JPS63259548A - Cassette for image recording carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit easy and automatic delivery of an image recording carrier such as accumulation type fluorescent material sheet to a conveyance system by mounting a cap body freely openably and closably to a housing for housing said image recording carrier and disposing an elastic elastic body for imposing the image recording carrier into the housing. CONSTITUTION:The pressing and holding action of the cap body 16 to a leaf spring 30 is released and the leaf spring 30 is curved and displaced upward by its elastic force when the cap body 16 is opened by a suction cup. The accumulation type fluorescent material sheet S imposed on the spring 30 is, therefore, so displaced that the end on a side wall 20a side is inclined upward. Since the end of the sheet S projects upward of a housing, the end can be easily grasped by a roller pair 62 if the roller pair 62 is displaced to the sheet S side. The sheet S is thus delivered toward the 1st conveying means side by the rotating action of the roller pair 62.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a cassette for an image recording carrier, and more particularly to a cassette for holding an image recording carrier such as a stimulable phosphor sheet in a light-tight manner. a lid provided to be openable and closable with respect to the casing, and when the lid is opened in an image reading device or the like, the image is The present invention relates to a cassette for an image record carrier configured to allow the record carrier to enter a transport system.

[Background of the Invention] Recently, a radiation image recording and reproducing system that obtains a radiation image of a subject using a stimulable phosphor (stimulable phosphor) has been attracting attention. Here, stimulable phosphor refers to radiation (X-rays, α
When irradiated with rays, β rays, γ rays, electron beams, ultraviolet rays, etc., a part of this radiation energy is accumulated, and when excitation light such as visible light is irradiated later, stimulated luminescence is generated depending on the accumulated energy. A phosphor that produces

The radiation image recording and reproducing system described above utilizes this stimulable phosphor, and the radiation image information of a subject such as a human body is stored on a sheet having a layer of stimulable phosphor (hereinafter referred to as a ``stimulable phosphor sheet''). This stimulable phosphor sheet is scanned with excitation light such as a laser beam to generate stimulated luminescent light, and the stimulated luminescent light is read photoelectrically to obtain an electrical signal. Based on this electrical signal, the radiation image of the subject is output as a visible image to a recording material such as a photographic light-sensitive material or to a display device such as a CRT.

Therefore, in such a radiation image recording and reproducing system, the following method is specifically adopted to read the radiation image from the stimulable phosphor sheet on which the radiation image is stored and recorded.

In other words, a stimulable phosphor sheet is scanned two-dimensionally with a light beam such as a laser beam, and the stimulated luminescence light emitted by this is detected in time series with a photodetector such as a photomultiplier to obtain image information. get. The two-dimensional scanning of the light beam is usually performed by mechanically transporting the stimulable phosphor sheet in one direction, and at the same time performing sub-scanning in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the sheet. This is achieved by performing main scanning by irradiating a deflected light beam.

In this case, the stimulable phosphor sheet is stored in a cassette in advance, and radiation is irradiated through the cassette, so that a radiation image of the subject is stored and recorded on the sheet. Then, the sheet is stored in the cassette and loaded into the above-mentioned image reading device, and after the cassette is opened, it is taken out from the cassette by a single sheet mechanism including a suction cup and conveyed to the scanning position. Ru.

However, the single wafer mechanism has a vacuum generator in order to suck and hold the stimulable phosphor sheet with a suction cup and take it out from the cassette. Furthermore, in order to reliably feed out the stimulable phosphor sheet from the cassette, it is necessary to displace the suction cup along a desired trajectory via a link or the like. Therefore, the single wafer mechanism itself becomes expensive, and
It has been pointed out that the drawback is that it becomes considerably complicated and large. Furthermore, such a single wafer mechanism must be provided in various devices such as an image reading device, resulting in the inconvenience of increasing the size of the device as a whole and increasing its manufacturing cost.

In addition, even in systems that perform radiographic images using conventional X-ray film, the exposure recording of radiographic images is
The line film is stored in a cassette and loaded into an automatic developing device or the like, and then taken out from the cassette. As a result, this X-ray beam cassette also exhibits the same drawbacks as the aforementioned cassette.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages, and provides an opening/closing method for holding an image recording carrier such as a stimulable phosphor sheet in a light-tight manner in a casing that accommodates the image recording carrier. In addition to attaching a flexible lid, an elastic body for pressing the image recording carrier toward the lid is arranged in the housing, and when the lid is opened in the apparatus, the elastic body is used to press the image recording carrier toward the lid. By configuring the image recording carrier to be pushed out to face the conveyance system, there is no need to provide a single-fed mechanism with a complicated structure in the device as in the past, and the structure of the device itself can be made into a cylinder. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cassette for an image recording carrier that can be manufactured at low cost and is suitable for downsizing the device.

