JPS5983145A - Conveyor of cumulative phosphor sheet - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the contamination and discoloration of a sheet by using polyurethane rubber or silicone rubber in forming the peripheral surface part of a conveyance roll that contacts with the sheet surface. CONSTITUTION:A radiation image reading system consists of a magazine feeder 1, a cassette feeder 2, a sheet storage device 3 and a radiation image reader 4. A conveyor is constituted of rolls 16, 16', 45, 45', 46-49 and endless belts 26, 35, 37, 42. The body 16c of a nip roll 16 that contacts directly with a sheet 10 is formed of polyurethane rubber or silicone rubber, and a nip roll 16' and other rolls 45- are similarly formed of said rubber. The surface of the sheet 10 is kept free from the contamination by a plasticizer, etc. and discoloration and threfore the derease in the reading output in the stage of reading the radiation image by an image reading system 43 is obviated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a conveying device for a stimulable phosphor sheet.

When certain types of phosphors are irradiated with radiation (X-rays, alpha rays, beta rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet rays, etc.), some of this radiation energy is accumulated in the phosphor, causing it to emit visible light. It is known that when irradiated with excitation light such as, a phosphor exhibits stimulated luminescence depending on the accumulated energy, and a phosphor exhibiting this property is called a stimulable phosphor.

Utilizing this stimulable phosphor, radiation image information of the human body, etc. can be stored on a sheet (hereinafter referred to as
It is called a ``stimulable phosphor sheet'' or simply a ``sheet.'' ), this stimulable phosphor sheet is scanned with excitation light such as a laser beam to generate stimulated luminescence, and the resulting stimulated luminescence is read out photoelectrically to obtain an image signal. The present applicant has already proposed a radiation image recording and reproducing system that outputs a visible image to a recording material such as a photographic light-sensitive material, CRT, etc. based on an image signal. (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-12
No. 429, No. 56-11895, etc. ) This system has the practical advantage of being able to record images over a much wider range of radiation exposure compared to conventional radiographic systems using silver halide photography. In other words, in stimulable phosphors, it is recognized that the amount of emitted light that is stimulated and emitted by excitation after accumulation is proportional to the amount of radiation exposure over an extremely wide range, and therefore, depending on various imaging conditions, radiation exposure Even if the amount fluctuates significantly, the amount of emitted light is read and the gain is set to an appropriate value, the photoelectric conversion means reads it and converts it into an electrical signal, and this electrical signal is used to record on photographic light-sensitive materials, etc. A radiation image that is not affected by variations in radiation exposure can be obtained by outputting the radiation image as a visible image on a display device such as a material or a CRT.

Moreover, according to this 7-stem system, after converting the radiation image information accumulated and recorded in the stimulable phosphor into an electrical signal, appropriate signal processing is performed, and this electrical signal is used to produce recording materials such as photographic light-sensitive materials, CRTs, etc. By outputting the image as a visible image on a display device such as the above, it is possible to obtain a very large effect that a radiation image having excellent suitability for observation and interpretation (diagnosis) can be obtained.

The stimulable phosphor sheet used in this radiation image recording and reproducing system is handled while being housed in a cassette or magazine, and the stimulable phosphor sheet -1- on which the radiographic image has been accumulated and recorded is housed in the cassette or magazine. The stimulable phosphor sheet is attached to a sheet feeding device such as a cassette feeder or a magazine feeder, from which the stimulable phosphor sheets are fed one by one to the radiation image reading device.

The sheet on which the radiation image has been read by the reading device is first erased from residual radiation energy by an image erasing device, and then used again to record a radiation image.

Normally, sheets are supplied from the sheet feeding device to the radiation image reading device, or from the radiation image reading device to the image erasing device. All sheet feeding to the loading device is automatically performed using a sorting and conveying device. Such sheet conveyance devices are generally constructed using an endless belt that conveys sheets over a long conveyance path, and conveyance rollers such as nip rollers that define the conveyance direction for sorting.

