Universal flat-film-changing device
US4276478A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 5, 1979 |
| Grant date | Jun 30, 1981 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 5, 1999 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG03B42/021
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A film changer for X-ray equipment or the like comprises a storage cassette for a stack of unexposed films and a receiving cassette for exposed films on opposite sides of an illumination stage. The two cassettes have sidewalls with open-ended horizontal guide grooves bounded from above by ledges with beveled undersides and flat upper surfaces supporting the respective stacks, these grooves being aligned with other grooves in a guide track flanking the exposure position to define therewith a planar transport path for a film extracted from the storage cassette and inserted after exposure into the receiving cassette. The extraction is effected by a separating unit with two elastic arms which frictionally grip the underside of the lowermost film in the storage cassette adjacent its lateral edges and are then moved toward each other to draw that film off its supporting ledges as it curves downward at the center; after the remainder of the stack has descended with the next-higher film coming to rest on the ledges, the arms again move apart to let the film snap into the guide grooves of the storage cassette from which it is then advanced through the illumination stage into the guide groov…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.