Patent ID: 7846089

Claim:
A bendable portion control mechanism of an endoscope including a control portion and an insertion portion extending from said control portion, said insertion portion having a bendable portion, said bendable portion control mechanism comprising: two manually-rotatable control knobs, one of said manually-rotatable control knobs being provided on top of the other thereof and disposed coaxially with each other on said control portion, for bending said bendable portion in two orthogonal directions, each of said control knobs including a water-sealed internal space; two bent state holding mechanisms, provided in said two water-sealed internal spaces, respectively, for holding a bent state of said bendable portion in said two orthogonal directions by exerting frictional resistance on rotating operations of said two control knobs, wherein said two control knobs are configured to be detached from and attached to said control portion while said two bent state holding mechanisms are attached to said control portion, and wherein it is possible to adjust operational characteristics of each of said two bent state holding mechanisms upon detaching said two control knobs, respectively; and a first bending drive disk mounted to said control portion to be freely rotatable, wherein one of said control knobs which is positioned closest to a base of said control portion is disengageably engaged with an outer peripheral part of said first bending drive disk in a direction of a common rotational axis of said control knobs, and wherein said one of said control knobs is fixed to said first bending drive disk by a retaining nut which is screw-engaged with an outer peripheral part of said first bending drive disk.