JPH05307217A - Cassette setting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To set plural kinds of cassettes having different width and to secure a light shielding function for an aperture side in a device where a sheet-like image recording medium is housed and by which a cassette where an aperture for pulling out and inserting the recording medium is provided at one end is set at a specified position. CONSTITUTION:The position of a small-sized cassette 10' is regulated by a fixed guiding member 21 and a movable guiding member 22S, and the position of a large-sized cassette 10 is regulated by the member 21 and a fixed guiding member 22L. A moving light shielding plate 25L is provided outside the member 22S to shield light at the time of setting the small-sized cassette. The plate 25L is pushed and retreated by the large-sized cassette 10 being set, and the member 22S is rotated around a shaft Q by interlocking with the movement of the plate 25L at this time, so that the member 22S is retreated to a position where it does not interfere with the large-sized cassette 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for setting a cassette for accommodating a sheet-shaped image recording medium such as an X-ray photographic film or a stimulable phosphor sheet at a predetermined position. The present invention relates to a cassette set device adapted to handle a plurality of cassettes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an X-ray photographic film has been known as a recording medium for recording a radiation image of a human body or the like. As a recording medium used for the same purpose, stimulable phosphor sheets disclosed in JP-A-55-12429 and JP-A-56-11395, that is, sheets having a layer of stimulable phosphor are also known. Has become. The above-mentioned stimulable phosphor means that when it is irradiated with radiation (X-rays, α-rays, β-rays, γ-rays, ultraviolet rays, electron beams, etc.), a part of its energy is accumulated, and then excitation light such as visible light is irradiated. It is a phosphor that emits stimulated emission depending on the energy stored when it is received.

After the radiation image of the subject is recorded (photographed) on the stimulable phosphor sheet, for example, by irradiating the radiation that has passed through the subject, the stimulable phosphor sheet is two-dimensionally scanned with excitation light, At that time, if the stimulated emission light emitted from the sheet is photoelectrically detected, an electric image signal indicating radiation image information can be obtained.

By the way, the above-mentioned stimulable phosphor sheet and X
The radiographic film is usually stored in a cassette or magazine that is light-shielding and handled. The cassette is for accommodating sheet-like image recording media such as stimulable phosphor sheets one by one. Usually, a box provided with an opening for inserting and removing the recording medium, and this box And a lid that is attached to the box via a swing shaft that is substantially parallel to the sheet-shaped image recording medium housed in, and that swings around the swing shaft to open and close the opening. It

When a radiation image is photographed (recorded) using such a cassette, the cassette is arranged, for example, at a position where it is irradiated with the radiation that has passed through the subject, and as a result, the stimulable phosphor stored in the cassette. A sheet or the like is irradiated with radiation, and a radiation image is captured there.

When the cassette as described above is loaded into a reading device for reading radiation image information from, for example, a stimulable phosphor sheet on which a radiation image has been taken, the recording medium stored therein is automatically fed from there. It is necessary to correctly set the cassette in a predetermined position in order to carry it out to the substrate and to automatically return the stimulable phosphor sheet after the reading process to the cassette. Such cassette setting devices are often configured to position the left and right sides of the cassette from the outside by a pair of guide members. The cassette has one end portion (an end portion perpendicular to the left and right end portions) provided with a recording medium loading / unloading opening with respect to the apparatus.
Is inserted in a state of facing the front side and is set at a predetermined position while being guided by the guide member.

By the way, the lid of the cassette has conventionally been formed to have the same size as the entire surface of the cassette, but recently, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-103231, a part of the surface of the cassette is covered. There is also provided a cassette with a relatively small lid that occupies the. When loading a cassette equipped with such a small lid into the above-mentioned radiation image information reading device, etc., do not load it into the device as a whole, but only in the vicinity of one end where the lid opens and closes. In the device,
It is widely practiced to load the vicinity of the other end while protruding from the device. That is, if you do so,
It is not necessary to secure a space for accommodating the entire cassette in the radiation image information reading device or the like, and downsizing of the radiation image information reading device or the like can be achieved.

