Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Assembling or joining
Patent
1989-12-20
1992-02-18
Gorski, Joseph M.
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Assembling or joining
29448, 128 4, B23P 1102, A61B 100
Patent
active
050881787
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method and device for fitting a flexible elongated thin-walled protective tube around a head used for diagnostic purposes and an elongated transmission tube joined thereto for transmitting image signals originating from the head.
Such a method and device, as well as a protective tube to be used therewith, are known from the U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,722.
According to a method known therefrom, the open end of a protective tube to be fitted is attached in an airtight sealing manner to an annular seating of an inflating sleeve. Said sleeve is provided with a connecting nipple via which blower air can be fed to the interior of the sleeve and the protective tube attached thereto. Said sleeve is also provided with an annular sealing element fitted therein which is intended to enclose in an airtight sealing manner the transmission tube which is joined to the diagnostic head.
After said sleeve has been fitted at the end where said diagnostic head is located, i.e. around the transmission tube, air is fed via the connecting nipple, as a result of which the protective tube attached to the sleeve is inflated. As a result of this it is possible to pull the sleeve and the protective tube over the transmission tube, the sealing element of the sleeve being slid over the outer surface of the transmission tube. Once said transmission tube is surrounded by the expanded protective tube over the desired length, it is arranged that the air is able to escape, as a result of which the protective tube encloses, in a close fitting manner, the transmission tube and the diagnostic head joined thereto.
This known technique is laborious and time-consuming. In addition, it is a requirement that a source of compressed air is available. Viewed from a factory engineering viewpoint it is also unattractive for the sleeve to have to continue simultaneously to form an airtight seal in this process while being slid over the transmission tube.
The object of the invention is to meet the drawbacks outlined above.
For this purpose a method according to the invention is characterized by the following steps:
a) with the exception of a relatively short and sealed end section, the protective tube is slid onto the nozzle section of a fitting funnel in a manner such that the protective tube is situated on said nozzle section in a gathered condition;
b) the head and the section of the transmission tube joined thereto is fitted therein via the enlarged section of the fitting funnel and displaced with respect thereto in a manner such that said head is situated in the protective tube and has reached the said end section of the protective tube; and
c) the transmission tube is held in position while the fitting funnel and the section of the protective tube present thereon are moved over the transmission tube until said protective tube has assumed the stretched condition.
A method proposed by the invention makes it possible to effect a pertinent assembly of diagnostic head and transmission tube in a protective tube in an efficient and simple manner.
The method according to the invention can be used with advantage in those cases in which the head used for diagnostic purposes is an ultrasound transducer. In this case it is necessary for such a transducer to be acousticly coupled to a transmission medium which conducts ultrasound well. For this purpose use is generally made of a transmission gel. Since such a gel has a certain lubricating action, it is necessary, in view of a required facility to rotate the transducer around the longitudinal axis of the transmission tube, that only the transducer is in contact with gel so that no transmission gel is present between the inside wall of the protective tube and the outer surface of the transmission tube.
A method suitable for the above-mentioned use is, according to the invention, characterized in that, after the step in which, with the exception of a relatively short and sealed end section, the protective tube is slid onto the nozzle section of a fitting funnel in a manner such that said protecti
REFERENCES:
patent: 2670736 (1954-03-01), Dunkelberger
patent: 2696209 (1954-12-01), Varaney
patent: 3866601 (1975-02-01), Russell
patent: 4368894 (1983-01-01), Parmann
patent: 4593699 (1986-06-01), Poncy et al.
patent: 4646722 (1987-03-01), Silverstein et al.
patent: 4741326 (1988-05-01), Sidall et al.
patent: 4821398 (1989-04-01), Hillstead
bv Optische Industrie
Gorski Joseph M.
Hughes S. Thomas
Marn Louis E.
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