[Means for Achieving the Object] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a casing that houses an image recording carrier, and an openable and closable lid that holds the image recording carrier in a light-tight manner, An elastic body for placing an image recording carrier is disposed inside the casing, and when the lid body is opened within the apparatus, the image recording carrier is conveyed by the elastic force of the elastic body. It is characterized by being configured so that it can be derived by facing the system.

Next, preferred embodiments of the image recording carrier cassette according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 indicates a cassette for an image recording carrier according to the present embodiment, and the cassette 10 includes a housing 14 defining a chamber 12 for storing a stimulable phosphor sheet S, and a cassette 14 for storing the stimulable phosphor sheet S. It includes a lid 16 that can be opened and closed to hold the sheet S in a light-tight manner.

The housing 14 includes a bottom wall portion 18 having a rectangular shape and side wall portions 20a to 20d erected on four sides of the bottom wall portion 18.
It consists of In this case, the lid 1 is attached to the negative side wall 20c.
6 is swingably attached to each side wall 20b and 20d, which are orthogonal to this side wall 20c.
Recesses 22a and 22b are formed adjacent to a. Projections 24a, 24b enter the recesses 22a, 22b, and slopes 26a, 26b are provided on the projections 24a, 24b. Note that the side wall portion 20a has respective recesses 22a.
, 22b are bored.

Next, a leaf spring 30 is disposed within the canopy body 14 so as to be in sliding contact with the inner surfaces of the respective side walls 20b and 20d. In this case, a leaf spring 3 is attached to the phosphor screen side of the stimulable phosphor sheet S.
Since the plate spring 30 is irradiated with radiation from the bottom wall portion 18 side while the plate 0 is in contact with the plate spring 30, the plate spring 30 is made of a radiation-transparent material, such as aluminum or a resin material.

One end 32a of the leaf spring 30 is close to the side wall 20c and is engaged with the bottom wall 8, and the other end 32b is connected to the side wall 2.
It is slidably abutted on the bottom wall portion 18 at a predetermined distance from 0a. At that time, the leaf spring 30 is connected to the other end 32
It is curved toward the lid I6 so that the end edge on the b side is the highest.

On the other hand, the lid 16 is provided with locking means 34a, 34b for entering the recesses 22a, 22b of the housing 14 and fixing the lid 16 to the housing 14.

As shown in FIG. 2, the locking means 34a is
6a, the housing portion 36a is formed on the inner surface of the lid 16 to bulge toward the recess 22a of the housing 14. A coil spring 38a is interposed within the housing portion 36a, and one end portion of a claw member 40a enters into the housing portion 36a. The other end of the claw member 40a projects outward from the end surface of the lid 16, and an inclined surface 42a is formed at the other end.

Note that the other locking means 34b is the locking means 34 described above.
It is constructed in the same manner as a, and the same reference numerals are given the same reference numerals and the suffix b is attached to the same components, and detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

The cassette 10 is basically constructed as described above, and the radiation image information reading device into which the cassette 10 is loaded will be described in detail below.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 50 indicates a radiographic image information reading device, and a cassette holding portion 52 for detachably mounting the cassette 10 is provided approximately at the center of the reading device 50. In this case, the cassette holding part 52 is
a lock release means 54 for releasing the lock means 34a134b; and a suction cup 5 for opening and closing the lid 16.
6, and a lid opening/closing means. The lock release means 54 includes holders 58a, 58b and each holder 58a.
, 58b, and are slidably displaced under the action of an actuator (not shown) to enter the holes 28a, 2Bb of the housing 14.

A pair of conveying rollers 62 that can move forward and backward in the direction of the arrow is disposed near the cassette holding section 52, and a first conveying means 66 including a conveying belt 64 is engaged in proximity to the pair of rollers 62. Further, below the first conveying means 66, there are a plurality of sheet storage sections 68 for storing stimulable phosphor sheets S one by one, which temporarily store the stimulable phosphor sheets S taken out from the cassette IO. first stacker 7 for
0 is set. The first stacker 70 is configured to be movable in six directions indicated by arrows under the driving action of a motor (not shown) or the like. Further, the stimulable phosphor sheet S+-S stored in each sheet storage section 68 is placed on a bottom plate (not shown), and by rotating the bottom plate, the sheet S is placed in the first stacker 70. It is sent out to the conveyor belt 76 side via the conveyor belt 74 etc. which constitute the 2nd conveyance means 72 provided below. In this case, the conveyor belt 76
A reading section 78 is provided near the end of the.