[0008]

On the other hand, the radiation image information reading apparatus and the like described above are often formed so as to be able to cope with image recording media of a plurality of sizes. In such a case, naturally, cassettes of various different sizes are used, but in the conventional cassette set device, when handling cassettes of a plurality of sizes, the cassette as a whole is always installed in a device such as a radiation image information reading device. It was configured to fit in.
That is, as described above, the cassette could not be configured so that only the vicinity of one end where the lid opens and closes is housed inside the radiation image information reading device or the like.

The cause is that it is difficult to shield the light inside the device. In other words, in a radiation image information reading device that performs various kinds of processing on a stimulable phosphor sheet, an X-ray photographic film, etc., it must be shielded from the outside so that outside light does not enter the inside of the device when the cassette is loaded. I have to.
Even if only the vicinity of one end of the cassette is accommodated inside the radiation image information reading device as described above, if the size of the cassette to be handled is only one, the above light shielding does not cause any difficulty. However, when handling cassettes of a plurality of sizes, when a cassette of a relatively small size is set, outside light is likely to enter the inside of the apparatus from the spaces generated on the left and right sides of the cassette.

Thus, if the cassette is set in a state where the entire cassette is housed in the device due to light shielding reasons, a device such as a radiation image information reading device becomes large in size in order to secure a space for housing the cassette.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is a form in which cassettes of various sizes are housed only inside the radiation image information reading device only in the vicinity of one end where the lid is opened and closed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that can be set with.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A cassette setting device according to the present invention includes a cassette for accommodating a sheet-shaped image recording medium as described above and having an opening at one end for inserting and removing the recording medium. The width of the left and right sides of the right and left sides, which are perpendicular to the section, is set by a pair of guide members, and is set to a predetermined position in the cassette using device with the other end exposed from the setting port. The above-mentioned pair of guide members are provided respectively for the large-sized cassette and the small-sized cassette having a relatively small right and left width, and at least one large-sized cassette of the pair of guide members for the small-sized cassette is provided. The guide member at the set position is formed so as to be movable between the retracted position and the guide position for the small-sized cassette, which does not interfere with the large-sized cassette. When a small-sized cassette is set in the vicinity of the mouth, outside light is prevented from entering the one end side of the cassette from the set opening, while the large-sized cassette prevents the outside light from passing through. A movable light-shielding member that is moved to an exit position without obstruction is provided, and the guide member for the small-sized cassette at the setting position of the large-sized cassette is interlocked with the movement of the movable light-shielding member to the exit position. It is characterized in that an interlocking mechanism for moving up to is provided.

[0013]

In the above structure, the large-sized cassette and the small-sized cassette can be set at predetermined positions by using the large-sized cassette guide member and the small-sized cassette guide member, respectively. It should be noted that one of the pair of guide members provided for the cassettes of each size may be shared by the cassettes of other sizes.

Further, since the cassette set opening must be formed to have a size allowing the large size cassette to pass therethrough, when setting the small size cassette, a part of the setting opening is not filled with the cassette. However, in this device, since the movable light shielding member as described above is provided, it is possible to prevent outside light from entering the inside of the device through a part of the setting port.

At the time of setting the large-sized cassette, the small-sized cassette guide member moves to the retracted position where it does not interfere with the large-sized cassette, so that the large-sized cassette can be set smoothly.

As described above, in this device,
Since it is not necessary to switch between the guide member for the cassette and the light-shielding member when setting the small size cassette and when setting the large size cassette, this device allows easy and quick setting of various size cassettes. Becomes

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a cassette setting device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a side surface shape of a portion taken along line II-II of FIG. As an example, this cassette setting device is incorporated in the radiation image information reading device 40 shown in FIG. 8, in which a relatively large-sized cassette 10 (shown by the solid line in FIG. 1)
Then, any one of the relatively small-sized cassettes 10 '(shown in broken lines in FIG. 1) is set at a predetermined position.

