okay.
Radiographic processing is necessary for the
production of the useful visible image.
It links exposure to interpretation and
influences.
Quality maintenance programs and general
guidelines are presented.
This discussion includes lubrication,
maintenance and troubleshooting related to
radiographic processing and the automatic processor
in radiographic processing.
Of course,
we have the need to provide
consistent quality to the production of the
visible image.
The automatic process in itself was invented.
It was derived to provide us with electromechanical system
that would provide us consistency of the processing situation.
Specifically the chemical reactions which are
undertaken to produce the visible image,
the useful image.
So we have electromechanical device.
But this device is not an elaborate
computer operated mechanism that is
self sustaining.
It does have problems.
It does need maintenance.
It does need a knowledgeable operator who can
service it,
who can maintain it and thereby
effect,
if you will.
A certain level of electromechanical
consistency,
the consistency of the system itself.
There is a relationship between maintenance and troubleshooting.
The troubleshooting aspect is simply a failure
of your maintenance program.
So one way to judge whether or not you have an effective maintenance
program is to ascertain well how much trouble
shooting do you do?
Is this a once a day,
uh,
function?
Is it the situation where you're constantly in
that process,
er,
trying to fix it or maintain it,
repair it or just it?
Or is it that you basically only have to
service machine once every couple weeks or so?
So troubleshooting?
The more you do is a good indication of how
good or bad that your basic maintenance program,
maybe,
as we look at the slide,
we can see that every endeavor in radiology or in
radiographic processing should fall into one of these
categories.
Certainly optimization of quality.
We need consistent quality.
And once we have established consistency,
then we can optimize quality again.
The more that we troubleshoot,
that means,
or that is an indicator of a failure of our
maintenance program.
Of course,
if our quality is not consistent,
that results in trouble and the trouble must be sorted
out.
So we have trouble shooting.
But as you go along in your effort to optimize
quality and because you will on occasion,
no matter how good your maintenance system be involved in
troubleshooting a problem and resolving it,
keep in mind that we need to compensate on occasion,
we may want to remove the
problem.
We maybe have to compensate for it.
Adjust for it so that the problem is
minimized,
allowing us to better troubleshoot and thereby
our very first step optimize quality
to elaborate on these a little further,
we can say that we can optimize quality through maintenance,
maintenance programs,
repair modification,
modernization,
cleaning up grading records,
removing variables,
controlling the variables and monitoring and
experimentation during routine
troubleshooting.
Don't just eliminate the problem.
Determine its cause.
Try to learn from it.
Let it teach you so that you learn more about your machinery
and the way it works and the way it fails.
Record the circumstances of its occurrence.
Keep records,
determine the best way to solve it and the best way to prevent a
recurrence.
Never,
ever sweep it under the carpet as
unimportant because as
a problem,
it will simply lay there under the carpet.
And it will be a source that allow you to trip
over in the future and in radiology
because we are working with ionizing
radiation.
That means that if we have a a problem in the
processor that necessitates a repeat of the
patient's film.
This doubles the exposure to the patient and this is
not correct.
So therefore we need to not sweep it under the carpet,
take it out,
examine it,
try to learn from it,
and eventually maybe,
uh,
the second or third time that it happens may require this.
We eventually will learn how to remove the problem
and thereby achieve a better level of quality than what
we had in the past.
Some problems will be outside the control of processing
outside of the capabilities of electromechanical
systems built into your processor,
and thus we must compensate for the deficiency to
maintain quality and minimize further problems.
There are several types of programs to be considered.
The first is predictive maintenance.
Now most of you know about preventive maintenance,
but we'll start with predictive maintenance.
Predictive maintenance says that you know enough
about your process,
er that you can predict failure.
You allow things to wear.
You allow things to deteriorate.
Chain on the main drive motor may
wear the sprocket because the chain is case hardened and the
sprocket is not.
And this is true of almost all processors.
So therefore we allow this
chain to wear away.
But on occasion we will inspect to see if the chain is
misaligned,
if it needs lubrication or if something is
causing excessive wear.
But because indeed there is normal wear
this where we'll continue and we can monitor it.
We can keep records of it.
We can observe the function of the
chain and it's driving of these
sprockets and eventually we will get to a
point where we say Okay,
it looks like the sprocket will no longer hold up,
that it will eventually deteriorate completely and at this
point we predict failure.
So therefore we prevent failure and this leads us
into preventive maintenance.
So first we must predict failure.
We predict wear and tear.
We predict how the system will function and how it
will age or deteriorate.
Next,
we establish a method of preventing that
failure by ordering supplies,
keeping records and instituting or
installing the new product or the new
procedure before the old one fails.
So that's how we really get to preventive
maintenance.
Preventive maintenance,
as such normally says,
you just simply prevent failure,
but that can be very consuming of both time and
money.
If we do nothing but run around putting in new
components whether or not the machine needs it.
So it's better to practice predictive maintenance and
allow that to educate you in the peculiarities of
your own processor and lead you into a useful
preventive maintenance program.
