Flexible Tube Integral Design and Single-Wire Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional flexible tubes have complex manufacturing processes due to individual connecting sections being connected through snapping or pivoting, which complicates the overall fabrication.
Innovation Solution
A flexible tube design featuring integrally connected sections with an acute angle between them, allowing for bending freedom, and a driving mechanism with a single driving wire that controls the tube's bending and rotation, simplifying the manufacturing process and enabling multiple degrees of freedom.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If connecting sections are individually manufactured and connected through snapping or pivoting, then the flexible tube can be assembled, but the overall manufacturing process becomes too complicated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple connecting sections into a single integral structure. Instead of manufacturing separate connecting sections and assembling them through snapping or pivoting mechanisms, the flexible tube is formed as one continuous piece with integrated bending sections. This eliminates the need for complex assembly operations while maintaining the flexible tube's functional capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the flexible tube into distinct functional regions (bending sections and rigid sections) within a single integral structure. These segments are defined by geometric features such as varying wall thicknesses or cross-sectional shapes, allowing the tube to bend in specific directions while maintaining structural integrity, all without requiring separate assembling operations.
2Device complexity
If a single driving wire is used to control bending and rotation, then the device complexity is reduced, but achieving multiple degrees of freedom becomes more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamic geometric features where the flexible tube's bending sections have variable wall thicknesses or cross-sectional shapes that change along the tube's length. These dynamic geometric variations allow a single driving wire to induce both bending and rotation motions by applying force at different locations, thereby achieving multiple degrees of freedom without requiring multiple independent driving mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The single driving wire is designed to perform multiple functions: it can induce bending motions in different directions and rotation motions of the flexible tube. By strategically positioning the driving wire relative to the varying geometric sections, one wire controls multiple degrees of freedom, making the driving mechanism universal and highly versatile.
Data Source
AI summary
A flexible tube includes a first connecting portion and a second connecting section. The second connecting section and the first connecting section are integrally connected to each other. The first connecting section has a first end surface, and the second connecting section has a second end surface, wherein there is an acute angle between the first end surface and the second end surface.