Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US5810717?dq=mirroring+data+in+a+remote+data+storage+system
Timestamp: 2016-09-30 20:32:56
Document Index: 669042458

Matched Legal Cases: ['art. 2', 'art. 8', 'art. 11', 'art. 13', 'art. 18', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 3', 'art 3', 'art 3', 'art 3', 'art 3', 'art 3']

Patent US5810717 - Bending mechanism and stereoscope using same - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inPatentsA bending mechanism for use with a stereoscope, comprises a tubular body or linear body having a bending part, a movable part which can move in the lengthwise direction of the tubular body or linear body, two actuators formed to act in opposition to each other via the movable part, and a pull wire which...http://www.google.com/patents/US5810717?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US5810717 - Bending mechanism and stereoscope using sameAdvanced Patent SearchTry the new Google Patents, with machine-classified Google Scholar results, and Japanese and South Korean patents.Publication numberUS5810717 APublication typeGrantApplication numberUS 08/710,647Publication dateSep 22, 1998Filing dateSep 18, 1996Priority dateSep 22, 1995Fee statusLapsedAlso published asDE69614332D1, DE69614332T2, EP0764424A2, EP0764424A3, EP0764424B1Publication number08710647, 710647, US 5810717 A, US 5810717A, US-A-5810717, US5810717 A, US5810717AInventorsShigeo Maeda, Katsunori Hosotani, Osamu TohyamaOriginal AssigneeMitsubishi Cable Industries, Ltd.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (7), Referenced by (50), Classifications (12), Legal Events (7) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetBending mechanism and stereoscope using same
US 5810717 AAbstract
A bending mechanism for use with a stereoscope, comprises a tubular body or linear body having a bending part, a movable part which can move in the lengthwise direction of the tubular body or linear body, two actuators formed to act in opposition to each other via the movable part, and a pull wire which extends in the lengthwise direction along the bending part. One end of the wire is fixed to one end side of the bending part and the other end of the wire is fixed to the movable part set at the other end side of the bending part. At least one of the two actuators is a shape memory element. The bending mechanism of the present invention is free from displacement of the movable part when bending action is not needed, since the two actuators are used which act in opposition to each other via the movable part, and thus, buckling of the bending part can be prevented. The simple structure of the activator unit of the present invention facilitates a reduction of the size of the structure. The stereoscope of the present invention is free from buckling of the image guide and the like, and the angle of convergence can be adjusted easily and a desired three-dimensional view can be obtained easily.
1. A bending mechanism comprising:an elongated body having a first end portion and a second end portion and including an elongated bending part having a first end portion and a second end portion; a movable part movably mounted for movement in a lengthwise direction of said elongated body; two actuators, at least one of which is a shape memory element, operably connected to said movable part so as to act in opposition to one another via said movable part; a pull wire having a first end and a second end and extending in a lengthwise direction along said bending part; wherein said first end of said pull wire is fixed to said first end portion of said bending part; and wherein said second end of said pull wire is fixed to said movable part. 2. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 1, whereinboth of said two actuators are shape memory elements. 3. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 2, whereinsaid two actuators constitute a first actuator and a second actuator; said pull wire constitutes a first pull wire and is operably connected to said first actuator so that said first actuator is operable, upon actuation, to pull said first pull wire and cause bending of said bending part in a first direction; and a second pull wire is provided and is operably connected to said second actuator so that said second actuator is operable, upon actuation, to pull said second pull wire and cause bending of said bending part in a second direction different than said first direction. 4. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 1, whereinsaid pull wire is formed of a shape memory alloy; at least one additional pull wire is provided and is formed of a shape memory alloy; and said pull wires can be heated separately. 5. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 1, whereinsaid shape memory element comprises a shape memory alloy coil. 6. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 1, whereineach of said actuators comprises plural shape memory elements. 7. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 1, whereinsaid two actuators, said movable part and said pull wire together constitute one of a plurality of similar actuator units; and for each of said actuator units, said pull wire is set at a predetermined circumferential position and extends along said lengthwise direction of said bending part. 8. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 7, whereinone of said actuator units is provided radially inwardly of another one of said actuator units. 9. