Endoscope Bending Pulley Wire Guides for Overlap Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional endoscope bending operation mechanisms face challenges in winding bending operation wires appropriately due to elastic displacement, leading to potential overlap and difficulty in managing multiple rotations, which can disrupt the precise bending operation.
Innovation Solution
The insertion device incorporates pulleys with narrowed groove widths and tapered wire guides to control the winding of bending operation wires, allowing only one to two rotations and guiding them to a predetermined position, ensuring proper winding and bending operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If the groove width is widened to accommodate multiple wire rotations, then the wire can be wound more times, but the wire may overlap and become difficult to manage
Solution Approach 1:
The groove is designed with different width characteristics at different locations: a first width at the first location and a second width at the second location. This local variation in groove width allows the wire to be guided through multiple rotations while preventing overlap, as the narrowing at the second location naturally limits the winding to one or two courses.
Solution Approach 2:
The groove is formed with a specific three-dimensional shape including a bottom surface and lateral surfaces, creating a constrained path for the wire. The wire guide structure adds another dimensional constraint by extending from the lateral surface to the bottom surface, effectively limiting the wire's movement to a predetermined path and preventing radial overlap.
2Ease of operation
If the groove width is narrowed to prevent wire overlap, then wire management is improved, but the wire cannot be wound multiple times
Solution Approach 1:
The groove is designed with different width characteristics at different locations: a first width at the first location and a second width at the second location. This local variation in groove width allows the wire to be guided through multiple rotations while preventing overlap, as the narrowing at the second location naturally limits the winding to one or two courses.
Solution Approach 2:
The wire guide structure is preliminarily formed as an integral part of the pulley, extending from the lateral surface to the bottom surface of the groove. This preliminary structure guides the wire into the correct position and limits its winding path before the winding process begins, ensuring that the wire can be wound one or two times without overlapping.
3Manufacturing precision
If a wire guide structure is added to control winding position, then winding precision is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wire guide structure is merged with the pulley body as an integral component. The wire guide extends from the lateral surface to the bottom surface of the groove, forming a unified structure that combines the pulley and wire guide functions into a single element, thereby avoiding the need for separate wire guide components.
Solution Approach 2:
The pulley structure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides the groove for wire winding, incorporates the wire guide structure to control winding position, and maintains the rotational function. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional separate components, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design ensures accurate and efficient bending operations by preventing wire overlap and maintaining appropriate winding states, enhancing the reliability and precision of endoscope maneuvers.
Implementation Method 1
a wire (37, 38) configured to transmit a pulling force to a bending portion (11)
Implementation Method 2
The pulley (51, 52) can rotate about a rotation axis within an angular range from −180 degrees to +180 degrees with respect to an initial position of the pulley
Data Source
AI summary
Endoscope has vertical bending operation wires transmitting a pulling force to a bending portion of an insertion portion, a vertical bending pulley having pulley grooves on an outer circumference, and wire guides in a partial region in a circumference direction of each pulley groove and guiding the vertical bending operation wires to be wound in the respective pulley grooves. The pulleys rotate within a 180-degree angular range, and a width of a bottom portion of each pulley groove allows each wire to be wound for at most two revolutions. The width of the bottom portion of the pulley groove is narrowed down with each wire guide so that each wire is wound only one revolution in a rotation axis direction of each pulley, and a tapered shape of each wire guide guides the wire to be wound in the partial region to the bottom portion of each pulley groove.