Pipe like object following and deforming to 3d curve? HELP?!

Hello artist forum,

I am in urgent need of help. And for the sake of my head and ripping out any more hair, I need to have an object follow and deform to three dimensional curved path. I created the object using a cad software(solidworks), exported it as a STL, then imported it into blender. I can’t seem get it to move and deform to the curve correctly. I will attach my blend file. I’m aiming for an animation like the link below. I feel like it should be simple. I’ve tried follow curve with curve modifier but it only deforms one way and does not work. I couldn’t get armatures to do what i wanted either. Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris