Patent ID: 8795158

Claim:
An endoscope insertion assisting device comprising: a supporting member having an approximately cylindrical shape; a rotary body formed into a toroid or a belt, said rotary body being wound over said supporting member and supported in a rotatable manner so as to rotate inside and outside said supporting member in a circulating manner, and said rotary body including a first area continuously formed to have a fixed thickness along the rotational direction and a second area continuously formed to have a convex portion projected more than said first area along the rotational direction, and said second area having an increased thickness so as to make strength thereof higher than that of said first area; a concave portion disposed on a front end surface of said supporting member so as to guide said convex portion; a driving member disposed so as to come in contact with said second area of said rotary body, said driving member transmitting driving force for rotating said rotary body to said rotary body; a pressing member disposed so as to face said driving member across said rotary body, said pressing member pressing said rotary body against said driving member such that the driving force from said driving member is adequately transmitted to said rotary body; and an attachment portion for detachably attaching said supporting member to an insertion section of an endoscope in a state that the rotational direction of said rotary body is approximately coincident with an insertion direction of said insertion section, wherein said concave portion is formed to have a shape corresponding to said convex portion, such that said first area and said second area form an approximately same plane of an outer surface of said rotary body, when an inner surface of said rotary body comes in contact with the front end surface of said supporting member.