First, the cassette 10 will be described with reference to FIG. As an example, this cassette 10 is for accommodating the above-mentioned stimulable phosphor sheet 11, and has a thin box 12 and
The box 12 has a lid 13 for opening and closing an opening 12a for inserting and removing the stimulable phosphor sheet. These boxes
The lid 12 and the lid 13 are made of synthetic resin, for example.
The lid 13 is attached to the box 12 so as to be swingable around a swing axis A substantially parallel to the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 housed in the box 12. It swings to open and close the opening 12a. In order to make the lid body 13 swingable in this way, for example, a known hinge mechanism is used, or the lid body 13 and the box body 12 are integrally molded with each other, and the lid body 13 is made into a box body. It should be possible to fold the 12 with a hinge line.

Although the large size cassette 10 has been described above, the basic structure of the small size cassette 10 'is similar to that of the large size cassette 10 except that the size of the small size cassette 10' is different. The length of the lid 13 (the length from the swing axis A to the tip) of the both cassettes 10 and 10 'is such that the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 can be taken out and stored by using a common means. It is common.

The cassette 10 or 10 'containing the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 therein is used for capturing a radiation image as described above, and then loaded in the cassette setting device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. .. The cassette setting device will be described below. As shown in the drawing, the cassette setting device includes a mounting table 20 on which the cassette 10 or 10 'is mounted,
A fixed guide member 21 for positioning the right end (lower end in FIG. 1) of the cassette 10 or 10 'from the outside, and a movable member arranged in parallel to the fixed guide member 21 and separated in the width direction of the cassette 10 or 10'. It has a guide member 22S and a fixed guide member 22L, a pair of light shielding rollers 23, and movable light shielding plates 25S and 25L which are rotatable around a shaft 24 in FIG.

As shown in the front view of FIG. 3 and the side view of FIG. 4, the movable guide member 22S is rotatable about a rotation axis Q extending parallel to the cassette insertion direction (left and right direction in FIG. 1). Holding members 20A, 20 fixed to the mounting table 20
Held in B. The mounting table 20 includes a movable guide member 22.
An opening 22a is formed to allow this rotation of S. The movable guide member 22S is urged to rotate counterclockwise in FIG. 3 by a torsion coil spring (not shown) combined with the rotary shaft Q, and abuts on a stopper (not shown) unless other external force acts. To maintain the upright state shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

In this upright state, the movable guide member 22S has a distance between the movable guide member 22S and the fixed guide member 21 which is slightly larger than the width of the small-sized cassette 10 '(shown in broken line in FIG. 1 (small-sized cassette guide position)). I take the. On the other hand, the fixed guide member 22L is fixed at a position where the distance from the fixed guide member 21 is slightly larger than the width of the large size cassette 10.

One end of a wire 28 is connected to the stopper 22a of the movable guide member 22S, the wire 28 is hung on the pulleys 26 and 27, and the other end is connected to the lower end of the movable light shielding plate 25L. The movable light-shielding plates 25S and 25L are urged to rotate counterclockwise in FIG. 2 about the shaft 24, and come in contact with a stopper (not shown) to block the space between the light-shielding roller pair 23 unless other external force acts. (Display position of broken line in FIG. 2).

The movable guide member 22S and the fixed guide member
A lock roller 29 is rotatably attached to each of 21 and 22L. Further, each roller of the light shielding roller pair 23 is formed to be slightly longer than the width of the large-sized cassette 10, and they are urged in a direction toward each other by urging means (not shown) and slightly separated from each other by a stopper (not shown). Kept in. Further, the radiation image information reading device 40 is provided with a frame 30 that covers the upper roller of the light blocking roller pair 23, and a frame 31 having a cassette setting port 31a.

