Light's on, credit's good.
Today, a ceiling suspended xray tube wouldn't lock into its central position.
To explain, in some general xray rooms, the xray tube (the part where the xrays originate) is suspended by rails from the ceiling. The tube can be moved in the X, Y and Z directions, that is, up/down, left/right, back/forwards.
To make it easy for the radiographer to make an xray film, the xray tube generally locks into a position that centres it over the film container, called a buckey. Centre of the film (and the patient) is then easy to locate, every time a film is exposed.
On this job, the central position lock didn't operate. My job is to find out why and fix it.
Using a ladder, I climbed up to a point where I could see if the index mechanism was actuating the lock. In many cases, it's simply a switch that operates as it passes a bump or groove in the suspension track. But not on this job.
I discovered that this particular room has a small infrared light beam, that reflects off a reflective dot stuck onto the suspension rail. As the light passes by the dot, a sensor next to the beam detects the reflected beam and triggers the lock for the centre of the buckey. A tiny little red light comes on at the sensor when it detects the beam. No little red light came on as the beam passed by the reflective dot. What gives?
What could I use as a mirror to test if the light beam was present. I needed a tiny little mirror about the width of a pencil. Where do you find one of those? I've seen one somewhere before. Aha! I remember that my American Express card has a very reflective strip on the back. And it was in my back pocket, saving a trip down the ladder.
Waving the credit card across the light beam . . . . clunk, the lock engaged. The little reflective dot had gone dull with age. Now how to fix it? Where could I find a bit of reflective something. No, my credit card has business most places except stuck to the suspension rail in an xray room.
A trip to the vending machine in the hallway; a packet of chewing gum with silver wrapper, a bit of sticky tape and viola, problem solved.
Now; if shining a light on my credit card could fix more problems. . . .
Next, Over exposed; not enough ion.
To explain, in some general xray rooms, the xray tube (the part where the xrays originate) is suspended by rails from the ceiling. The tube can be moved in the X, Y and Z directions, that is, up/down, left/right, back/forwards.
To make it easy for the radiographer to make an xray film, the xray tube generally locks into a position that centres it over the film container, called a buckey. Centre of the film (and the patient) is then easy to locate, every time a film is exposed.
On this job, the central position lock didn't operate. My job is to find out why and fix it.
Using a ladder, I climbed up to a point where I could see if the index mechanism was actuating the lock. In many cases, it's simply a switch that operates as it passes a bump or groove in the suspension track. But not on this job.
I discovered that this particular room has a small infrared light beam, that reflects off a reflective dot stuck onto the suspension rail. As the light passes by the dot, a sensor next to the beam detects the reflected beam and triggers the lock for the centre of the buckey. A tiny little red light comes on at the sensor when it detects the beam. No little red light came on as the beam passed by the reflective dot. What gives?
What could I use as a mirror to test if the light beam was present. I needed a tiny little mirror about the width of a pencil. Where do you find one of those? I've seen one somewhere before. Aha! I remember that my American Express card has a very reflective strip on the back. And it was in my back pocket, saving a trip down the ladder.
Waving the credit card across the light beam . . . . clunk, the lock engaged. The little reflective dot had gone dull with age. Now how to fix it? Where could I find a bit of reflective something. No, my credit card has business most places except stuck to the suspension rail in an xray room.
A trip to the vending machine in the hallway; a packet of chewing gum with silver wrapper, a bit of sticky tape and viola, problem solved.
Now; if shining a light on my credit card could fix more problems. . . .
Next, Over exposed; not enough ion.
posted by Philip at
1:49 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home