Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Saburo Hosono

Takeaki Nakamura

Yasuhiro Ueda

Atsushi Miyazaki

Shinichi Nishigaki

Yoshio Shishido

Toshiaki Nishikori

Eiichi Fuse

Yoshisada Aoki

Minoru Okada

Akibumi Ishikawa

Nobuyuki Sakamoto

Morihide Mizumoto

Ichiro Takahashi

Kazuhiro Misono

Yoshihiko Miyamoto

Tutomu Yamamoto

A borescope apparatus comprising a flexible insertion section, a jet port formed at the insertion section, a moving device for supplying a compressed fluid to the jet port, whereby the insertion section is moved by an impellent force of the fluid ejected from the jet port, and a stabilizing device for steadily maintaining the position of the insertion section.

Borescope apparatus

A structure for preventing the breakage of both end portions of a protective covering for an adjustable bend section of an endoscope consists of annular elastic members retaining elasticity and adhesivity even at high temperature. Each of the elastic members of the structure comprises a first section which is fixed by thread to the respective end portions of a protective covering which is made of elastic material and surrounds a core assembly, and the respective end portions of which are fastened to the respective end portions of the core assembly by the thread; and a second section which is made of the same material as that of the first section and extends from the first section toward the intermediate part of the protective covering to be fixed to the respective end portion of the protective covering. With the above-mentioned structure, the annular elastic members are not deteriorated even at high temperature. If, therefore, the protective covering loses elasticity upon exposure to high temperature, a stress resulting from the flexing of the adjustable bend section of the endoscope is uniformly adsorbed by the whole length of the second portion of the annular elastic member. Consequently, a stress is not concentrated at particular regions of both end portions of the protective covering. As a result, both end portions of the protective covering are resistant to cracking or any other form of damage, thereby prolonging the effective life of the protective covering.

Structure for preventing the breakage of end portions of a protective

An endoscope comprises a control section, an insertion section and a light guide cable both connected to the control section and provided with envelopes prepared from a heat-resistant and pressure-resistant material, a cavity extending throughout the insertion section, the control section and the light guide cable, and a protective liquid such as silicone oil whose volume little varies with pressure and temperature and which is filled in the cavity. The protective liquid supports in the cavity the envelopes of the insertion section and light guide cable which are exposed to a high pressure and temperature in an autoclave to prevent damage to the envelopes, thereby ensuring easy and reliable high pressure steam sterilization of the whole of the endoscope.

Endoscope

A device for sealing an endoscope channel is provided in the operation section of an endoscope and comprises a hollow cylindrical member connected at one end to the proximal end of a channel disposed in the sheath of the endoscope and a tubular member of an elastic material disposed in the hollow cylindrical member and connected at one end sealingly to the other end of the hollow cylindrical member. The other end portion of the tubular member is bent to form a sealing portion which can prevent air introduced into a body cavity from flowing back therefrom through the channel.

Device for sealing an endoscope channel

A flexible tube device has a flexible tube one end of which is connected to a distal end and the other end of which is connected to a control unit, a central tube formed by coiling a metal strip and provided within and coaxially with the flexible tube, and an adjusting mechanism provided within the control unit to control the pliability of the flexible tube from the outside by varying the diameter of the central tube.

Flexible tube endoscope

Growing community of inventors

Hino, Japan

Saburo Hosono