The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 26, 2019
Filed:
Nov. 08, 2017
Olympus Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
OLYMPUS CORPORATION, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An flexible tube insertion apparatus includes a tubular insertion section including a bending portion and a flexible tube portion, variable stiffness sections to cause a change in a level of a bending stiffness of the flexible tube portion, a variable stiffness control section that controls the change in the bending stiffness by the variable stiffness sections; and a time setting section that sets a time period. The variable stiffness control section causes the bending stiffness of the variable stiffness sections to change in such a manner that the relationship of levels between the bending stiffness of adjacent variable stiffness sections is switched at the set time period when the variable stiffness control section determines that the flexible tube portion is passing through a flexure of the subject.