Either Program one or the other or
both together can be scheduled or non
scheduled.
The schedule says that he will go in
once a week.
You'll make an inspection.
You may clean.
You may replace a certain component.
The non schedule can be used with a scheduled
or by itself.
This just simply says on an arbitrary basis in
a non scheduled way.
We will investigate what the processor is doing,
You might say.
Okay,
every Friday afternoon is when I have free
time that I can work on the process,
er.
But on a Wednesday or on a Monday or Saturday,
I will,
on an unscheduled a non scheduled basis,
inspect the machine to see if I can't learn a little bit
more about the process.
Er,
in this unscheduled way,
perhaps the best kind of program is a tailor
made program.
This really sounds a
peculiar because what I am suggesting is
that you look in your manuals.
You consider the recommendations of the
manufacturer of your equipment,
the recommendations of salesmen and your
instructors and so forth.
But then you sit down and you take your
processor in your department and you
consider,
well,
how am I using this machine?
Are we putting through 300 films per
hour every hour of the day?
Does it run 24 hours,
or does it run only eight hours?
Do you only put through 300 films per hour
in the first or second hour of the day?
Exactly how do you use the machine?
Does the machine get 1000 films a day
For only 300?
So you have to analyze the way the machinery is used
and then develop a program from all of this.
Other outside information,
a program that will help you maintain your equipment.
Best to give you the best
electromechanical efficiency I think you
all have experienced at one time or another.
Or you can discuss this with your supervisors,
the problems that occur with processors that are located in surgery
or outpatient clinics where there may be less
usage than occurs in main diagnostic,
the machine that is isolated in surgery,
for instance,
is usually less well maintained,
and it has a very low volume of film put through
it.
And yet an identical machine to this one can be
placed in main diagnostic and have perhaps only
1/10 of the problems and far
less inconsistencies sensitive metric Lee.
So this,
then is a practical example,
and the way that we would tailor make our maintenance program.
We certainly need the same degree of quality
in a machine that's used in a special situation,
such as in surgery as we do.
For the multitude of films that come out of main
diagnostic quality is quality.
We cannot make an exception.
So to ensure the quality,
we adapt our maintenance program to this
to this consideration.
To help you do this,
you want to consider establishing process of records.
First of all,
you might have a record file,
or you may have a book for every processor in
which people write down people.
Your own maintenance staff.
You're supervisors,
equipment personnel,
chief technologist processing
technologists or darkened personnel.
Anybody who might work on the process er have a jam
in some way alter processing
conditions or do something to the
process.
Er they should write it down,
and then on a regular basis you can keep the records up to date.
This is one way that you can find out how many parts you're putting into a
processor,
whether or not you need to perhaps modify your
maintenance program or any
kind of other information you may need,
such as cost accounting for
record systems in the efficiency of the department.
Maintain an exact maintenance program.
Well,
this is really a part of this tailor made idea.
If we establish process of records and we keep the records up
today,
the records will guide us.
So tell us where we have been and will tell us
also ways that we go in the future.
One way that we can establish an exact maintenance program,
uh,
tailor,
make it to the needs of our department to our machinery.
So we get the best efficiency and the best dollar value
out of the processor and efficiency in the entire
department would be to come up with some
sort of conditions cleaning
rollers,
training chemistry and cleaning out the tanks wiping down the
outside a set of conditions that seem reasonable
to you and your department with your own problems.
Next,
you establish a list or discuss with the
supervisor,
and then you maintain the machine very exactly for a month or
two.
At the end of this period,
you sit down and analyze what you have done some things
you very easily and obviously recognize as
having been done.
Too much of other conditions will
say,
Well,
I didn't do enough of cleaning or adjustments
in this one case.
While I will add this to my next program,
and after six months or a year,
you will come up with a very specific program that will be
extremely useful and well worth the effort.
If you do not choose this exact maintenance type of
program,
the only other alternative would be to sort of hop
Scotch around,
hoping that you don't miss too much.
And that,
of course,
would lead to electromechanical
inconsistencies and inconsistencies in
the sense of geometry of the processor.
Here is a chart.
For instance,
when cleaning and lubrication,
we can read it two ways.
Many people clean the crossovers once a day.
You should sometime during the week,
other than on this daily basis inspect to see if if
perhaps the rollers are dirty,
maybe at three o'clock in the afternoon,
more so than they are at eight o'clock in the morning
or vice versa.
Many people clean rollers at the end of the day.
But how do you know?
The rollers are not really dirtier in the morning,
having sat inside a processor all night long,
and the fumes have collected on the rollers and so forth.
So you inspect and you make a decision,
and you learn from the experience.
Many people will clean the deep rollers,
perhaps once a month,
once every six months,
so we can read this chart the other way.
We can say Well,
if you do it in an infrequent basis,
then consider taking out the deep racks and rinsing them
off to reduce the amount of debris to allow yourself to
inspect these components and then put them back
in.
