New X-ray machine

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Jeremy Sims
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Real name: Jeremy Sims
Location: Southern Ohio

New X-ray machine

Post by Jeremy Sims »

The back-story: About two months ago I came across an xray machine on FB marketplace for a chiropractor retiring. He had it listed for $10,000. I don't have that kinda money but I figured I'd make an offer of $400 if he didn't sell before he had to vacate the building. I told him exactly what I was going to use it for and that I had experience with xray machines because I had already purchased a dental. I told him I would completely dismantle everything and haul it all away. We had on and off contact over a month as his price dropped and then I didn't hear anything for about 3 weeks. Finally a week ago the Doc said it was mine if I got it out this weekend. It was a job!! Three hour drive one way, everything heavy as hell, and I had a skimpy trailer but I got every single piece home. It never hurts to ask.

it's rated for 125kv 300ma. I haven't dove in yet. But I have a whole working system.
So any advice on the route I should take? The dental was a small transformer in the head that I just retanked. How much am I getting into here? All advice is appreciated!
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Rex Allers
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Location: San Jose CA

Re: New X-ray machine

Post by Rex Allers »

I have no real knowledge about this xray system. I looked at your pictures and did a little web searching. Here are some thoughts.

Looking at your pics, it was made by
Quantum Medical Imaging

Circuit boards looked like pretty new design, then I noticed a date on the xray tube head that said Oct 2010.

In my searches I found that right around that time, 2010,
Quantum Medical Imaging was bought by Carestream
https://www.carestream.com/en/us/medical

I couldn't see a model number in your pics, so not sure what it is.

I found an xray equipment vendor in Texas that sells (sold?) Quantum Medical Imaging products.
https://southwestxray.com/products/quan ... l-imaging/

Their page had two downloadable brochures...
Rad-X Series
https://southwestxray.com/wp-content/up ... ochure.pdf

and Q-Vision HF Series
https://southwestxray.com/wp-content/up ... ochure.pdf

The Rad-X one is pretty general but the Q-Vision one has a table at the end that lists some specs on the various models in this series.

They both talk about "ULTRA HIGH FREQUENCY TECHNOLOGY --
Quantum’s state-of-the-art line of Ultra High Frequency generators deliver near constant potential power for optimal imaging."
The Q-Vision tables mention "ULTRA High Frequency" at "120 kHz PLUS"

I assume this means that the HV generator is a modern switching supply design running at around 120 kHz. There probably is a largish ferrite transformer in the HV box with the two big HV cables running out the top. Some of that circutry in your pics probably is the high frequency driver.

If you are planning to part it out, hoping for a HV supply to drive a fusor it might be quite challenging to figure out how to drive the input side of the HV box.

Then, of course, an xray unit has a very low duty cycle, with exposure times typically under a second. Running continuously for tens of minutes might present problems, but may be possible especially if average output can be regulated to ~1 kW or less rather than 10's of kW.

From the table there is an SE option, STORED ENERGY (SE at the end of model number). This apparently stores up energy between exposures so the input AC source can be very low, even a standard 110V wall socket. Not what you want but maybe doesn't change the driver circuits if that's what you have.

So it may be possible to use parts of this as a HV supply but there will probably be many challenges and probably EE design work.

----------
Probably not much help but there is some documentation that can be downloaded here:
https://www.carestream.com/en/us/servic ... umentation

I saw some user manuals but didn't find any service manuals.
Rex Allers
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Rich Feldman
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Re: New X-ray machine

Post by Rich Feldman »

Great find by Jeremy. I missed out on a similar one, in 2020, when the retiring chiropractor found a taker who would use the old X-ray system for real business.

Good sleuthing by Rex. Reminds me of my investigation after getting a pair of Bennett high frequency XRT's in tanks.
Part of a 125 kVp chiropractic x-ray generator.

"Normal" systems need tens of kW of 240 volt service. They have rectifier units (I bet with PFC) powering DC buses for high frequency inverter units.

The "Stored Energy" option replaces thick power cord and huge rectifiers with banks of batteries,
I guess with electrical parameters similar to those in hybrid electric vehicles.
In that old Bennett product series, SE and non-SE use the same inverter modules. Two, three, or four inverters in parallel per transformer, depending on the power option. All use the same cathode and anode transformer tank units.
All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
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Emma Black
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Re: New X-ray machine

Post by Emma Black »

Awesome find and price, thats quite the deal, be mildly interested to see if you could safely power the system up as is for some x ray experiments, before you do the strip down.

After watching the sales video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8VANLMkrUg

I wonder is the stored energy bit related to the massive looking capacitors in the third image or are there batteries as well?
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Rich Feldman
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Re: New X-ray machine

Post by Rich Feldman »

Nice sales video; thanks for the pointer.

Those blue electrolytic caps in 3rd picture look like "smoothing caps" on DC bus.
They are sized to limit the voltage droop between mains voltage peaks, every 8 to 10 ms.

"Stored energy" needs orders of magnitude more energy: 10's of kW for a few seconds.
Traditionally with rechargeable batteries.
This might be a place where ultracapacitors could serve, as in hybrid-propelled city buses.
Electrolytic caps can deliver their stored energy in milliseconds without abusive current magnitude.
Ultracapacitors can deliver their stored energy in less than a minute, for a million cycles; their capacity requirement might be driven by tolerable voltage droop during the discharge.
Chemical batteries need to have more capacity (in Ah) compared to discharge rate (in A), but are not intolerably large or heavy or expensive.
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All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
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