Borescope or boroscope
Bore scope is a rigid (industrial endoscope) or flexible (fibrescope, flexible borescope) tube with an eyepiece on one end, an objective lens on the other linked together by a relay optical system in between. Borescopes are used for inspection work (borescope inspection) where the area to be inspected is inaccessible by other means. There is 2 main types of borescopes. Flexible borescopes and Rigid borescopes. Flexible borescopes also are called Fiberscopes - because their relay optical system that trasfer image consist of thousands of tiny fibers (fiber optic image bundle). Rigid borescopes (bore scope) are similar to a fiberscope, but have a higher quality image and are not flexible. Rigid borescopes (boroscopes) are therefore better suited to certain tasks such as inspecting (borescope inspection) automotive cylinders, fuel injectors, hydraulic manifold bodies and gunsmithing. Rigid or flexible borescopes may be fitted with a magnifying device and a way to illuminate the work being inspected, usually illumination fibers contained in the insertion tube of the borescope. The eyepiece may be fitted with a coupler lens to allow the borescope to be used with imaging devices such as a video or CCD camera, so called borescope viewer. borescopes can be used for rifle inspection and precision shooting as well.
There are different brands of rigid boroscopes, such as Hawkeye borescopes, Karl Storz borescopes, Olympus borescopes, Richard Wolf borescopes.
Fiberscope or Flexible borescopes
A fiberscope (or fiber scope, fiber optic scope, flexscope, flexi Scope) is a flexible inspection device that consist of fiber optic bundles with an eyepiece at one end, and a lens at the other. Usually it has 2 type of bundles: fiber optic light bundle (for illumination of objects) and fiber optic image bundle to relay image to eyepiece. The lens is often a wide-angle lens, and the eyepiece is occasionally instead connected to a camera. Fiberscopes (fiber optic scope) has some very important advantages and features such as FLEXIBILITY, higher length (then rigid borescope) and ARTICULATION capabilities. Articulation mean that inspector can manipulate a tip of the fiberscope and pass along the corners, angled tubes and hard to reach areas as well as inspect object from different angles. There could be 1, 2 or 4 way articulation fiberscopes (fiber optic scope). Usually small diameter fiberscopes like 4mm diameter has only 2 way articulation. You will be able still to see all what you need and all angles but needed to rotate scope.
All fiberscopes (flexible borescopes) introduce a certain amount of image distortion and depends on fiber diameter and amount of fibers in the image bundle.
It is used for inspection work, often to examine small components in tightly packed equipment, when the inspector cannot easily access the part requiring inspection.
Fiberscopes (fiber optic scopes) are used in aircraft inspection and maintenance, engines machining, computer repair, espionage, locksmithing, safecracking, and computer forensics, among many other uses.
There are different brands of flexible boroscopes, such as Provision borescopes, Karl Storz borescopes, Olympus borescopes, Richard Wolf borescopes.
Boroscopes and Fiberscopes are mainly used for Non Destructive Testing, abbreviated as NDT, NDT Equipment.
Videoscopes or Video borescopes
A flexible Videoscope or Video borescope is an advanced type of borescope that houses a very small CCD chip embedded into the tip of the scope and is used for visual (video) inspection. The video image is relayed from the distal tip and focusable lens assembly back to the display via internal wiring. This is unlike a traditional borescope and Fiberscope. borescopes use hard optical relay components to transfer the image from the tip to an eyepiece and Fiberscopes use coherent image fiberoptics to relay the image to one's eye through an eyepiece. The image quality of a videoscope is superior to a fiberscope and could be compared to that of a high-end Video Camcorder, and enables high quality control of inspected devices.
Videoscopes are normally 10 mm or less (up to 4mm in diameter) in diameter and come in lengths up to 50 ft. Several integral features include the insertion probe section, the articulated tip, articulation controls (up down left right) on the control handle, lighting bundle, high intensity external light source and cable interface with outputs to the display (LCD or CRT) and external media recording device such as computer hard disk or compact flash card. The system normally will record either live video or still photo's.
As either an AC or DC portable visual inspection system, the components are designed to be compact and be hand carried without shipping cases on wheels or large boxes.
