Mammography Imaging Table Using Composite Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing imaging tables for mammography apparatuses face challenges in achieving high X-ray transparency and rigidity while maintaining good productivity, due to complex shapes and high manufacturing costs, and are prone to deformation under load, affecting image quality and user comfort.
Innovation Solution
The imaging table is designed with a planar body having an opening portion and a coupling member, featuring a first member with an X-ray irradiation surface and a second member with a standing wall portion, both made of fiber-reinforced composite materials, bonded together to ensure high X-ray transparency and rigidity, and manufactured using a method involving heating and pressurizing a prepreg laminate in double-surface molds to simplify the molding process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a carbon fiber woven fabric prepreg is used to form a hollow box-like imaging table by autoclave method, then X-ray transparency and rigidity are improved, but the manufacturing process becomes complicated and productivity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The imaging table is divided into multiple planar bodies instead of forming a complete hollow box structure. Each planar body is manufactured separately using RTM method, which is simpler and more efficient than autoclave method, then assembled together to form the complete imaging table structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) method to manufacture the planar bodies, which is a simplified copying approach compared to the traditional autoclave method. RTM allows for easier mold release and faster production while maintaining the required structural properties.
2Shape
If carbon fiber woven fabric prepreg is cut to follow corner portions and curved faces, then shape followability is improved, but processing complexity increases and material yield deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The complex hollow box-like shape is segmented into multiple simple planar bodies. Each planar body has a straightforward geometry that does not require complex cutting patterns, thereby reducing processing complexity and improving material yield while maintaining the overall complex shape of the imaging table.
3Strength
If the imaging table is made with high rigidity material, then deformation under load is reduced, but X-ray transparency may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses carbon fiber reinforced composite materials for the planar bodies, which provide high rigidity while maintaining excellent X-ray transparency. The composite structure allows optimization of both mechanical properties and radiological properties simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
By dividing the structure into multiple thin planar bodies rather than one thick hollow box, the overall rigidity is maintained through the assembled structure while each individual planar body remains thin enough to ensure X-ray transparency.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration simplifies processing, reduces material waste, and enhances the mechanical properties of the imaging table, preventing deformation under load and improving image quality while reducing manufacturing time and costs.
Implementation Method 1
the first member has an aluminum-equivalent X-ray transmission dose of 0.5 mmAL or less at any point in the X-ray irradiation surface
Implementation Method 2
manufactured using a method involving heating and pressurizing a prepreg laminate in double-surface molds
Implementation Method 3
heating and pressurizing a prepreg laminate in double-surface molds
Data Source
Figure 1~2a
Figure 2b~2c
Figure 3a~3b
AI summary
This mammography apparatus imaging table is supported by a mammography apparatus in a cantilevered state. The imaging table has a first member that forms a top surface including an X-ray irradiation surface; and a second member that forms a bottom surface facing the X-ray irradiation surface and a standing wall part disposed upright at the outer periphery thereof. The second member is joined to the first member in the standing wall part. At an arbitrarily defined point in the X-ray irradiation surface, an X-ray transmission dose at the first member is not more than aluminum equivalent of 0.5 mmAL.