Single-Use Endoscope Tip With Transparent Housing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional endoscope tips face challenges with sterilization due to sensitive electrical and optical components, are expensive, heavy, and complex, making them less suitable for emergency medicine and mobile settings.
Innovation Solution
A single-use endoscope tip with a transparent plastic housing encapsulating light emitting and imaging devices, eliminating the need for openings and using injection molding for cost-effective and lightweight production.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional multi-use endoscope tips are used, then they can be reused multiple times, but they are expensive, heavy, and require high maintenance with complex sterilization requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a single-use endoscope tip that is discarded after one use, eliminating the need for complex sterilization processes and high-maintenance reusable components. The disposable nature allows simplified housing design without openings, as the entire unit is sterilized as a complete package and then discarded, resolving the contradiction between sterilization capability and device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the housing, light emitting device, and imaging device into a single integrated transparent unit. This consolidation eliminates the need for separate sealed compartments and multiple openings required in conventional designs, reducing overall structural complexity while maintaining sterilization integrity through the transparent material
2Illumination intensity
If conventional opaque housing with openings is used, then light can be emitted and received, but the housing must be sealed to protect internal components, increasing complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the optical property of the housing from opaque to transparent, allowing light to pass through the housing material itself rather than requiring openings. This eliminates the need for complex sealing around openings, as the transparent housing acts as both the light guide and the protective enclosure, resolving the contradiction between light emission capability and housing sealing complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the light guiding function from separate optical paths and integrates it into the housing material itself. The transparent housing becomes the light guide, eliminating the need for separate light channels and their associated seals, thereby reducing housing sealing complexity while maintaining illumination capability
3Strength
If metal housing is used, then structural strength is provided, but the weight is high and cost is high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses transparent plastic or resin material that provides sufficient structural strength for single-use applications while being significantly lighter and cheaper than metal. The material is molded as a single piece, providing adequate strength without the weight and cost penalties of metal construction, resolving the contradiction between housing strength and tip weight
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the material parameter from metal to transparent plastic/resin, fundamentally altering the density and cost characteristics. This material substitution maintains sufficient structural integrity for the intended single-use application while dramatically reducing weight and manufacturing cost, resolving the contradiction between housing strength and tip weight
4Ease of operation
If openings are provided in the housing for light emission, then illumination and imaging work, but sealing requirements increase maintenance and sterilization difficulty
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the housing from opaque with openings to transparent without openings, allowing light to pass through the material itself. This eliminates all openings that would require sealing, making the device easier to maintain and sterilize as a complete unit, resolving the contradiction between illumination function and maintenance ease
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the light guiding function with the housing structure itself by making the housing transparent. This integration eliminates the need for separate light channels and their associated openings and seals, simplifying both operation and maintenance/sterilization processes
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
The solution provides a low-cost, lightweight, and easily disposable endoscope tip suitable for emergency medicine, with improved sterilization capabilities and reduced maintenance, enhancing its usability in mobile environments.
Implementation Method 1
the housing at least in part is made from a light transparent material, in particular a transparent plastic material
Data Source
AI summary
A tip for a single use endoscope, the endoscope and a method of producing the tip. The tip includes a housing encapsulating a light emitting device and an imaging device in a fluid tight manner, where the light emitting device is arranged on a planar printed circuit board provided within the housing, and the housing at least in part is made from a transparent material and comprises at least one transparent light guiding part or light guiding section for guiding light emitted by the light emitting device to an outside of the tip.