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 7, whereinsaid movable parts of said actuator units, respectively, are circumferentially aligned so as to constitute a divided movable ring. 10. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 1, whereinsaid movable part is mounted in a location nearer to said second end portion of said bending part than said first end portion of said bending part. 11. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 1, whereinwherein said elongated body comprises a tubular body. 12. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 1, whereinsaid actuators are respectively disposed on opposite sides of said movable part. 13. A stereoscope comprising:two elongated image guides spaced apart at a certain distance, each of said image guides having a first end portion and a second end portion and including an elongated bending part having a first end portion and a second end portion; a movable part movably mounted for movement in a lengthwise direction of said image guides; two actuators, at least one of which is a shape memory element, operably connected to said movable part so as to act in opposition to one another via said movable part; at least one pull wire having a first end and a second end and extending in a lengthwise direction along said bending parts; wherein said first end of said at least one pull wire is fixed to said first end portions of said bending parts; and wherein said second end of said at least one pull wire is fixed to said movable part; whereby operation of said at least one pull wire activates said bending parts of said image guides, respectively. 14. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 13, whereinboth of said two actuators are shape memory elements. 15. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 13, whereinsaid shape memory element comprises a shape memory alloy coil. 16. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 13, further comprisinga coupling wire linking said first end portions of said bending parts; wherein said first end of said at least one pull wire is connected to said coupling wire. 17. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 13, whereinsaid at least one pull wire comprises two pull wires; said first ends of said pull wires are respectively connected to said first end portions of said bending parts; and wherein said second ends of said pull wires are connected to said movable part. 18. A bending mechanism as recited in claim 13, whereinsaid actuators are respectively disposed on opposite sides of said movable part. Description
The present invention relates to a mechanism capable of bending a bending part by activating an actuator of a shape memory element, and further to a stereoscope utilizing said mechanism.
A tip articulation mechanism has been conventionally used for bending a tip articulation endoscope used for observation of sites difficult to see by a normal technique, such as the inside of small tubes and the human body. As such tip articulation endoscope, there has been developed one wherein the distal end portion of the endoscope and the operation end at the proximal side are connected by a pull wire, and wherein an operator manipulates an operation nob attached to the above-mentioned operation end to pull the wire to cause articulation of the tip of the endoscope. This type of tip articulation endoscope requires highly skilled manipulation and is barely an ideal mechanism.
The bending mechanism of the present invention comprises a tubular body or linear body having a bending part, a movable part which can move in the lengthwise direction of the tubular body or linear body, two actuators formed such that they antagonize (i.e. act in opposition to) each other via the movable part, and a pull wire which extends in the lengthwise direction along the bending part. One end of the wire is fixed to one end portion of the bending part and the other end of the wire is fixed to the movable part set at the other end portion of the bending part. At least one of the two actuators is a shape memory element.
For forming plural actuator units to allow bending in a number of directions, for example, two actuator units are disposed in the radial direction of the tubular body as shown in FIG. 5, and the pull wires of the aforementioned two actuator units are set at the predetermined circumferential positions and extend in the direction of the above-mentioned bending part, which positions correspond to desired bending directions (180� opposite positions in FIG. 5). Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6, the movable part is divided in the circumferential direction of the tubular body (divided into four in FIG. 6), and two actuators and pull wires are set on each of the divided movable parts to give plural actuator units, wherein one end of the pull wires in the actuator unit is set at the predetermined circumferential position and extend in the direction of the above-mentioned bending part, which position corresponds to desired bending directions (in four directions spaced apart by 90� in FIG. 6).
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view, partially broken away, of one embodiment of a bending endoscope using a bending mechanism of the present invention.
The present invention is described in detail by way of specific examples in the following.
A two direction bending endoscope as shown in FIG. 2 was fabricated. The parts in common with Example 1 were prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 using the same materials.
