I sent the link to someone in the Biz, This was her reply:
"LOL - it really is badass - the photo doesn’t do it justice!
The gantry (the part that rotates) holds the x-ray tubes (at the top) and the detector array (behind the fans at the bottom).
The x-ray tubes are glass vacuum tubes (hand-blown), with an oil envelope for cooling - 95% of the energy applied to the tube is wasted as heat. To create the x-rays, a 120,000 volt differential is applied across the tube between the cathode that produces the electrons and the tungsten anode that produces the x-rays when the electrons crash into the tungsten target. The tungsten target rotates at 1,000s rpms to dissipate the heat.
The detector array is a group of solid state detectors that are aircooled and detect the variation in the x-rays as they move the patients body. All those analog signals are converted into digital and then sent to the super computer that uses fournier algorithms to construct the images.
The whole gantry rotates around the patient’s body continually and the table moves the patient through the gantry so the computer gathers a spiral volume of images for reconstruction and display.
In the ‘old days’ (about 15 years ago) the gantry could only do one rotation and then had to go back to its original position because of the electrical cables. The slip ring technology that allowed the electricity to be delivered to the tubes continually without cables revolutionized CT and made the super high speed spiral or multi slice CT possible.
I remember seeing the first one at the RSNA conference in Chicago - we were all in awe of how smoothly and fast this huge, heavy and complicated gantry could spin! Badass is the perfect description.
Cheers
Secret gear nerd!"
nuff said
