Pentax Corporation

Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Shinji Hayakawa

Masanao Abe

Akira Sugiyama

Tadashi Kasai

Kikuo Iwasaka

Minoru Matsushita

Rensuke Adachi

Kunitoshi Ikeda

Kenichi Ohara

Masaru Takeshige

Naoya Ouchi

Hideo Nanba

Tomoko Iwasaki

Kensaku Ueki

A flexible tube for an endoscope which has excellent insertion operability is disclosed. The flexible tube includes and an elongated flexible tubular body constructed from a core body having a hollow space and an outer cover which is provided over the outer periphery of the core body and formed into a laminated structure having a plurality of layers. The tubular body is formed with a plurality of easily bendable portions which are provided in a spaced apart manner along the longitudinal direction thereof, each of these easily bendable portion being adapted to bend locally with a smaller curvature radius when the flexible tube is bent in one direction. The average interval between the adjacent easily bendable portions is preferably in the range 50-400 mm. The easily bendable portions is formed by locally changing the flexural rigidity of the outer cover. For example, it is formed by changing the thickness of at least one layer of the laminated structure of the outer cover at a position corresponding to the easily bendable portion.

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

A flexible tube for an endoscope comprises a flexible elongated structural body and an outer cover provided over the elongated structural body. In this flexible tube, at least the outer peripheral part of the outer cover is made of a material which contains elastic resin and plant extract having an antibacterial property, and the plant extract is prepared using at least one plant selected from the group consisting of plants belonging to the order Ranunculales. Further, in the flexible tube, the plant extract and the resin that constitutes the outer cover are inert with respect to each other. According to the flexible tube described above, it is possible to provide a flexible tube for an endoscope that can not only exhibit excellent antibacterial property against bacteria and the like, but also sustain the antibacterial property over a long period of time.

Flexible tube for endoscope

A flexible tube for an endoscope includes a flexible elongated structural body and an outer cover provided over the elongated structural body. The outer cover is made of a material which contains polyurethane elastomer and polyester elastomer, in which compounding ratio of the polyurethane elastomer and the polyester elastomer in the material is 0.03-0.3 parts by weight of the polyester elastomer per 1 part by weight of the polyurethane elastomer. This flexible tube has excellent flexibility as well as various excellent properties such as chemical resistance, heat resistance and weather resistance.

Flexible tube for endoscope, material used for producing outer cover of the flexible tube, and production method of the flexible tube

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.

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.

An external component of an endoscope includes an aluminum alloy base member whose surface is subjected to anodic oxidation, and thereafter, is subjected to an electrolytic deposition thereon.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Shinji Hayakawa