The reading unit 78 scans the stimulable phosphor sheet S in the direction of arrow B (
It includes a third conveying means 80 for conveying in the sub-scanning direction) and a scanning means 82. The scanning means 82 includes a laser light source 84, and a mirror 88 for scanning the laser light 86 on the sheet, a galvanometer mirror 90, and a condensing reflecting mirror 92 are provided on the laser light output side of the laser light source 84. There is. Furthermore, a light guide 94 is disposed along the main scanning line at the scanning position of the laser beam 86 on the sheet, and a photomultiplier 96 is mounted above the light guide 94.

On the other hand, a conveyor belt 100 is provided at the end of the conveyor belt 98 constituting the third conveyor means 80, and the conveyor belt 100 first extends horizontally and then largely extends vertically upward. Another conveyor belt 102 slides into this vertically extending portion to form a fourth conveyor means 104 . A pair of conveyor belts 106a and 106b are disposed above the conveyor belt 100 and are in sliding contact with each other,
A pair of rollers 108 and 110 are provided above the conveyor belts 106a and 106b at a predetermined distance apart, and an erasing section 112 is provided between the pair of rollers 108 and 110.

The erasing unit 112 is provided with a plurality of erasing light sources 114 such as sodium lamps, tungsten lamps, or xenon lamps, and the radiation image remaining on the stimulable phosphor sheet S from which the radiation image has been read by the reading unit 78 is read. Erasing is performed using the erasing light source 114.

Further above the roller pair 110 is a fifth conveying means 116.
A conveyor belt 118 constituting the conveyor belt 118 is provided, and the conveyor belt 118 extends in the horizontal direction on its upper side, and a short conveyor belt 120 is in sliding contact therewith. At the end of the conveyor belt 118 there is a sixth conveyor belt including a conveyor belt 122.
A sixth conveying means 124 is provided, and this sixth conveying means 124
The stimulable phosphor sheet S, which is deflected by 180 degrees in the traveling direction via the stimulable phosphor sheet S, is configured to be conveyed to the second stacker 126.

The second stacker 126 is constructed in the same manner as the first stacker 70 described above, and is provided with a plurality of sheet accommodating portions 128 and is configured to be movable in the direction of arrow C under the driving action of a motor (not shown) or the like. A pair of rollers 130 is disposed below the second stacker 126,
A seventh conveyance means 132 is provided adjacent to the roller pair 130. In this case, the m-th feeding means 132 is
The stimulable phosphor sheet S supplied from the stacker 126 is conveyed to the auxiliary erasing section 134, and the auxiliary erasing section 134 is provided with an erasing light source 136. Further, the stimulable phosphor sheet S passing through the auxiliary erasing section 134 is stored in the cassette 10 via a pair of rollers 62.

Therefore, the cassette 10 is transferred to the radiation image information reading device 5.
The work of loading 0 will be explained.

The stimulable phosphor sheet S is stored and stored in a light-tight manner in a set 10 in a state in which radiation image information of a predetermined subject is stored and recorded by an image capturing device (not shown) or the like. In this case, each leaf spring 30 that comes into contact with the stimulable phosphor sheet S is pressed by the lid 16, and as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. They are held in the casing 14 with their heights reduced in close proximity.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, after the cassette 10 is loaded into the cassette holder 52 of the reading device 50, the unlocking means 54 is driven. That is, as shown in Figure 2,
The pressing pin 60a is operated under the driving action of the lock release means 54.
, 60b are displaced into the cassette 10, the respective pressing pins 60a, 60b enter the holes 28a, 28b of the housing 14 and come into contact with the claw members 40a, 40b. For this reason,
The claw members 40a, 40b are coil springs 38a,
The locking means 34a, 34b is displaced in the direction of the arrow against the elastic force of the locking means 38b, and separated from the respective protrusions 24a, 24b.
, is released. Therefore, the lid body 16 opens under the driving action of the suction cup 56 constituting the lid opening/closing means, and the cassette 10
is developed within the reading device 50.

At this time, since the lid 16 is oscillated in the direction away from the housing 14, the leaf spring 30 that was pressed and held by the lid 16 is released from the holding action by the lid 16, and the fourth
As shown by the solid line in the figure, it is displaced upwardly. In this case, the leaf spring 30 is curved so that the edge on the other end 32b side is the highest, so the stimulable phosphor sheet S placed on the leaf spring 30 is curved so that the edge on the side wall 2Oa side is curved. You will stand up by tilting upwards.

