The present invention relates to a processing or treating (handling) device for X-ray film cassettes with a sheet-shaped receiving (photographing) material which is sensitive to X-rays. More particularly, it relates to such a device which has an inlet slot and a separate outlet slot for the cassettes, and the slots are closeable in a light-tight manner.
Devices of the above-mentioned general type are known in the art. A known processing device is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,150,263 and formed as cassette loading and unloading device for cassettes with photographic X-ray image. The cassettes are individually inserted by hand, there is no possibility to draw them automatically from a stack or a magazine into the device. The German document DE-PS 12 07 210 or U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,585 disclose cassette magazines of different constructions, from which the cassettes can be automatically transported into a loading and unloading device. These known arrangements have a plurality of parts and occupy considerable spaces, and also with respect to the arrangement of the cassettes in the magazines or in the waiting position they require considerable operational costs.
The European document EP 0079557 B1 discloses a cassette of the above-mentioned type wherein a foil coated with stimulatable phosphorus is formed on the receiving material which is sensitive to X-rays. This cassette also must be loaded and unloaded with the foil, and at least the unloading for treatment of the foil is necessary. A process for the utilization of such a cassette is also known from the European document EP 0132709 A2 as well as from the devices which are on the market. Such processing devices for such cassettes with a phosphorus-coated receiving film are based on the fact that during the exposure of the film located in the cassette with X-rays, a latent image is formed. After removing the film from the cassette, in a reading station by means of a laser scanner, the latent image is brought to luminescence (the phosphorus is stimulated) and the thusly emitted light is converted into digital electrical image signals. These signals can be converted further on an image screen, or in an image screen receiving device, or in a computer-controlled laser receiving device into a visible image. Then the residual image is erased and the film is supplied to a cassette loading device. The identification data on the identification means of the film should be readout by a suitable reading device and converted into digital electric identification signals and added to the aforementioned digital image signals.
The disadvantage of the known method is that the film between being removed from the cassette in the reading station and being reinserted into the cassette in the cassette loading device must travel a considerable path with no protection against mechanical influence, so that the phosphorus layer can be subject to a premature wear. Also, for the processing of the cassettes or films, the cassettes must be individually inserted into the reading station and individually withdrawn from it.