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:
Jan. 22, 1985
Filed:
Nov. 16, 1982
Teruo Ouchi, Kawagoe, JP;
Hiromichi Shibuya, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A flexible tube for use in an endoscope comprises a flexible basic tubular core structure and a homogeneous thermoplastic synthetic resin tube bonded to the outer surface of the tubular core structure to form a coating layer by positioning the synthetic resin tube tightly over the basic tubular core structure with a contact pressure therebetween and heating the synthetic resin tube to a temperature higher than a softening point of the thermoplastic synthetic resin forming the same. A flexible tube having flexibility which varies in a step-wise manner from one end of the tube to the other is obtained by integrally bonding as a whole two or more homogeneous thermoplastic synthetic resin tube sections formed of respective resin materials having different hardnesses to the outer surface of the tubular core structure to form a coating layer in an analogous manner. The ends of adjacent tube sections substantially abut each other and upon heating the tube sections to a temperature higher than a softening point of any one of them, the regions of the respective pairs of abutting tube section ends are heated to a temperature substantially near a melting point of the tube section having the higher melting point to successively fuse the respective pairs of abutting tube section ends together.