Next, the roller pair 62 is displaced toward the cassette 10,
The ends of the stimulable phosphor sheet S are held between the pair of rollers 62, and the pair of rollers 62 are rotated in the direction of the arrow to send the stimulable phosphor sheet S to the first B feeding means 66 side. Therefore, the stimulable phosphor sheet +-S is conveyed in a vertically downward direction via the conveyor belt 64 constituting the first conveyance means 66, and is transported into the sheet storage section 68 constituting the first stacker 70. Supplied. Therefore, the transported stimulable phosphor sheet S or the stimulable phosphor sheet S stored in the other sheet storage section 6B is sent out to the second transport means 72 side, and the second transport means 7
2 and a conveyor belt 76 to a reading section 78 .

The stimulable phosphor sheet S that has reached the reading section 78 is transported in the sub-scanning direction (direction of arrow B) via a transport belt 98 constituting a third transport means 80, and the scanning means 82 is driven. That is, the laser beam 86 emitted from the laser light source 84 is reflected by the mirror 88 and reaches the galvanometer mirror 90.
The laser beam 86 is scanned on the sheet S under the oscillating motion. As a result, the stimulated luminescence light emitted from the sheet S is made to enter the light guide 94 either directly or by being reflected by the reflecting mirror 92, and is then transmitted to the photomultiplier 9.
6, the signal is converted into an electrical signal and sent to, for example, an image recording device.

In this way, the stimulable phosphor sheet S whose radiation image has been read is transferred to the roller pair 108 via the conveyor belt 00 and the fourth conveyor means 104 including the conveyor belt 102 in sliding contact therewith, and the conveyor belts 106a and 106b.
The paper is conveyed to the side and further passes through the pair of rollers 108 to reach the erasing section 112. In the erasing section 112, a plurality of erasing light sources 114 are turned on, and the irradiation light completely erases the radiation image remaining on the stimulable phosphor sheet S.

The stimulable phosphor sheet S from which the radiation image has been erased by passing through the erasing section 112 is conveyed vertically upward via conveyor belts 118 and 120 constituting the fifth conveyance means 116, and then the conveyance direction is 6th horizontally displaced
The transport means 124 is reached.

The sixth conveyance means 124 rotates the conveyance direction by 180°.
The shifted stimulable phosphor sheet S is stored in a desired sheet storage section 12B of the second stacker 126.

On the other hand, after the stimulable phosphor sheet S is taken out from the cassette 10, if the stimulable phosphor sheet S previously stored in the sheet storage section 128 is sent from the roller pair 130 to the seventh conveying means 132, the stimulable phosphor sheet S can be removed from the cassette 10. The phosphor C+-S is subjected to secondary erasing via the erasing light source 136 of the auxiliary erasing section 134, and sent to the roller pair 62 side.

Therefore, the roller pair 62 rotates in the opposite direction to the above, and conveys the stimulable phosphor sheet S held therebetween to the housing 14. At this time, by displacing the roller pair 62 toward the cassette 10, the stimulable phosphor sheet S held therebetween can be reliably fed into the cassette 10.

After storing the stimulable phosphor sheet S in the cassette 10 in this manner, the roller pair 62 is separated from the cassette 10, and the lid 16 is moved under the swinging motion of the suction cup 56.
Close the door. For this reason, the inclined surfaces 42a and 42b of the claw members 40a and 40b constituting the locking means 34a and 34b are formed on the respective protrusions 24a and 24b.
26b, the claw members 40a, 40b resist the elastic force of the coil springs 38a, 38b,
Displaced in the direction of the arrow. When the lid 16 closes the chamber 12 of the housing 14, the claw members 40a and 40b are displaced toward the side wall 2Oa, and the lid 16 closes the locking means 34.
a, 34b. Therefore, the cassette 10 may be removed from the cassette holding section 52, and a predetermined radiographic image may be accumulated and recorded on the stimulable phosphor sheet S from which the image has been erased using the radiographic image capturing apparatus again.

In this case, according to this embodiment, since the leaf spring 30 that contacts the stimulable phosphor sheet S is disposed inside the casing 14, the reading device 50 into which the cassette 10 is loaded is equipped with a sheet having a complicated structure. There is no need to provide a single wafer mechanism.

