Conveyors: power-driven – With means to facilitate working – treating – or inspecting... – Means to transfer a load back and forth between the mainline...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-05
2001-01-23
Hess, Douglas (Department: 3652)
Conveyors: power-driven
With means to facilitate working, treating, or inspecting...
Means to transfer a load back and forth between the mainline...
C198S345100, C198S809000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06176364
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device for simplified vertical loading of an X-ray cassette into a transport receptacle of a processing apparatus for X-ray cassettes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,128 discloses a receiving unit for X-ray cassettes in a cassette handling apparatus, the unit being suitable for the transport of vertically positioned cassettes of different formats. The device substantially has a part, configured as a separating mechanism, with a number of slots into which the cassettes are loaded. By means of a part which can be lifted and lowered vertically and moved horizontally forward in steps, and which has a number of slots that corresponds to the number of slots in the separating mechanism, the cassettes are transported to a transfer mechanism which transfers them into a reading and erasing unit.
Because the width of the loading slot only slightly exceeds the thickness of an X-ray cassette, precise vertical loading of X-ray cassettes into the slot is usually associated with a laborious threading-in process, which becomes the more difficult, the larger the X-ray cassette formats that are selected. This transport device is, moreover, of complex physical construction and, because of the large number of moving parts whose movements must be precisely adjusted to one another, is also susceptible to malfunctions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the invention to create a device which is of simple physical construction and allows easy, rapid, and reliable vertical loading of X-ray cassettes of different formats into a transport receptacle of a processing apparatus for X-ray cassettes in a space-saving and user-friendly fashion.
According to a feature of the present invention, a device for simplified vertical loading of an X-ray cassette into a transport receptacle of a processing apparatus for X-ray cassettes includes a first and a second conveyor configured as a cassette loading and unloading device. The conveyors have a plurality of transport devices arranged in a horizontal plane and spaced apart from one another in a transport direction and also perpendicular thereto. Transport receptacles are associated with the conveyors, said transport receptacles being arranged on an endless transport belt configured as a cassette receiving device. A plurality of guide elements are provided for the conveyors configured as a cassette loading device, the guide elements being arranged in a stationary fashion between the transport devices spaced apart perpendicular to the cassette transport direction, wherein the guide elements can be conveyed by a drive into and out of the horizontal plane in such a way that during a conveying movement of the transport devices in the transport direction, the X-ray cassette is supported on the transport devices in a vertical position and is arrested only by the transport receptacles.
The device according to a preferred embodiment of the invention has a plurality of guide elements for conveying means configured as a cassette loading device, the guide elements being arranged in a stationary fashion between transport means spaced apart perpendicular to the cassette transport direction. The guide elements can be conveyed by a drive into and out of a horizontal plane formed by the transport means in such a way that during a conveying movement of the transport means, an X-ray cassette is supported on the transport means in a vertical position and is arrested only by transport receptacles. The guide elements are formed by centering members, each arranged spaced apart on a shaft, which are rotatable through at least an angular range of 180 degrees by means of the shafts which are joined by connecting rods to a motor. Particularly rapid positioning into the receptacles, brought about automatically by the weight of the X-ray cassettes, is made possible by the fact that two truncated cone segments assembled at their base surfaces constitute each centering member, the circumferential surfaces of which, together with those of a respective adjacent centering member, form a funnel-shaped receptacle for loading of an X-ray cassette. This process is aided, in particular, by the fact that the X-ray cassettes have only point contact against the circumferential surfaces, and that the receptacle has an angle of 90 to 120 degrees. An X-ray cassette positioned in this fashion can be securely and rapidly arrested by insertion into the transport receptacles which are formed by truncated pyramids spaced apart from one another.
The particular advantageous result of a device of this kind is that X-ray cassettes of different formats can be deposited, in a space-saving manner, rapidly and reliably onto the conveying means configured as a cassette loading device.
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Hoitz Gerd
Kowatsch Ulrich
Ueffinger Friedrich
Eastman Kodak Company
Hess Douglas
Sales Milton S.
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