Optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus, light guide, endoscope having light guide, and method of manufacturing optical fiber bundle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021109282-A1
Application number	US-202017131915-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 23, 2020
Priority date	Jul 4, 2018
Publication date	Apr 15, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

An optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus includes: a winding member; a guide member movable in a direction parallel to a rotary axis, the guide member being configured to guide an optical fiber wire to any one of first winding positions, a converging winding position and second winding positions; and a processor configured to perform processing to move the guide member such that a first branching portion branching into p branches, a converging portion converging the first branching portion branching into p branches into one, a second branching portion branching into q branches, and a connecting portion connecting the first branching portion and the second branching portion are formed in this order by the optical fiber wire.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus comprising:
a winding member rotatable in a winding direction about a rotary axis and configured to wind up an optical fiber wire; a guide member movable in a direction parallel to the rotary axis, the guide member being configured to guide the optical fiber wire to any one of p first winding positions, a converging winding position, and q second winding positions on an outer peripheral surface of the winding member, where p is a natural number of 2 or more and q is a natural number of 2 or more; and a processor configured to perform processing to move the guide member such that a first branching portion branching into p branches at the first winding positions, a converging portion converging the first branching portion branching into p branches into one at the converging winding position, the second branching portion branching into q branches from the converging portion converging into one at the second winding positions, and a connecting portion connecting the first branching portion and the second branching portion are formed in this order by the optical fiber wire.

2 . The optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to perform the processing to move the guide member during rotation of the winding member.

3 . The optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a memory, wherein
the memory is configured to store a first winding path where a number of branches of the first branching portion and a number of branches of the second branching portion are equal to each other, and a second winding path where the number of branches of the first branching portion and the number of branches of the second branching portion differ from each other, and the processor is configured to read either one of the first winding path and the second winding path from the memory, and to control the guide member.

4 . The optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the first branching portion includes p first branched end portions, the second branching portion includes q second branched end portions, and the processor is configured to control the guide member such that the optical fiber wire is approximately uniformly disposed between the respective first branched end portions and respective second branched end portions.

5 . The optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to control the guide member such that the optical fiber wire is disposed at random in the converging portion.

6 . The optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a cutting device, wherein the cutting device is configured to cut the optical fiber wire wound around the winding member at the first branching portion and the second branching portion.

7 . The optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the optical fiber wire has a diameter of 0.1 mm or less, and the converging portion is formed of 10 or more portions of the optical fiber wire.

8 . The optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the first branching portion includes p first branched end portions, the second branching portion includes q second branched end portions, and the processor is configured to move the guide member such that an arrangement number of portions of the optical fiber wire on each of paths between the respective first branched end portions and the respective second branched end portions is arbitrarily set in a distributed manner.

9 . The optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to move the guide member such that the arrangement numbers are set substantially equal.

10 . A light guide manufactured by an optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus, the optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus comprising:
a winding member rotatable in a winding direction about a rotary axis and configured to wind up an optical fiber wire; a guide member movable in a direction parallel to the rotary axis, the guide member being configured to guide the optical fiber wire to any one of p first winding positions, a converging winding position, and q second winding positions on an outer peripheral surface of the winding member, where p is a natural number of 2 or more and q is a natural number of 2 or more; and a processor configured to perform processing to move the guide member such that a first branching portion branching into p branches at the first winding positions, a converging portion converging the first branching portion branching into p branches into one at the converging winding position, the second branching portion branching into q branches from the converging portion converging into one at the second winding positions, and a connecting portion connecting the first branching portion and the second branching portion are formed in this order by the optical fiber wire, wherein a distal end side of the light guide is branched in plurality, and a proximal end side of the light guide is branched in plurality.

11 . The light guide according to claim 10 , wherein
p kinds of illumination lights are incident on the first branching portion from a light source, the illumination lights are radiated from q illumination light emitting units toward an object via the second branching portion, and the light guide is mounted on an endoscope inserted into the object.

12 . An endoscope comprising a light guide manufactured by an optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus, the optical fiber bundle manufacturing apparatus comprising:
a winding member rotatable in a winding direction about a rotary axis and configured to wind up an optical fiber wire; a guide member movable in a direction parallel to the rotary axis, the guide member being configured to guide the optical fiber wire to any one of p first winding positions, a converging winding position, and q second winding positions on an outer peripheral surface of the winding member, where p is a natural number of 2 or more and q is a natural number of 2 or more; and a processor configured to perform processing to move the guide member such that a first branching portion branching into p branches at the first winding positions, a converging portion converging the first branching portion branching into p branches into one at the converging winding position, the second branching portion branching into q branches from the converging portion converging into one at the second winding positions, and a connecting portion connecting the first branching portion and the second branching portion are formed in this order by the optical fiber wire, wherein a distal end side of the light guide is branched in plurality, and a proximal end side of the light guide is branched in plurality, and the light guide is configured to guide illumination light from a plurality of light sources to a plurality of illumination light emitting units provided to a distal end member of an insertion section.

13 . A method of manufacturing an optical fiber bundle, the method comprising:
preparing a winding member rotatable in a winding direction about a rotary axis and configured to wind up an optical fiber wire, and a guide member movable in a direction parallel to the rotary axis and configured to guide the optical fiber wire to a winding position of the winding member on an outer peripheral surface of the winding member; and performing winding control processing where th

Assignees

• Olympus Corp

Inventors

• Takagi Hiroki
• Tamura Ken

Classifications

• A61B1/0669 Primary

  at proximal end of an endoscope · CPC title

• A61B1/000095

  for image enhancement · CPC title

• G02B6/04 Primary

  formed by bundles of fibres (G02B6/24 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61B1/0655

  Control therefor · CPC title

• G02B6/4403

  with ribbon structure (G02B6/4429, G02B6/4439, G02B6/4479 take precedence) · CPC title