JP3542782B2 - Pipe Guide Manufacturing Method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a pipe guide for guiding a camera cable of an industrial endoscope device, for example.
[0002]
[Prior art]
When inspecting the inside of a pipe leading to a special environment such as a nuclear reactor, an industrial endoscope device is used. In addition, when inspecting the inside of a thin pipe such as a water pipe and a gas pipe, observation with an industrial endoscope apparatus is possible.
[0003]
This type of industrial endoscope apparatus has a camera head at a distal end, and has an operation unit for operating the direction of the camera head at hand. A camera cable is connected between the camera head and the operation unit, and the camera cable is guided by a pipe guide. That is, the camera head and the operation unit are attached to both ends of the pipe guide.
[0004]
A pipe guide used in this type of industrial endoscope apparatus generally has a four-layer structure. That is, it is formed by covering the outside of the metal spiral tube with a stainless steel braid, covering the outside with a waterproof rubber tube, and further covering the outside with a stainless steel braid again.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, it is known that the outermost stainless steel braid is partially cut due to abrasion and causes burrs during the use of the conventional four-layered pipe guide described above. There was a problem.
[0006]
In addition, the conventional pipe guide uses a metal spiral tube to obtain mechanical strength against crushing, a stainless steel braid is coated on the metal spiral tube to cover the waterproof rubber tube, and a rubber tube for waterproofing is further used. Since the outermost layer is covered with a stainless steel braid to protect the structure, there is a problem that the structure is complicated and the manufacturing cost is high.
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a pipe guide that can simplify a structure, can be manufactured at low cost, and can enhance safety during handling. .
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a method for manufacturing a pipe guide according to the present invention is to prepare a metal spiral tube obtained by spirally winding an elongated plate-shaped metal into a pipe and cutting it into a desired length. A step of manufacturing a plurality of core materials by coating a stainless steel braid on the outside of the metal braid, attaching substantially cylindrical terminal fittings to both ends of the metal spiral tube coated with the stainless steel braid, and relaying the terminal fittings of the core material to each other Step of connecting using metal fittings, step of coating polyester elastomer on the outside of the plurality of connected core materials, and partially cutting off the polyester elastomer at the position of the relay metal fittings, all the relay metal fittings It is characterized by comprising a step of removing from the terminal fitting, and a step of attaching a substantially cylindrical base to a tip of the terminal fitting from which the relay fitting has been removed.
[0009]
According to the above invention, since the polyester elastomer formed on the outermost layer has sufficient mechanical strength and a waterproof function, the protection and waterproofing of the pipe guide can be achieved only by this one layer. For this reason, the pipe guide can be formed in a three-layer structure, the structure can be simplified, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced. In addition, since the outermost layer of polyester elastomer is a material that is also resistant to friction, there is no burr on the surface unlike a conventional pipe guide, and there is no damage to the hands even if the operator touches them. Safety can be improved.
[0011]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0012]
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an industrial endoscope apparatus 1 (tube endoscope) incorporating a pipe guide 10 (described later) according to an embodiment of the present invention. The industrial endoscope apparatus 1 is used for, for example, inspecting the inside of a pipe that leads to a special environment such as a nuclear reactor, and inspecting the inside of a thin pipe such as a water and sewage pipe and a gas pipe.
[0013]
The industrial endoscope apparatus 1 has an elongated appearance, and has a camera head 2 at the tip. The camera head 2 has members (not shown) such as a camera and a lens. At the end face of the camera head 2, the tips of a plurality of optical fiber cables (not shown) for illumination are exposed.
[0014]
The camera head 2 is attached to one end of a flexible portion 3 covered with a bellows-shaped clothing member. The bendable portion 3 is operated by a plurality of wires (not shown), and functions to freely change the direction of the camera head 2 in up, down, left, right, and diagonal directions (arrow directions in the drawing). For example, in the bendable portion 3, a plurality of wires are passed through a flexible cylinder, the ends of the wires are fixed at a plurality of locations around the camera head, and the plurality of locations around the camera head 2 are pulled or pulled. The direction of the camera head 2 is changed by relaxing.
[0015]
The other end of the bendable portion 3 is connected to one end of a connecting portion 4 surrounded by a rigid cylinder. The other end of the connecting portion 4 is connected to one end of the pipe guide 10. That is, the bendable portion 3 is attached to one end of the pipe guide 10 via the connecting portion 4. That is, the above-described camera head 2, the bendable portion 3, and the connecting portion 4 function as a photographing unit of the present invention.