Next, the operation of the cassette setting device having the above structure will be described. First, when setting the large-sized cassette 10, one end thereof, that is, the end on the side having the opening 12a is inserted between the light shielding roller pair 23 through the cassette setting port 31a of the frame 31. At this time, the pair of light blocking rollers
23 opens a little up and down and accepts large size cassette 10. When the cassette 10 is pushed in as it is, the movable light-shielding plates 25S and 25L which have been in the light-shielding position until then are pushed by the large-sized cassette 10 and rotate so as to fall forward. In this way, the movable light-shielding plates 25S and 25L are tilted to the exit position that does not prevent the large-sized cassette 10 from passing therethrough. In FIG. 2, only the movable light-shielding plate 25L at the exit position is shown by a solid line, but the other movable light-shielding plate 25S also has the same position.

When one of the movable light-shielding plates 25L rotates as described above, the wire 28 is pulled, so that the movable guide member 22S rotates clockwise about the rotation axis Q in FIG. In this way, when the movable light-shielding plate 25L reaches the retracted position, the movable guide member 22S moves to the retracted position (the position shown in FIG. 2) which sinks below the upper surface of the mounting table 20. If the movable light shielding plate 25L is set at this position, the large size cassette 10 can be pushed to a predetermined position without interfering with the movable guide member 22S. Large size cassette
When 10 is pushed to a predetermined position, the stoppers 21a and 22 formed on the fixed guide members 21 and 22L are attached to the tips thereof.
The a comes into contact with the cassette 10 and the cassette 10 is set at this predetermined position.

Then, the lid 13 is opened by an appropriate method as shown in FIG. 2, and the roller arm 74 holding the roller 75 at its tip is moved in the direction of arrow B, that is, toward the inside of the cassette 10. Thus, when the roller 75 comes into contact with the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 in the large-sized cassette 10, the roller arm 74
2 is stopped, and then the roller 75 is rotated counterclockwise in FIG. 2 by a driving means (not shown). Then, the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 in contact with the roller 75 has the opening 12a.
Through the cassette 10 to the outside.

The discharged stimulable phosphor sheet 11 is
Guide plates 46, 47, 48 and nip rollers 45, 49, 50, 51, 5
The sheet is conveyed to the reading unit 62 via the erasing unit 60 by a sheet conveying system composed of 2, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 and the like. The reading process of the radiation image information in the reading unit 62 is described in, for example, JP-A-55-55.
Although it is known from Japanese Patent No. 12429, etc., it will be briefly described below. The stimulable phosphor sheet 11 is conveyed by the nip rollers 55, 56, 57 in the direction of arrow H in FIG. Then, the laser beam 64 as excitation light emitted from the main scanning optical system 63 scans (main scanning) the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of the arrow H.

From the portion of the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 which has been irradiated with the laser beam 64, a stimulated emission light of a light amount corresponding to the radiation image information accumulated and recorded therein is emitted, and this stimulated emission light is emitted. Light is detected by a photodetector 66 such as a photomultiplier tube via a light guide 65. Therefore, from the photodetector 66, the output signal S indicating the radiation image information accumulated and recorded in the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 is obtained. When this signal S is sent to an image reproducing device such as a CRT display device or an optical scanning recording device for image reproduction, the radiation image recorded on the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 is reproduced as a visible image.

After the radiation image information has been read, the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 is transferred from the reading section 62 to the erasing section 60 and then to the cassette by rotating the nip rollers 45 and 49 to 57 in the opposite direction. It is sent to the loading section. When the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 passes through the erasing section 60, a plurality of erasing light sources 61 are turned on, and the erasing light emitted from them is applied to the stimulable phosphor sheet 11. The radiation energy remaining in the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 even after reading the radiation image information is stored in the stimulable phosphor sheet 11 by this erasing light irradiation.
The sheet 11 is ready for use in radiographic imaging.

