Drive Technology Ensures Sharp X-rays

The demographic change affects the nursing sector in two ways: on the one hand, the number of nursing cases continues to increase, on the other hand, the nursing staff themselves are getting older. The number of staff required for patients in need of care should more than double by 2050. Hospital operators face this development with enormous challenges and force them to be more efficient.

One solution is patent handling systems that support nursing staff. For example, patients are already taken to the treatment room for radiation treatment while lying on the patient bed to save time. A patient handling system enables patients to be brought into a position that is optimal for therapy or surgery. In addition, it is common today to X-ray and operate on patients in one procedure. Particularly with imaging methods, which are becoming increasingly important in everyday surgery, however, a very high level of precision and rigidity as well as general absolute safety are required.

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Precise drive technology for sharp X-rays

For example, a Dutch mechanical engineering company needed a gearbox solution for the rotation arm of a digital high-performance X-ray machine with a central axis of rotation, which was not only particularly precise and capable of overloading, but also had to be as quiet as possible at the same time. The approximately 2.5 meter long cast-iron rotating arm rotates the X-ray tube and collimator module and the opposite image intensifier around the patient via two adjustable brackets, so that an exact image sequence can be recorded. In order for this to have the high quality desired for diagnostic purposes, the rotating arm must be guided with extreme precision, especially when a computer tomography is to be created from the image series.

Gearbox: pivotal point of the rotating arm

In the truest sense, the linchpin of the rotary arm is the gearbox on the axis of rotation. In addition to very high precision - in the case of digitally evaluated imaging methods such as X-ray, magnetic resonance or ultrasound examinations, the required accuracy is often in the micrometer range - the gear unit must also be of compact design and offer high safety reserves in the event of a malfunction in order to prevent patient injuries. The RV-E series trochoidal gears from Nabtesco optimally meet these requirements, which is why the designers opted for this gearing solution. The gearbox realizes the required rotation of the rotary arm from -190 ° to + 190 ° with a ratio of 1/158 and has a backlash of less than 0.05 °.

Application-specific gear systems for medical technology

For applications like this, precision gears from Nabtesco, such as those of the RV-E or RH-N series, enable error-free and highly precise recordings. The manufacturer develops these compact, highly integrated cycloid gears especially for the European market and manufactures them locally. In addition, they can be integrated quickly and inexpensively and meet the high hygienic standards that are necessary and required in medical technology.

Nabtesco can also adapt its transmission systems to individual, specific applications on request. The drive technology specialists also equipped the trochoid gearbox for the Dutch rotary arm manufacturer with a low-noise pre-stage to ensure the required, low-noise operation. For such adaptations, Nabteso benefits from the company's many years of experience in both medical technology and robotics: the market leader in the field of robotics gears can use its extensive expertise in medical technology to develop new gearbox solutions. (mz)