[0016]
The pipe guide 10 has a hollow pipe shape, and a plurality of cables extending between the operation unit 6 (described later) and the camera head 2, such as a plurality of wires for operation, a camera cable, and an optical fiber cable described above. To guide through.
[0017]
The operation unit 6 is connected to the other end of the pipe guide 10. The operation unit 6 has substantially the same configuration as the above-described bendable unit 3, and has fixed base ends of a plurality of wires extending from the camera head 2. That is, when the operator bends the operation unit 6 in a desired direction (for example, a direction indicated by an arrow in the drawing), the wire outside the bend is pulled, the corresponding portion of the camera head 2 is pulled, and the direction of the camera head 2 is changed. Pointed in the desired direction.
[0018]
When operating the industrial endoscope device 1 described above, the operation unit 6 is bent in a desired direction, and the camera head 2 is directed in a desired direction. That is, the operation unit 6 functions as the operation unit of the present invention.
[0019]
A signal processing device (not shown) is connected to the base end of the camera cable extending through the pipe guide 10, and a light source for illumination (not shown) is connected to the base end of the optical fiber cable extending through the pipe guide 10. Is provided.
[0020]
Next, a method for manufacturing the above-described pipe guide 10 will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0021]
First, a method of manufacturing the core member 20 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 6 together with FIGS.
[0022]
First, a metal spiral tube 11 forming the innermost layer of the pipe guide 10 is prepared. As shown in FIG. 2, the metal spiral tube 11 is formed by spirally winding an elongated stainless steel flat plate into a pipe shape. As a material of the metal spiral tube 11, a material having sufficient strength against crushing is selected to prevent breakage of various cables inserted inside the metal spiral tube 11. Then, the metal spiral tube 11 is cut into a desired length in advance according to the length of the pipe guide 10 to be manufactured (FIG. 6; step 1).
[0023]
Next, terminal fittings 12 are attached to both ends of the plurality of metal spiral tubes 11 cut to a desired length (step 2). As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the terminal fitting 12 is formed of a substantially cylindrical thin-walled metal tube having an outer diameter slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the metal spiral tube 11, and has a band-shaped large diameter in the axial middle part. It has a portion 12a. The large diameter portion 12a functions as a stopper for abutting the tip of the metal spiral tube 11 when the terminal fitting 12 is inserted into the end of the metal spiral tube 11. After the terminal fitting 12 is inserted into the end of the metal spiral tube 11 in this manner, as shown in FIG. 3, the terminal fitting 12 is connected to the end of the metal spiral tube 11 with the solder 13 interposed from the gap of the metal spiral tube 11. Solder to the part.
[0024]
Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a stainless steel braid 14 is attached to the outside of the metal spiral tube 11 having the terminal fittings 12 attached to both ends as described above (step 3). At this time, the stainless steel braid 14 is coated on the outside of the metal spiral tube 11, and both ends of the coated stainless steel braid 14 are cut at the positions of the large diameter portions 12 a of the terminal fittings 12. Then, the stainless steel braid 14 is soldered to the metal spiral tube 11 near the end of the stainless steel braid 14 so that the solder 15 is impregnated from the outside of the stainless steel braid 14. At this time, as shown in FIG. 4, the solders 13 and 15 may be connected.
[0025]
Thereafter, the solder 15 raised on the outer side of the stainless steel braid 14 is shaved and smoothed with a file or the like to form a core material 20 having the terminal fittings 12 at both ends as shown in FIG. 5 (step 4). The core member 20 has a two-layer structure.
[0026]
Next, a method of processing the core member 20 manufactured as described above to manufacture the pipe guide 10 of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 11 together with FIGS.
[0027]
First, as shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of core members 20 manufactured as described above are connected using a plurality of relay brackets 30 shown in FIG. 7 (FIG. 11; step 5). The number of core materials 20 to be connected can be set arbitrarily. In FIG. 8, one connecting portion between the two core members 20 is shown as a representative, but a plurality of core members 20 are connected as shown in FIG.
[0028]
As shown in FIG. 7, the relay fitting 30 has two substantially cylindrical insertion portions 31 and 32 having an outer shape slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the terminal fitting 12 of the core member 20 and is coaxially and integrally separated from each other. A large-diameter portion 33 is formed at a portion where the two insertion portions 31 and 32 are connected, and small-diameter grooves 34 and 35 are formed between the large-diameter portion 33 and each of the insertion portions 31 and 32. The relay fitting 30 may be formed hollow or solid.
[0029]
For example, when connecting two core members 20, the two insertion portions 31 and 32 of the relay member 30 are inserted into the terminal members 12 at the connection ends of the respective core members 20. The insertion portions 31 and 32 reinforce the thin terminal fitting 12 from the inside while being inserted into the terminal fitting 12. At this time, as shown in FIG. 8, the large diameter portion 33 of the relay fitting 30 functions as a stopper for abutting the tip of the terminal fitting 12 of the core material 20. The large diameter portion 33 also functions as a marker as described later.
[0030]
Then, the distal end of the terminal fitting 12 abutted against the large diameter portion 33 is soldered (41) to the large diameter portion 33 at several places. At this time, the grooves 34 and 35 formed between the large diameter portion 33 and the two insertion portions 31 and 32 function as a solder escape, and a part of the solder 41 flows into the grooves 34 and 35. By the way, the soldering 41 is not performed over the entire periphery of the terminal fitting 12, but is temporarily fixed only at several locations on the distal end periphery of the terminal fitting 12. In other words, the soldering 41 only needs to have such strength that it can be kept from being pulled when the polyester elastomer is coated, which will be described later, and is finally melted and separated.
[0031]
After the plurality of core members 20 are connected in a straight line as described above, as shown in FIG. 9, the outside of all the core members 20 is coated with a polyester elastomer 42 by a known pipe extrusion process (step 6). ). The polyester elastomer 42 has a waterproof function and a sufficient mechanical strength. Therefore, protection and waterproofing of the pipe guide can be achieved only by this one layer.
[0032]
When coating the polyester elastomer 42 by pipe extrusion, the inside of the plurality of core materials 20 connected and united is evacuated so that a part of the polyester elastomer 42 enters the stainless steel braid 14. To Thereby, the displacement of the polyester elastomer 42 with respect to the stainless steel braid 14 can be prevented. The large-diameter portion 12a of the terminal fitting 12 and the large-diameter portion 33 of the relay fitting 30 also function as projections for preventing the polyester elastomer 42 from shifting.
[0033]
Next, the polyester elastomer 42 covering the plurality of core members 20 together is cut near the large diameter portion 33 of each relay fitting 30 and partially removed (step 7). At this time, since the large-diameter portion 33 of the relay fitting 30 clearly appears to protrude from other portions when viewed from the outside of the layer of the polyester elastomer 42, it is easy to register the cutting position. The cutting position of the polyester elastomer 42 is set at a position where the end of the terminal fitting 12 is partially exposed as shown in FIG.
[0034]
Then, in step 5, the solder 41 (see FIG. 8) in which the large diameter portion 33 of each relay fitting 30 and the end of the terminal fitting 12 are temporarily fixed is melted, and all the relay fittings 30 are removed from the terminal fitting 12 (step 5). 8). At this time, the temporarily fixed solder 41 can be visually observed through the portion where the polyester elastomer 42 has been cut off, and the solder 41 can be melted through this portion. The melted solder 41 flows into the grooves 34 and 35 of each relay fitting 30 and does not remain at the tip of the terminal fitting 12. On the other hand, when the relay fitting 30 is reused, it is necessary to remove the solder flowing into the grooves 34 and 35.
[0035]
After extracting the relay fitting 30, the end of the terminal fitting 12 exposed from both ends of each of the separated core members 20 (in this case, coated with the polyester elastomer 42) has a substantially cylindrical shape as shown in FIG. Are attached (step 9). The base 44 has an inner diameter larger than the outer diameter of the terminal fitting 12, and has a step portion 44a having a slightly larger diameter inside one end thereof.
[0036]
When the base 44 is attached to the terminal fitting 12, the base 44 is fitted to the end of the terminal fitting 12 such that the step 44 a of the base 44 covers the end of the polyester elastomer 42 coated on the outside of the terminal fitting 12. At this time, an adhesive is applied to the step 44a and the inner surface of the base 44, and the inner surface of the base 44 and the outer peripheral surface of the terminal fitting 12, and the step 44a and the polyester elastomer 42 are bonded.
[0037]
Through the above-described steps, the pipe guide 10 having a three-layer structure including the metal spiral tube 11, the stainless steel braid 14, and the polyester elastomer 42 having the bases 44 at both ends is manufactured.
