Fujifilm Corporation

Tsuyoshi Ashida

Takayuki Nakamura

Yasunori Ohta

John J Allen

Takumi Dejima

Hiroyuki Hasegawa

Jin Murayama

Shinichi Yamakawa

Charles Alan Brantingham

Nobuyuki Torisawa

Takayuki Iida

Naoyuki Morita

Masayuki Iwasaka

Yoshimitsu Kudoh

Kazuyoshi Hara

Rick Cornelius

Hidetoshi Hirata

An assist assembly for propulsion of a tip device of an endoscope in a body cavity includes an attachment sleeve and a support sleeve. A deformable circulation device is disposed to extend over inner and outer surfaces of the support sleeve, for endlessly moving in an axial direction of the tip device. Plural rollers are disposed on the support sleeve in a rotatable manner, for pressing an inner surface of the circulation device. An alignment projection is formed on the inner surface of the circulation device to project at a height L. A location offset prevention groove is formed in the rollers at a depth L, for receiving the alignment projection, and satisfying a condition L&#x2267;L, to prevent location offset of the circulation device from the rollers. Drive wheels tension the circulation device in cooperation with the rollers by deforming the alignment projection in the location offset prevention groove.

Assist assembly for propulsion of endoscope

An insertion assisting device includes a rotary body formed in a toroidal shape, and a support and drive unit that rotatably supports and rotates the rotary body. The support and drive unit has two supports, a first support and a second support. The first support is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape, and rotatably supports the rotary body. The second support is formed in a substantially triangular tubular shape, is arranged inside the first support, and supports driving gears that transmit a driving force to the rotary body. The second support is shorter than the first support, and is arranged so that front and rear end portions thereof are located inside front and rear end portions of the first support.

Endoscope insertion assisting device

A propelling device includes a traveling body that rotates in a state of being brought into contact with an inner wall of an alimentary canal, an external cylinder around which the traveling body is wound, and a mounting cylinder on which a tip end portion of an endoscope is mounted. Three driven rollers are rotatably attached to the external cylinder. The traveling body is pinched between the driven rollers and driving gears. As the driving gears rotate, the traveling body travels in a circulating manner. A rotating shaft of the driven roller located at the center among the three driven rollers is held by a shaft hole that is made long in a gear arrangement direction in which the driving gears are disposed side by side.

Endoscope propelling device

A propulsion apparatus for an endoscope includes a propulsion assembly for mounting on a tip device of the endoscope, for propulsion in a body cavity. First and second wire devices are disposed to extend from the tip device in a proximal direction, having a coil winding, for rotating to drive the propulsion assembly. First and second motors are connected with proximal ends of respectively the first and second wire devices, for rotating the first and second wire devices. A timer is actuated if a speed difference between rotational speeds of the first and second motors becomes equal to or more than a reference speed value, for measuring an elapsed time. A break detector detects breakage of the first wire device if the elapsed time becomes equal to or longer than a predetermined time. A controller controls the first and second motors in response to an output of the break detector.

Propulsion apparatus and drive apparatus for endoscope

An insertion assisting device includes a rotary body in the form of toroid, and a support and drive part for supporting the rotary body in a rotatable manner and rotating it. The support and drive part has an approximately cylindrical supporting member for supporting the rotary body in a rotatable manner. The rotary body is provided with a convex portion for increasing the thickness to improve the strength thereof. A concave portion having a shape corresponding to the shape of the convex portion is formed on a portion of a front end surface of the supporting member, which is made in contact with the convex portion. The concave portion prevents the rotary body from stopping rotating, which may be caused by point contact between the convex portion and the supporting member.

The endoscope is equipped with: a curving manipulation unit provided on the main body manipulating unit, for performing a manual operation which causes the curving portion; a curving drive unit for coupling the curving manipulation unit to the curving portion so as to curve the curving portion in response to a manipulation performed by the curving manipulation unit; a manipulating force detecting unit for detecting a manipulating force applied to the curving manipulation unit; a manipulation assisting power calculating unit for calculating manipulation assisting power corresponding to the manipulating force detected by the manipulating force detecting unit; and a rotation driving force generating unit for applying a driving force via a driving force transferring mechanism to the curving drive unit, so as to generate the manipulation assisting power calculated by the manipulation assisting power calculating unit; in which the rotation driving force generating unit is arranged in an appendix unit.

Endoscope

An endoscope apparatus includes an endoscope main body and an assisting drive unit. The endoscope main body includes an endoscope insertion portion having a curving portion on the leading end side thereof, a curving operation portion operating or curving the curving portion, and a curving drive portion driving or curving the curving portion according to an operation force applied to the curving operation portion. The assisting drive unit generates a drive force assisting a curving drive operation to be carried out by the curving drive portion. Curving information regulated at each curving angle corresponding to curving amount of the curving portion is stored previously. The curving amount &#x3b8;a of the curving portion is detected. The drive force is generated from the assisting drive unit using the curving information corresponding to the detected curving amount &#x3b8;a.

Endoscope apparatus and controlling method thereof comprising curving control mechanism

An endoscope includes a bending section for bending a bending portion, a manipulating section for operating the bending portion to bend the bending portion, a drive section for bending the bending portion with the bending section, a brake instruction section and a brake release instruction section, and a bend amount detecting section. In response to a brake instruction, the bend amount at a point in time the brake instruction was given is detected, and the drive section is so controlled as to maintain the bend amount whereas in response to a brake release instruction, the drive force of the drive section for maintaining the bend amount is gradually reduced.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Tsuyoshi Ashida