Ohio Nuclear, Inc.

Other

Technicare Corporation

Summit World Trade Corporation

Samuel K Taylor

Arthur B Braden

John Covic

John J Kuwik

Joseph B Richey

Thomas R McBride

Christ H Heipp

Joseph W Erker

Philip W McLean

Michael D Tartamella

Goeffrey G Cochrane

Robert L Carper

Donald J Styblo

A mobile printer having features particularly suited for use in a mobile conveyance such as an airplane. The printer stores a first data set in a memory that is accessed under control of a programmable controller. The printer then receives a second data set via a communications transceiver. Data from the first and second data sets are combined to form a composite bit mapped image which is printed by means of a thermal printhead controlled by the programmable controller. The thermal printhead uses rolls of thermally sensitive paper which are supported by means of a mandrel roll. The thermal paper is positioned adjacent the print head by means of a platen roll. A biasing force is provided to bias the platen roll away from the print head when a door in the printer housing is opened to provide a space into which the free end of the roll of paper can enter. A cam is provided on the underside of the door to close the gap between the platen roll and the print head when the housing door is closed so that the platen roll presses the paper against the print head while the printing operation takes place. A back pressure acts on the paper upstream of the platen and idler rolls to straighten the paper with respect to the print head.

Airborne thermal printer

Disclosed is a collimator for a tomographic scanner which performs the collimator function of dividing a fan of radiation into a multiplicity of finger beams and the attenuator function of causing a generally bell-shaped radiation energy distribution across a scan circle. The collimator has larger effective apertures for forming radiation into finger beams to traverse the center of the scan circle than for forming finger beams to traverse the edges of the scan circle. The width of the collimator apertures are defined by radially oriented vanes arranged along a circular arc. By offsetting the radiation source from the geometric center of the circular arc, the vanes defining the width of some apertures are more skewed than others relative to the radiation paths.

Eccentric source collimator assembly for rotating source CT scanner

The method of determining collimator aperture efficiency for a computerized tomographic scanner having a plurality of radiation detectors positioned along a detector arc, a source of radiation having a focal spot having radiation flux distribution positioned across a scan circle from at least part of the detector arc, and a collimator having a plurality of apertures arranged in a collimator arc around said source. Also disclosed is a tomographic scanner having a circular detector arc, a radiation source moveable along a circular arc and an arcuate collimator having apertures in which the width of the collimator aperture in the geometry of the system has high efficiency. The ratio of the detector radius to the source radius, to the collimator radius, to the aperture width is 36:24.3;9.4:0.024.

Method of determining collimator aperture efficiency and apparatus with

A tomographic scanner for subjecting a planar region of a patient to radiation and producing an image representing the planar region in which at least the source or beam of radiation is moved with a varying speed. In particular, in a traverse and rotate type scanner, a carriage carrying the radiation source and detector(s) is traversed relative to the patient with generally simple harmonic motion. Additionally, vibration is reduced by using a motor, which may include a flywheel, running at substantially constant speed to traverse the carriage. Vibration is further reduced by connecting the motor for rotating the carriage to the carriage through a flexible, e.g. chain, drive. Cable connections to the X-ray tube and other elements carried by the moveable carriage are simplified with a bicycle-chain like flexible cable support.

Tomographic scanner

In a CT scanner having a rotating source of radiation and a series of stationary radiation detectors spaced about the axis of rotation of the source, an eclipsing shutter mechanism restricts the width of the diverging fan pattern of radiation to that portion of the patient scan circle which is intermediate the array of stationary detectors and the orbiting source. The eclipsing shutter may include a single elongated slit aperture for flooding the scan circle with radiation or a plurality of smaller apertures defining a collimator for continuously training each one of a plurality of discrete diverging beams in the fan pattern on a single stationary detector during rotation of the source for as long as the separate beam intersects the scan circle. An epicyclic gear train powered by the rotation of the source drives the shutter mechanism in a counter-rotation and causes the collimator to keep each beam aimed at a respective detector.

Shutter for rotating source CT scanner

A versatile patient table system for transverse axial scanners employs front and rear tables with a spanning patient pallet for abdominal scans. A motorized conveyer belt on the front table increments the axial position of the patient. For brain scans the rear table and patient pallet are replaced by a head restraint assembly with a hinged headrest, check pad restraint members and a body pad which rests on the conveyer belt on the front table. In the automatic mode of operation, the belt moves either the body pad or the patient pallet out from the scanner in controlled increments triggered by the image processor. The hinged metal seam of the belt is used for indexing the extreme outward and inward positions.

Growing community of inventors

Chardon, OH, United States of America

Samuel K Taylor