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. 02, 2010
Filed:
Feb. 02, 2007
Hisashi Kuroshima, Tokyo, JP;
Akio Ogawa, Tokyo, JP;
Kojiro Kotani, Tokyo, JP;
Takayoshi Iwanami, Tokyo, JP;
Hideto Onishi, Tokyo, JP;
Hisashi Kuroshima, Tokyo, JP;
Akio Ogawa, Tokyo, JP;
Kojiro Kotani, Tokyo, JP;
Takayoshi Iwanami, Tokyo, JP;
Hideto Onishi, Tokyo, JP;
Olympus Medical Systems Corp., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus washes/disinfects, at a time, a plurality of endoscopes having a plurality of channels with different diameters, and dewaters the channels at a time. For the dewatering, the apparatus includes plural ports for receiving air supply, and a plurality of tubes for connecting between each of the plurality of ports and each of the plurality of channels in each of the plurality of endoscopes. The apparatus also includes an on-off valve for intermittently supply air to the ports, and a control unit for opening/closing the valve a plurality of times at a predetermined ratio. Water droplets remaining in a large-diameter channel are mainly moved by wind pressure of continuously flowing air while the valve is open, and discharged. Water droplets in a smaller-diameter channel are mainly moved by hammer effect of high-pressure air caused while the valve is closed, and discharged. The valve opening/closing is repeated for complete dewatering.