The conveyance rollers mentioned above directly contact the sheet, and the nip roller in particular presses against the sheet with considerable force, so conventionally, rubber rollers made of neoprene rubber, EPT rubber, NBR rubber, etc. have been used as the conveyance rollers to prevent damage to the sheet. I tried not to give it. However, as sheets transported by a transport device using such a transport roller made of rubber rollers are repeatedly used many times, the sorting surface (the side of the sheet where the stimulable phosphor layer is present) gradually changes color and becomes difficult to read. A problem was found that caused the output to decrease. That is, the sheet surface is stained and discolored by the plasticizers and the like contained in the rubber as described above.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a transporting device for a stimulable phosphor sheet that does not stain the sheet being transported.

The conveyance device for a stimulable phosphor sheet of the present invention is a device for conveying a stimulable phosphor sheet using a conveyance roller such as a nip roller as described above, in which at least a peripheral surface portion of the conveyance roller that comes into contact with the surface of the sheet is provided. It is characterized by being made of polyurethane rubber or silicone rubber.

As mentioned above, the conveyance roller formed using polyurethane rubber or silicone rubber does not stain the sheet, and therefore the notebook does not change color even if it is conveyed many times by the conveyance roller.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a radiation image reading system using a stimulable phosphor sheet conveying device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This radiation image reading system includes a magazine feeder 1,
It consists of a cassette feeder 2, a note storage device 3, and a radiation image reading device 4. The stimulable phosphor 7-1 on which the radiation image has been stored and recorded is conveyed to the radiation image reading device 4 in the following manner.

When the magazine 11 containing the stimulable phosphor sheet 10 is loaded into the magazine feeder 1 in the magazine mounting section 12, the stimulable phosphor sheet 1 accommodated in the magazine 11
0 are vacuum-adsorbed one by one by the suction arm 13 and taken out from the magazine 11, and transported to near the discharge port 15 of the magazine feeder 1 by a pair of endless belts 14 with the stimulable phosphor layer facing upward. be done. The sheet 10 transferred to the vicinity of the discharge port 15 is further transferred to the magazine feeder 1 by a pair of nip rollers 16 and 16'.
is discharged to the outside of the cassette feeder 2.
from there into the cassette feeder 2. The sheets 10 carried into the cassette feeder 2 are conveyed horizontally by the endless belt 26 and discharged from the discharge port 27 of the cassette feeder 2, and are also carried into the sorting storage device 3 through the receiving port 28 of the sheet storage device 3. be done. The sheet 10 carried into the sheet storage device 3 is transported above the sheet storage device 3 by a sheet transport belt 31 consisting of two sets of endless belts, and then the first sheet receiver is temporarily stored on a plate 32. . When the first sheet receiver detects that a predetermined number of sheets are stored on the plate 32 or that the sheet 10 is not conveyed to the sheet storage device 3 from the upstream side, the first sheet receiver moves to the plate 32. The stored sheets 10 are transferred to the second sheet receiver plate 33. This second sheet receiver is the sheet 10 transferred to the plate 33.
are taken out by being vacuum-sucked 91 at a time by the succincon arm 34, conveyed by the endless held 35, and discharged from the discharge port 36 of the sheet storage device 3, and then delivered to the receiving port of the radiation image reading device 4. 41 into the radiation image reading device 4. Radiographic image reading device 4
The sheet 10 carried into the interior is conveyed horizontally by an endless belt 42, and the radiation image stored and recorded on the sheet 10 is read by an image reading system 43, and is then discharged from the discharge port 44. Ru. The sheet 10 discharged from the radiation image reading device 4 is used again to record a radiation image after residual radiation energy is erased.

In the cassette feeder 2 as well, sheets are conveyed in the same manner as in the magazine feeder 1. That is, when the cassette 21 containing the stimulable phosphor sheet 10 is mounted in the cassette feeder 2 to the cassette mounting section 22,
'The stimulable phosphor sheet 10 housed in the cassette 21 is vacuum-adsorbed by the succinic arm 23 and transferred to the cassette 2.
After being taken out from the sheet storage device 3, the sheet is conveyed through a discharge port 27 by a pair of endless belts 24, discharged from the discharge port 27 of the cassette feeder 2, and carried into the interior of the sheet storage device 3 through the receiving port 28.