A stimulable phosphor sheet that has been subjected to this erasing process
The roller 11 is carried into the cassette 10 by the roller 75 rotating in the direction opposite to the above, that is, in the clockwise direction. Next, the cassette 10 is closed and locked by performing an operation reverse to that for taking out the stimulable phosphor sheet described above. That is, first, the roller arm 74 moves in the direction opposite to the arrow B direction, and the roller 75 is returned to the standby position outside the cassette 10. Next, the lid 13 that has been opened wide is returned to the slightly opened state (the state indicated by the broken line in FIG. 2) by the means for opening the lid as described above. When the detection means detects that the roller 75 has returned to the standby position and the display device or the like notifies that, the device operator sets the cassette 10 to the cassette setting port 31.
Pull out from a. When the cassette 10 is pulled out in this manner, the lid 13 is pushed from above by the pair of lock rollers 29, and the lock claws (both not shown) provided on both the lid 13 and the box 12 engage with each other. Then, the lid 13 is locked.

The fixed guide members 21, 22L stopper 21
Lock release pins 73 shown in FIG. 1 are attached to a and 22a. This unlock pin 73
The lock member that keeps the lid 13 in the closed state is disengaged by entering into the cassette through the pin passage hole provided in the front end face of the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-103231. An example of a lock release pin is shown). A similar lock release pin 73 is attached to the stopper 22a of the movable guide member 22S.

When the large-sized cassette 10 is set as described above, the peripheral portion of the opening 12a at one end is
It must be shielded from light outside the device. The light blocking in this case is achieved by the frames 30, 31, the fixed guide members 21 and 22L, and the light blocking roller pair 23. It should be noted that light shielding may be realized by appropriately attaching a known sponge, a telemp, or the like to the slight gap.

Next, a case where the small size cassette 10 'is set will be described. In this case small size cassette 10 '
Is inserted between the pair of light-shielding rollers 23 with one side end thereof being in contact with the fixed guide member 21. At this time, the small size cassette 10 'having a small width does not contact the movable light shielding plate 25L. Therefore, in this case, the movable light-shielding plate 25L is not pushed down and is kept at the light-shielding position as it is. Therefore, the cassette 10 'smaller than the cassette setting port 31a
Even if is set, external light does not enter the device through the portion between the cassette 10 'and the fixed guide member 22L.

Further, since the movable light-shielding plate 25L is not pushed down as described above, the wire 28 is not pulled and the movable guide member 22S remains set in the upright small size cassette guide position. Therefore, the position of the small size cassette 10 'to be pushed in can be regulated by the movable guide member 22S and the fixed guide member 21 and set in a predetermined position. The storage phosphor sheet 11 is taken out from the small-sized cassette 10 ′ and stored therein in the same manner as in the large-sized cassette 10.

In the embodiment described above, the mechanism for interlocking the movable guide member 22S for the small size cassette with the movable light shielding plate 25 is composed of the pulleys 26, 27 and the wire 29. Other interlocking mechanisms can also be used. FIG. 5 is a front view showing another example of this interlocking mechanism, and FIG. 6 shows its planar shape. 5 and 6, the same elements as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the duplicated description thereof will be omitted.

In this structure, the slide member 33 having the inclined surface portion 33a on the upper surface is held by the holding means (not shown) so as to be smoothly movable in the width direction of the cassette 10, 10 '(left-right direction in FIG. 5). There is. The slide member 33 is biased to the right in the figure by the compression coil spring 35, and if it does not receive any other external force, it abuts the stopper 36 and takes the position shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. An interlocking member 34 having a sloped portion 34a is held above the sloped portion 33a so as to be smoothly movable in the vertical direction. The interlocking member 34 is arranged so that the slope 34a is in contact with the slope 33a. On the other hand, the movable guide member 22S is not subjected to the rotational bias as in the first embodiment, and is freely rotatable around the rotation axis Q.