This Example relates to a multi-direction bending endoscope using a shape memory alloy coil for a pull wire as shown in FIG. 3. In addition to the structure of Example 1, three shape memory alloy coils (strand diameter of 0.03 mm, and outer diameter of 0.09 mm) were used as pull wires 14, 24 and 34 which were placed in the circumferential direction at equal intervals. First ends of the respective pull wires 14, 24 and 34 were fixed to the distal end of the bending part 1b, and second ends of the pull wires were fixed to the movable ring 3. The shape memory alloy coils were each connected to lead wires (not shown) and could be heated separately. The actuator shape memory alloy coils 2a and 2b were close-coiled with a strand diameter of 0.3 mm, an outer diameter of 1.6 mm, a length of 9 mm and were so as to store (or retain) this coiling state. The coils were stretched to 24 mm and attached at their respective ends to the distal end of the bending part 1b and the removable ring 3. Other than the pull wires and actuators, the structure of the endoscope of Example 3 is the same as in Example 1.
A modified actuator unit U comprising two actuators, a movable part and a pull wire fixed at one end to the movable part was used in this Example, which is shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, all actuator shape memory coil springs are not shown, for simplification. In fact, the first and second actuators 2a and 2b each consisted of 13 TiNi shape memory alloy coil springs close-coiled with a strand diameter of 0.1 mm, an outer diameter of 0.3 mm, and a length of 18 mm and so as to store this coiling state. The shape memory alloy coil springs were set in the circumferential direction of the tubular body at about equal intervals, and were fixed at first ends to the movable stainless ring 3 (inner diameter of 1.3 mm, and outer diameter 1.4 mm) and to actuator fixing members 6, 6 (inner diameter of 1.0 mm, outer diameter of 1.2 mm) at the other end. The 13 coils of 2a or 2b were electrically connected serially. Then, one end of pull wire 4 was fixed to the movable ring 3 to constitute an actuator unit U. When this actuator unit U was provided on the bending endoscope of Example 1, the length of shape memory alloy coil springs was adjusted to 25 mm, thereby attaining bending of about 60 degrees.
The modified actuator units U were set in duplicate as shown in FIG. 5. The two actuator units U were fabricated in the same manner as in Example 3 except for the size of each member. Actuators 12a, 12b, 22a and 22b each consisted of 6 TiNi shape memory alloy coil springs close-coiled at a strand diameter of 0.1 mm, an outer diameter of 0.3 mm, a length of 20 mm and were made so as to store this coiling state. The outer movable ring 13 was a stainless ring having an inner diameter of 1.3 mm and an outer diameter of 1.4 mm, and the inner movable ring 23 was a stainless ring having an inner diameter of 1.1 mm and an outer diameter of 1.2 mm. The actuator fixing members 6, 6 were stainless rings having an inner diameter of 1.0 mm and an outer diameter of 1.2 mm. When they were applied to the bending endoscope of Example 1, the length of shape memory alloy coil springs was adjusted to 28 m, thereby attaining bending of about 60 degrees in two directions.
This Example relates to an endoscope wherein the movable part was divided in the circumferential direction as shown in FIG. 6.
This is an example wherein a tapered shape memory alloy coil was used for heating by light. The actuator unit is shown in FIG. 7. The movable part 3 was a stainless ring having an inner diameter of 0.9 mm and an outer diameter of 1.0 mm, and the actuator fixing members 6, 6 were stainless rings having an inner diameter of 0.5 mm and an outer diameter of 0.6 mm. The shape memory alloy coils 2a and 2b were each formed with a strand diameter of 0.3 mm, a length of 15 mm and were made so as to store this coiling state. The coils were set in a tapered state with a 0.6 mm coil inner-diameter at the actuator fixing member side and a 1.0 mm diameter at the movable part side, so that they act in opposition to each other via the movable part. The pull wire 4 was attached at one end thereof to the movable part 3. Though not shown, an optical fiber for heating the shape memory alloy coils was formed at the proximal end portion of shape memory alloy coil 2a. They were applied to the outer periphery of the image scope (outer diameter of 0.4 mm) shown in Example 1 and used as a bending endoscope. The length of each shape memory alloy coils 2a and 2b was adjusted to 20 mm, thereby attaining bending of about 50 degrees when the original shape of shape memory alloy coil 2a was recovered by laser irradiation from the optical fiber.
