Bi-rigid guide wire enables endoscope insertion into winding small gas pipelines

Abstract

This paper presents a method to inspect the interior of a winding small gas pipe using a hollow guide wire. There is no conventional method to insert an endoscope into an 8-bend 25-mm-diameter gas pipe within 2 hours. In medical practice, a guide wire inserted in advance enables insertion of a catheter into a vessel. However, it is impossible to insert a normal guide wire into a gas pipe because the wire buckles in the pipe. Thus, we designed a hollow guide wire with a small front diameter and large rear diameter, making the front soft and the rear stiff. This guide wire can be inserted without buckling or meandering. First, we measured mechanical properties such as the torsional spring constant and damping coefficient of the wire and the frictional coefficient between the pipe and wire. Second, we conducted an experiment inserting guide wires with various tip pitches, front lengths, front outer diameters, and rear outer diameters. Third, we analyzed the insertion distance by simulating guide wire insertion using the Lagrange method, and optimized the guide wire shape via the response surface method. Finally, the optimized guide wires were tested experimentally to validate the analysis. As a result, an optimized guide wire and an endoscope can both be inserted into a gas pipe and removed within just 3 minutes.