| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical fiber bundle for an endoscope wherein a coating tube is not pinched by a spiral tube, and in addition, the spiral tube smoothly bends, and does not become an obstruction for the smooth bending motion of a bending section or a flexible tube section. SOLUTION: The bundle of optical fibers 11 is covered by the flexible coating tube 13, one end of which is fixed to a mouthpiece 12. At the same time, the spiral tube 15 is formed by spirally winding a metal band material of which the cross sectional shape is a thin plate shape, and is arranged in a manner to surround the coating tube 13. Then, one end of the spiral tube 15 is fixed to the mouthpiece for this optical fiber bundle for the endoscope. In such an optical fiber bundle, the spiral tube 15 is formed into a closely wound shape wherein the side edges of the adjacent metal band material come into contact with each other without a gap. At the same time, the other end side of the spiral tube 15 is formed into a free end which is movable to the coating tube 13.
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