That is, as described above, the lid 1 is attached via the suction cup 56.
By opening 6, the leaf spring 3 is released by this cover 16.
0 is released, and the leaf spring 30 is displaced to curve upward through its elastic force. For this reason, the stimulable phosphor sheet S placed on the temporary spring 30
is displaced so that the end on the side wall portion 20a side is inclined upward. Therefore, by displacing the roller pair 62 toward the stimulable phosphor sheet S, since the end of the stimulable phosphor sheet S protrudes above the housing 14, it can be easily moved through the roller pair 62. Under the rotational action of this pair of rollers 62, the stimulable phosphor sheet S is
It will be sent out to the conveying means 66 side.

As a result, there is no need to provide a single-sheet mechanism that sucks and holds the stimulable phosphor sheet with a suction cup or the like and displaces the suction cup onto a desired trajectory via a link mechanism or the like, as in the conventional case.

In this way, since it is not necessary to provide a large and expensive single-wafer mechanism, the manufacturing cost of the reading device 50 can be kept low, and the reading device 50 can be effectively miniaturized. This effect can be obtained.

Furthermore, another embodiment of the cassette according to the present invention is shown in FIG. Note that the same components as those in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals, and detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

In this case, in the cassette 140 according to the second embodiment,
A soft sponge rubber 14 can be used instead of the leaf spring 30 described above.
2 is adopted. The sponge rubber 142 has a substantially triangular prism shape, is close to the side wall 2Oa, extends parallel to the side wall 20a, and is fixed to the bottom wall 18. It goes without saying that the shape, size, etc. of the sponge rubber 142 can be selected in various ways. For example, as shown by the dashed line in FIG.
Narrow sponge rubber 142a, 142b may be provided adjacent to.

The cassette 140 configured in this manner exhibits the same functions and effects as the cassette 10 described above.

That is, when the lid 16 is fixed to the housing 14 via the locking means 34a, 34b, the sponge rubber 142 is pressed and held in the chamber 12 of the housing 14 via the lid 16. Therefore, when the lid 14 is opened within the reading device 50, the sponge rubber 142 is restored to its original shape without any external force acting on it, and the stimulable phosphor sheet S placed thereon is restored.
Slant the end upwards. Therefore, the pair of rollers 62 is moved toward the cassette 140 to sandwich the end of the upwardly inclined stimulable phosphor sheet S between the pair of rollers 62, and the sheet S is transferred to the side of the first conveying means 6G. It becomes possible to send it out easily.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a lid is attached to a housing that accommodates an image recording carrier such as a stimulable phosphor sheet so as to be openable and closable, and the image recording carrier is placed inside the housing. An elastic body is provided on which the material is placed. Therefore, by simply loading the cassette into an image reading device or the like and opening the lid, the image recording carrier can be exposed to the transport system through the elastic force of the elastic body. Therefore, it is possible to automatically and easily feed the image recording carrier to the conveyance system without providing a large and expensive single-feeding mechanism that requires complicated operations as in the past. As a result, the device for loading the cassette can be manufactured economically, and the entire device can be effectively miniaturized.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.
For example, it can be used as an X-ray film cassette for loading conventional X-ray film into a developing device, and various improvements and changes in design are possible without departing from the gist of the present invention. Of course.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cassette for an image recording carrier according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partial vertical cross-sectional view of the cassette shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a radiation image reading device in which the cassette according to the present invention is loaded. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of taking out a sheet from a cassette according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a cassette according to another embodiment of the present invention. 10...Cassette I2...Chamber 14...Casing 16...Lid body 18...Bottom wall part
20a to 20d...Side wall portion 30...Plate spring
32a...One end 32b...Other end 3
4a, 34b...Lock means 50...Reading device
52...Cassette holding part 62...Roller pair
70... Stacker 78... Reading section 8
2... Scanning means 112... Erasing section 126.
... Stacker 142 ... sponge rubber

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) comprising a casing for accommodating an image recording carrier and an openable and closable lid body for holding the image recording carrier in a light-tight manner, and disposing an elastic body for placing the image recording carrier in the casing; An image recording carrier characterized in that when the lid body is opened within the apparatus, the image recording carrier is guided out to face a conveyance system provided within the apparatus by the elastic force of the elastic body. cassette. (2) In the cassette according to claim 1,
In the cassette for an image recording carrier, the elastic body is substantially composed of a leaf spring, and the leaf spring is curved or bent toward the lid. (3) In the cassette according to claim 2,
A cassette for an image recording carrier, in which a curved portion or a bent portion of the leaf spring is provided close to the output side of the image recording carrier. (4) In the cassette according to claim 1,
An image recording carrier cassette in which the elastic body is substantially made of sponge rubber.