Endoscope Articulated Tip Insertion Guide for Steering Wire Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
The assembly of steering wires in endoscopes is challenging due to the requirement of threading, which is dexterous and time-consuming, especially in miniaturized endoscopes, where small threading passages are difficult to manage, increasing assembly time and cost.
Innovation Solution
An articulated tip part with hingedly connected segments and an insertion guide that facilitates easier steering wire placement by providing a visual indication, reducing the required dexterity and allowing for a smaller footprint, enabling easier assembly and use in applications like ENT endoscopy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If threading is used to secure steering wires in the distal end of the tip part, then the steering wire can be secured to enable bending of the articulated tip part, but the assembly process requires considerable assembler dexterity and increases assembly time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a threading passage as an intermediary structure that facilitates the insertion and securing of the steering wire. The threading passage provides a guided path through the distal end segment, allowing the steering wire to be threaded through and secured more easily than direct threading in the tip part, thereby reducing assembly complexity and time while maintaining secure wire attachment
Solution Approach 2:
The tip part is divided into multiple segments including a distal end segment with a threading passage. This segmentation allows the threading function to be separated from the main tip part structure, enabling independent optimization of the threading mechanism and simplifying the overall assembly process by distributing functions across separate components
2Length of moving object
If the endoscope is miniaturized to reduce insertion tube diameter, then new application fields such as ENT endoscopy become accessible, but the threading passages become difficult to see and manage for ordinary assemblers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent addresses the visibility issue of threading passages in miniaturized endoscopes by extending the threading passage to also open in the proximal direction. This creates a dual-access threading passage that can be approached from both distal and proximal ends, providing assemblers with alternative access routes that are easier to see and manipulate even in small-diameter endoscopes
Solution Approach 2:
The threading passage is designed with different characteristics at different locations - it extends through the distal end segment and opens in both distal and proximal directions. This local differentiation in the threading passage structure allows assemblers to access the passage from the more accessible proximal end rather than attempting to see and work with tiny features at the distal tip, thereby improving ease of manufacture while maintaining miniaturization
Data Source
AI summary
An articulated tip part for an endoscope having a number of hingedly connected segments including a distal end segment and a second segment, wherein adjacent segments are interconnected by at least one hinge member, whereby the tip part can be bent by means of the hingedly connected segments, wherein the distal end segment comprises a first steering wire guide for accommodating and guiding a steering wire, and wherein the second segment comprises an insertion guide with an entry in an outer circumferential surface of the second segment and an exit aligned with an entry into the first steering wire guide, whereby an end of a steering wire can be guided into the entry of the first steering wire guide via the insertion guide.