A stereoscope of FIG. 8 was fabricated. Two shape memory alloy coil actuators 2a and 2b were fixed at first ends thereof to support plates 16, 16 which also supported image scopes 5, 5, and at second ends thereof to movable part 3 formed between the support plates 16, 16 and movable in the lengthwise direction of the scope to allow opposing action of the actuators. The support plates had holes for passing image scopes therethrough at positions toward an outer periphery from the actuators 2a and 2b, so as to support the image scopes 5, 5 as mentioned above. Each of the support plates had a ring shape to secure a space inside the stereoscope. The image scopes 5, 5 passed through the holes formed in the support plates 16, 16 and projected from the distal end side support plate 16 toward the distal end. They were placed in a parallel relationship to interpose actuators 2a, 2b and movable part 3 therebetween. The support plates were fixed to the image scopes. In this way, a part of the image scope located at the distal end side from the support plate 16 became a bending part which could bend. The pull wires 4, 4 were fixed at first ends thereof to the movable part 3 and, at second ends thereof, to the distal end sides of image scopes 5, 5. The shape memory alloy coils were treated to store the close coiling state beforehand and were attached to the support plates and the movable part upon stretching.
A stereoscope of FIGS. 9 and 10 was fabricated. FIG. 9 is a lengthwise cross-sectional view of the stereoscope of this Example. FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 9 taken along line 10--10 of FIG. 9.
A stereoscope of FIG. 11 was fabricated. The shape memory alloy coil was disposed between support plates 16, 16 which also had fixed thereto an integrated shape memory alloy coil consisting of two actuators 2a and 2b and movable part 3, and support image scopes 5, 5. Thus, the ends of the shape memory alloy coil were fixed to the support plates 16, 16, respectively. Holes were formed through the support plates 16, 16, nearer to the outer peripheries thereof with respect to the coil attaching locations of the support plates 16, 16 for having the image scopes 5, 5 extend therethrough. The two image scopes 5, 5 passed through the holes and partially projected toward the distal end side of the scope beyond the support plate 16. The scopes were placed in parallel, with the shape memory alloy coil interposed therebetween. A co-activation wire ring 20 was set on the two image scopes at a distal side outside of the support plates. The pull wire 4 was fixed, at one end, to the center portion in the lengthwise direction of the shape memory alloy coil and, at the other end, to the center portion of the co-activation wire 20 between the image scopes. To make possible heating of the entire proximal actuator 2a by light, the shape memory alloy coil was tapered to have a minimum diameter at the center portion in the lengthwise direction, and a maximum diameter at both ends. An optical fiber 22 for laser irradiation was disposed at the proximal end side of the shape memory alloy coil.
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A61B1/0058European ClassificationA61B1/00S7, A61B1/005D, A61B1/005B6Legal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionSep 18, 1996ASAssignmentOwner name: MITSUBISHI CABLE INDUSTRIES, LTD., JAPANFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:MAEDA, SHIGEO;HOSOTANI, KATSUNORI;TOHYAMA, OSAMU;REEL/FRAME:008169/0915Effective date: 19960910Feb 8, 2001ASAssignmentOwner name: NEW ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:MITSUBISHI CABLE INDUSTRIES, LTD.;REEL/FRAME:011511/0654Effective date: 20010112Feb 28, 2002FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 4Feb 24, 2006FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 8Apr 26, 2010REMIMaintenance fee reminder mailedSep 22, 2010LAPSLapse for failure to pay maintenance feesNov 9, 2010FPExpired due to failure to pay maintenance feeEffective date: 20100922RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by 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