Endoscope Insertion Assist Instrument Tapered Geometry
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing insertion assisting instruments for endoscopes face challenges in easily navigating through narrow spaces with bent and stepped portions, as they lack sufficient flexibility and adaptability to change directions smoothly, often getting stuck at curved portions during insertion and extraction.
Innovation Solution
The insertion assisting instrument features a tapered surface design with a proximal-end-side and distal-end-side tapered surface, where the outer dimensions are optimized to ensure a sufficient taper length relative to the largest diameter, allowing for effective guidance of the endoscope through curved portions by converting tractive forces into component forces that facilitate turning, and includes a method for bending the insertion portion inward during extraction to prevent sticking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the insertion assisting instrument has a rigid structure to maintain shape stability, then structural stability is improved, but the ability to navigate curved portions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The insertion assisting instrument is divided into multiple functional segments: a proximal-end-side tapered surface for insertion guidance, a distal-end-side tapered surface for extraction guidance, and a bending portion for directional control. Each segment performs a specific function, allowing the instrument to maintain structural stability while adapting to curved pathways.
Solution Approach 2:
The instrument incorporates a bending portion that can be dynamically bent inward during extraction operations. This dynamic capability allows the rigid instrument body to adapt to curved portions of the conduit, resolving the contradiction between maintaining structural stability and navigating curved paths.
2Ease of operation
If the tapered surfaces are made longer to improve guidance capability, then ease of insertion and extraction is improved, but the overall instrument length increases
Solution Approach 1:
The instrument optimizes the parameters of the tapered surfaces by controlling the coordinates (xb′, yb′) and (xc′, yc′) to satisfy specific mathematical relationships. This allows the tapered surfaces to achieve effective guidance functionality while minimizing the overall instrument length, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and compact size.
3Ease of operation
If the instrument is bent inward during extraction to prevent sticking, then extraction capability is improved, but the complexity of the extraction method increases
Solution Approach 1:
The bending portion is pre-configured with the capability to bend inward, and the extraction method utilizes this pre-existing feature by simply actuating the bending portion during extraction. This preliminary preparation avoids the need for complex extraction mechanisms while still preventing sticking at curved portions.
Data Source
AI summary
An insertion assisting instrument has an outer diameter dimension set to satisfy a relationship of xb′<xc′ assuming that an insertion assisting instrument is projected on X-Y coordinates such that a point on a circumference where the insertion assisting instrument has a largest outer diameter (that is, a point on an outer periphery of a proximal-end-side tapered surface at a distal end) is set as an origin and the proximal-end-side tapered surface is brought into contact with an X axis, coordinates of a second point B, which is most distal from the X axis on the circumference where the insertion assisting instrument has the largest outer diameter are (xb′, yb′), and coordinates of a third point C, which is most proximal from the X axis on a circumference at the proximal end of the insertion assisting instrument, are (xc′, yc′).