Equipment for processing medical radiographic films

Abstract

In most domestic medical organizations, manual chemical and photographic processing of exposed X-ray films is still dominant. Usually, the temperature of processing solutions is not maintained at a necessary stable level (in the best cases, only the developer solution temperature is stabilized). This is primarily due to irreversible failure of thermostats.The design of these processing devices is quite simple, and it is not considered in this work. Low efficiency of manual processing, poor quality of resulting X-ray photographs, complicated processing procedure, annd harmful impact of processing solution vapors on human health make the development of automated devices for processing photographic materials an urgent problem.The use of automated processing devices would allow the X-ray exposure to be standardized and the quality of resulting X-ray photographs to be improved. The consumption of reagents is 50-80% less than in the case of manual processing. The labor efficiency of technicians is 2-3 times higher, and the harmful impact of processing solution vapors on human health is avoided. The expenses for purchasing automatic equipment are paid back rather rapidly because of the lower cost of reagents and saved working time [2].Regrettably, domestic industry does not produce automated processing devices, and they are presently imported. According to the type of photographic material processed and specific features of the technological process, automatic processing equipment falls into two large groups.The first group includes devices with conventional processing technology and working solution temperature of 26-28~ The second group includes devices based on the Rapid Access technology and working solution temperature of up to 40~ The full processing time in these devices (from dry to dry states) is 45-90 sec [3].The devices of the second group are simple and have small dimensions (mainly desk-top type). However, the quality of photographs obtained with the Rapid Access technology is sometimes inferior to the quality of conventional technology.Some commercially available universal devices provide both the Rapid Access and conventional technologies. These devices are more sophisticated and expensive, but the capacity of processing of ~ms of any type justifies the expenditure.Processing devices for special purposes constitute an individual group. They are mainly adapted to specific purpose (e.g., mammography, stomatology, etc.). The devices for processing perforated film used in ang/ography and cardiology also belong to this group.Consider the operating principles and structure of modern automatic processing devices. The most common processing technology includes the following stages: development, fixing, washing, and drying. There are two-tank devices with separate tanks for development and fixing. Some devices are equipped with special tanks for washing.Automatic processing devices contain units for wet chemical and photographic processing, drying, and control units. A unit for wet chemical and photographic proces...