[0038]
When the pipe guide 10 is incorporated into the industrial endoscope apparatus 1 described above, the connecting portion 4 for mounting the camera head 2 is attached to one of the bases 44 protruding from one end of the pipe guide 10, and the operation is performed. Cables such as a plurality of wires, a camera cable, and an optical fiber cable are inserted into the pipe guide 10, and the operation unit 6 is attached to the other base 44 protruding from the other end of the pipe guide 10.
[0039]
As described above, according to the pipe guide 10 of the present invention, the polyester elastomer 42 formed on the outermost layer has a sufficient mechanical strength and a waterproof function. Achieve protection and waterproofing. For this reason, the pipe guide 10 can be formed in a three-layer structure, the structure can be simplified, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced as compared with a conventional pipe guide having a four-layer structure. Further, since the outermost layer of the polyester elastomer 42 is a material resistant to friction, there is no burr on the surface unlike a conventional pipe guide having a stainless steel braid on the outermost layer. There is no damage, and safety during handling can be improved.
[0040]
Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the bases 44 at both ends of the pipe guide are attached at positions covering the terminal fittings 12 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. 11 may be attached at a position covering the end of the eleventh portion.
[0041]
Also, here, the case where the present invention is applied to the pipe guide 10 of the industrial endoscope apparatus 1 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is simply applied to a pipe guide for guiding cables that require waterproofing. Can also be applied.
[0042]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the pipe guide manufacturing method of the present invention, the structure can be simplified, inexpensive to manufacture, can be manufactured a pipe guide which can enhance safety during handling.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of an industrial endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state where a terminal fitting is attached to a metal spiral tube of a pipe guide incorporated in the industrial endoscope apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a view for explaining an operation of soldering the terminal fitting of FIG. 2 to a metal spiral tube.
FIG. 4 is a view for explaining an operation of coating and soldering a stainless steel braid on the outside of the metal spiral tube of FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a core material of a pipe guide.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a method of manufacturing the core material of FIG. 5;
7 is a front view showing a relay fitting for connecting the core members of FIG. 5;
FIG. 8 is a view for explaining an operation of connecting a core material using the relay fitting of FIG. 7;
FIG. 9 is a view showing a state in which a polyester elastomer is coated on the outside of the connected core material.
FIG. 10 is a view showing a state where a base is attached to an end of a core material after coating with a polyester elastomer.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining a method of manufacturing a pipe guide by processing a core material.
[Explanation of symbols]
1. Industrial endoscope device,
2. Camera head,
3 ... flexible part,
4 ... connecting part,
6 ... operation part,
10. Pipe guide,
11 metal spiral tube,
12 ... terminal fittings,
12a: large diameter part,
13, 15, 41 ... solder,
14 ... Stainless braid,
20 ... core material,
30 ... relay bracket,
31, 32 ... insertion part,
33 ... large diameter part,
34, 35 ... grooves,
42… Polyester elastomer,
44 ... Base,
44a...

Claims (6)

Prepare a metal spiral tube obtained by spirally winding an elongated plate-shaped metal into a pipe and cutting it to a desired length, coating the outside of the metal spiral tube with a stainless steel braid, and coating the stainless steel braid with a metal spiral. A process of manufacturing a plurality of core materials by attaching a substantially cylindrical terminal fitting to both ends of the pipe,
A step of connecting the terminal fittings of the core material to each other using a relay fitting,
A step of coating a polyester elastomer on the outside of the plurality of connected core materials,
A step of partially removing the polyester elastomer at the position of the relay bracket, and removing all the relay brackets from the terminal bracket,
A step of attaching a substantially cylindrical base to the end of the terminal fitting from which the relay fitting has been removed,
A method for manufacturing a pipe guide, comprising: The method for manufacturing a pipe guide according to claim 1, wherein the step of manufacturing the core material includes a step of soldering the terminal fittings to both ends of the metal spiral tube coated with the stainless steel braid. The method for manufacturing a pipe guide according to claim 1, wherein in the step of coating the polyester elastomer, the polyester elastomer is coated by pipe extrusion on the outside of the plurality of connected core materials. When coating the polyester elastomer, a part of the polyester elastomer is evacuated to evacuate the inside of the plurality of connected core materials so that a part of the polyester elastomer enters the stainless steel braid. The method for manufacturing a pipe guide according to claim 3. The method for manufacturing a pipe guide according to claim 1, wherein in the step of removing the relay metal fitting, the polyester elastomer is partially cut off using a large diameter portion of the relay metal fitting as a guide of a cutting position. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of attaching the base, a base is attached to a tip of the terminal fitting so as to cover an end of the polyester elastomer.

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