When the small-sized cassette 10 'is set, the slide member 33 is set to the position shown in the figure to hold the movable guide member 22S in the upright state from below. As a result, the movable guide member 22S can position the one side end of the small size cassette 10 '. Then, a protrusion is provided on the upper end of the movable light-shielding plate 25L similar to that shown in FIG. 2, and when the movable light-shielding plate 25L is pushed down when the large-sized cassette 10 is set, the protrusion pushes down the interlocking member 34. Leave. When the interlocking member 34 is pushed down in this way, the slide member 33 moves to the left in FIG. 5 by a predetermined distance while resisting the biasing force of the compression coil spring 35 due to the action of the inclined surfaces 33a, 34a. As a result, the slide member 33 is disengaged from the movable guide member 22S, and the movable guide member 22S rotates about 90 ° around the rotation axis Q by its own weight. Since the movable guide member 22S sinks below the upper surface of the mounting table 20 in this manner, the large-sized cassette 10 can be set in a predetermined position without being obstructed by the movable guide member 22S in this case as well.

When the movable light shielding plate 25L is returned to the upright state,
The action of the compression coil spring 35 causes the slide member 33 to return to the original position (the position shown in FIGS. 5 and 6), whereby the interlocking member 34 also rises to the original position.

In the above embodiment, the fixed guide member 21 is commonly used for the large-sized cassette 10 and the small-sized cassette 10 ', but a pair of the guide member for the large-sized cassette and one for the small-sized cassette are used. The pair of guide members may be provided exclusively for each. In such a case, both of the pair of guide members for the small size cassette may be operated like the movable guide member 22S of the above embodiment.

The cassette setting device of the present invention can also be formed so that three or more types of cassettes having different sizes can be set. Further, the apparatus of the above embodiment deals with the cassette 10 or 10 'containing the stimulable phosphor sheet 11, but the present invention relates to a cassette for accommodating a sheet-shaped image recording medium other than the stimulable phosphor sheet. It can also be applied.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a first embodiment device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway side view of the first embodiment device.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a main part of the first embodiment device.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing the main part of the first embodiment device.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing another example of the interlocking mechanism used in the present invention.

6 is a plan view of the interlocking mechanism of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an example of a cassette handled by the device of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic side view of a radiographic image information reading apparatus in which the above cassette is loaded. 10, 10 ′ cassette 11 stimulable phosphor sheet 12 box 12a box opening 13 lid 20 mounting table 21, 22L fixed guide member 21a, 22a Stopper 22S Movable guide member 23 Light-shielding roller pair 25S, 25L Moving light-shielding plate 26, 27 Pulley 28 Wire 30, 31 Frame 31a Cassette set port 33 Slide member 33a, 34a Slope 34 Interlocking member 35 Compression coil spring 36 Stopper 40 Radiation image information reader A Swing axis of lid

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cassette for accommodating a sheet-shaped image recording medium and having an opening for taking in and out the recording medium at one end, and a pair of left and right ends that are perpendicular to the one end. A device that is positioned by a member and is set at a predetermined position in the cassette using device with the other end exposed from the setting port. For a large cassette with a relatively large left and right width, and a small size with a relatively small left and right width. The pair of guide members for the cassette are respectively provided, and at least one of the pair of guide members for the small-sized cassette is located at the set position of the large-sized cassette, and the guide member does not interfere with the large-sized cassette. It is formed so as to be movable between a position and a small size cassette guide position, and when the small size cassette is set near the setting port, the small size cassette is set. While preventing outside light from entering the one end side of the cassette from the mouth, while a large-sized cassette is provided with a moving light-shielding member that is moved to an exit position that does not hinder the passage of the large-sized cassette, A cassette is provided which is interlocked with the movement of the movable light-shielding member to the retreat position and which moves the small-sized cassette guide member at the setting position of the large-sized cassette to the retracted position. Set device.