The illustrated sheet storage device 3 is provided with a sheet bypass path 37 consisting of an endless belt that allows the stimulable phosphor sheet 10 received from the receiving port 28 to be transferred to the discharge port 36 without being stored. Sheets whose radiographic images need to be read preferentially compared to other sheets can be bypassed by setting the switching plate 38 provided near the receiving port 28 to the horizontal position shown by the broken line in the figure. Sent to Route 37.

A pair of nip rollers 4545/ similar to the aforementioned nip rollers 16, 16' are disposed between the endless belt 26 and the switching plate 38, and each of the endless belts 26, 85, 37, and 42 has a driven roller. roller 46,
47°48.49 are lightly pressed together. The nip rollers 16, 16' and 45, 45' are rotated in the direction of the arrow in the figure by a drive device (not shown), and the sheet 0 supplied from the left side in the figure between the rollers is drawn in and held between the rollers from above and below while being rotated to the right side. send it to someone. Further, the driven rollers 46, 47, 48.49 are also driven by the endless belts 26, 85, 37.49, respectively, and rotate in the direction of the arrow in the figure to guide the sheet 1o and define the conveyance direction. As explained above, in this radiation image reading system,
Roller 16, 16', 45.45', 46°47.48
．． 49 and the endless belt 26, 35, 37, and 42 constitute a conveying device for conveying the sea) 10.

FIG. 2 shows an enlarged view of the nip roller 216, which is in direct contact with the sheet surface, of the pair of nip rollers 16 and 16'. As shown in FIG. 2, the nip roller 16 consists of a shaft 16b to which a gear 16a connected to a drive device is fixed, and a roller body 16c fixed to the shaft 16b. The roller body 16c, which is in direct contact with the sheet 10, is made of polyurethane rubber or silicone rubber. Although not shown, a nip roller 16' paired with this nip roller 16, and other rollers 45, 45/.

46, 47, 48, 49 are also formed similarly to the nip roller 16.

Since the roller body 16c is made of relatively soft rubber, the nip rollers 16 and 1
The sheet 10 pressed against the roller 6' will not be damaged on its surface by these nip rollers 16, 16/.

Furthermore, polyurethane rubber and silicone rubber as described above are different from neoprene rubber, EPT rubber, NBR rubber, etc. that have been conventionally used for this type of conveyance roller, and the surface of the sheet 10 that comes into contact with it may be contaminated with plasticizers or the like. There is no. Therefore, the same sea) 10 will occur many times (e.g. 2
000 to aooo times) Repeat the nip roller 1
6, 16F Even if the sheet 10 is conveyed repeatedly, the surface of the sheet 10 does not change color, and the reading output does not decrease when the image reading system 43 reads the radiation image. In addition to the above-mentioned effects, other rollers 45, 45/.

46.47 and 48.49 are also obtained.

Note that polyurethane rubber is more preferable than silicone rubber in terms of not staining the sheet 10. Further, in the above embodiment, the entire roller body 16c is made of polyurethane rubber or silicone rubber, but
Only the peripheral surface portion of the roller body 16c may be made of these rubbers, and the central portion, which is fixed to the shaft 16b, may be made of another material. Furthermore, the endless belt 26° 35, 37, 42 may also be made of rubber as described above.

The embodiments in which the present invention is applied to a conveying device that conveys a sheet from a sheet feeding device to a radiation image reading device have been described above, but the present invention is also applicable to other embodiments, such as a conveying device that conveys a sheet from a radiation image reading device to an image erasing device. Of course, it can also be applied to conveyance devices and the like.

As explained in detail above, the stimulable phosphor sheet conveying device of the present invention effectively prevents staining and discoloration of the stimulable phosphor sheet caused by the conveying roller.1. It will greatly extend your lifespan.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an enlarged part of the embodiment.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A device for transporting a stimulable phosphor sheet for storing and recording radiation images using a transport roller, characterized in that at least a peripheral surface portion of the transport roller that contacts the surface of the sheet is formed of polyurethane rubber or silicone rubber. A conveying device for a stimulable phosphor sheet.