well as excellent operationability.

Flexible tube for an endoscope

An endoscope system is provided, including an endoscope having a flexible inserting tube to be inserted into a human body and a plurality of bending sensors distributed over the flexible inserting tube along the longitudinal direction thereof. Each of the bending sensors detects the local bending state of the flexible inserting tube at the location the bending sensor are provided. A computer adapted to receive data on the local bending state from each of the plurality of bending sensors is also provided. The computer generates a graphical image representing the geometrical configuration of the flexible inserting tube from the data on the local bending states. A monitor connected to the computer to display the graphical image generated by the computer.

Endoscope system

An flexible tube for an endoscope having excellent resilience and durability is disclosed. The flexible tube is composed of a tubular core boy obtained by covering the outer periphery of a coil with a reticular tube of a braided thin wires and an outer cover formed of a synthetic resin and provided over the outer periphery of the tubular core boy. At least one of the thin wires has a coating layer and the flexible outer cover has a portion which is in contact with the coating layer of the thin wire of the reticular tube, in which the coating layer is formed of a material containing the material of the portion of the outer cover, and the material of the coating layer has a higher melting point than that of the material of the portion of the outer cover. The outer cover may be formed into a multi-layered structure including an inner layer, an intermediate layer and an outer layer.

Flexible tube for an endoscope and electronic endoscope equipped with the flexible tube

A flexible tube for an endoscope is provided with a spirally-wound tube, a braided tube covering the spirally-wound tube, and a sheath provided on the braided tube. The sheath material is fused and coated on the braided tube to form the sheath. When the sheath material is fused and applied on the braided tube, the sheath material passes through interstices of the braided tube, at the positions facing the clearances between windings, to form a plurality of protruded portions which protruded inward with respect to the braided tube.

Flexible tube for endoscope

An endoscopic flexible tube that allows for easy fabrication of a jacket of a multi-layered structure that is adequately protected against separation of overlying layers. Two adjacent layers in the multi-layered structure portion of the jacket are integrally combined via an area that comprises a mixture of the constituent materials of the two layers.

Endoscopic flexible tube

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Minoru Matsushita