Endoscope Connector Grip Section for Alignment and Light Guide Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing endoscope connectors are difficult to grip and connect accurately to light source devices due to their design, leading to potential damage of the light guide and inefficiencies in illumination light guidance.
Innovation Solution
A connector with a housing section, grip section, and finger locking portion is designed to facilitate easy gripping and alignment, featuring a concave thumb placing portion and offset central axis to enhance stability and alignment during connection, along with wireless communication and power receiving units for efficient operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the light guide protrudes from the front surface of the connector, then the connector can be connected to the light source device, but the light guide may be damaged by colliding with the light source device without correct alignment
Solution Approach 1:
The connector body is designed with a gripping portion that allows users to grip the connector before inserting the light guide, enabling preliminary alignment and orientation correction. This preliminary action prevents collision damage by ensuring correct positioning before the light guide protrudes into the light source device.
Solution Approach 2:
The gripping portion acts as an intermediary element between the user's hand and the light guide. By providing a dedicated gripping area on the connector body, users can control the connector's position and orientation without directly handling the fragile light guide, thus preventing damage during connection.
2Ease of operation
If the connector has a conventional design without designated gripping area, then the structure is simple, but the connector is difficult to grip and align accurately
Solution Approach 1:
The connector body is designed with a gripping portion that has different surface characteristics or geometric features localized at specific areas. This local quality change provides enhanced grip capability and directional guidance without requiring complete structural redesign of the entire connector.
Solution Approach 2:
The gripping portion is designed with asymmetric features that provide natural hand orientation and alignment guidance. The asymmetric design helps users correctly orient the connector during gripping, improving alignment accuracy without adding complex alignment mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a connector for an endoscope that is easy to grip and is easily connected to a light source device. The connector includes: a light guide part, a wireless communication unit, a wireless power receiving unit, a housing section which houses the wireless communication unit and the wireless power receiving unit and in which the light guide part protrudes from a front surface thereof positioned close to a light source device in a connection posture where the connector is connected to the light source device, and a grip section that includes a concave finger placing portion on which a thumb is placed and which is provided on an upper surface thereof on a central axis of the light guide part in a case in which the grip section is viewed from an upper surface of the connector positioned on a vertically upper side in the connection posture.