This will allow the deep rollers or the big
rack assemblies to remain cleaner longer throughout the
month and also at the end of the month or chemistry
change on a six month basis.
You'll find that the rack will be easier to clean,
thereby saving you time in the long run.
Of course,
we don't need just complete,
uh,
completely clean systems.
We need systems that have been inspected.
We need to make sure that not only is it clean,
but it functions correctly.
So every time you clean or you work on a piece of
equipment,
be sure to inspect all the components.
Not just that.
What you're working with.
Of course,
as you clean,
you will remove lubricants,
lubricants and themselves with lots of guys and
deeply so different periods of time
required that we inspect lubrication
points and we apply lubricants.
Check your replenishment for accuracy of
the pump and for reproducibility of the
pump,
the pump is affected by head pressure and different times.
Throughout the week,
we will have different quantities of chemistry in the
replenishment tank that can affect replenishment rates.
So check it frequently at least once a week.
Check your hyper retention.
This is the archival quality ability of the film.
Check this once a week until you have it under control.
Then you might do it once every six months,
clean and replace filters.
Well,
this is anybody's guess.
To explain that it means that this will depend on the
conditions in your local hospital,
so you start off on a monthly basis.
You try one particular
micron size filter,
and then you adjust accordingly.
Keeping very close records.
Replace tubing about once a year in peace or in total
tubing.
Will only last about a year's objected to the kinds of
chemistry and the temperatures that we work with,
and they should be replaced.
Of course,
checking sense of geometry is a very useful thing.
Also,
this will aid you in your maintenance program as well as
in maintaining a consistent,
quality,
sensitive metric Lee.
We can check on a weekly basis or a monthly basis,
or perhaps daily.
Many people check before every special procedure exam,
and those people who do check on a daily basis,
uh,
do so usually in the morning.
The very first thing to ensure that the processor is in the
best set of conditions ready to receive the patients
films of the day.
But is the first thing in the morning
really the best time to check sense of geometry,
or perhaps 10 o'clock in the morning is better or three
o'clock in the afternoon is better or worse.
this,
you have to decide this is a part of your
responsibility in developing an exact maintenance
program for your processor.
Keep in mind that in processing radiographic
processing,
the processing completes what the exposure started,
which means we must do everything possible to allow
processing to complement the exposure and not alter the
exposure.
And that radiography begins and ends in the dark room.
A clean processor is more economical.
It's conducive to good work habits.
Safer s capable of producing better quality radiographs
simply because it's a clean processor.
It's less time consuming,
It's easier to maintain and repair.
And most people are similar
in this particular regard in that when
you work on the equipment,
if it's clean,
if it's well maintained,
if it's easy to work on,
if it's reasonably easy to work on,
if you don't mind working on it,
if it's a real mess,
then this is going to affect your attitude and
also the safety of yourself when you're working on the
equipment.
So we might consider,
for instance,
some things to do.
Very simply,
it works this way.
You use your senses,
you smell for burning insulation.
You look for flames,
you might also feel for thumping,
uh,
for grinding for misalignment or look
for misalignment.
Or listen for these thumping or grinding sounds.
Uh,
you might use a stethoscope,
for instance,
to inspect to see if a bearing is being torn
apart because of lack of lubrication or misalignment.
Uh,
you use your senses and basically use common
sense.
This is a valuable piece of equipment that we must
maintain some of the props that,
uh,
you may want to have handy insofar as cleaning your
process.
Er,
we have sponges.
Many people say,
Well,
a sponge can't be of to greater
value,
but In reality we find that almost all of the
dirt in an automatic processor is gelatin.
Gelatin abraded off from the film,
and this gelatin will hold dirt.
But the gelatin breaks down and relatively cool
water,
if you will.
It's warm and perhaps 120°, so you don't
need a lot of scrubbing.
There are other devices that you can use
tools.
These are two different styles are
used,
as you can see of scotch bright pads.
Scotch bright pads comes in some five different colors,
which indicate different levels of abrasiveness.
The pads themselves can literally sand
down rollers.
They can remove the rust off the bumper of your car if you wish,
but you must be careful when you use them.
These are not to lift off the dirt.
They are to score the dirt to allow the water
the warm water to lift the dirt off from the rollers.
So you must always use these with a great deal of care so that you
do not damage the various components.
A much milder type of scouring pad
would be adobe pad,
which is readily available in the supermarket.
There's the milder Paco pads
again,
a used one and a new one.
These from the PICO Corporation are milder,
and again we'll be very useful.
And here's a combination sponge and
scouring pad.
It's commercially available from DuPont in your local
supermarket,
so there's a number of pads.
But keep in mind that when you use these devices,
they are to help you to do a better job of cleaning.
They themselves do not do the cleaning.
It's the warm water that does the cleaning.
Okay,
as we continue,
we're going to look at some
components and consider them
insofar as lubrication.
Keep in mind that if we have
problems with lubrication,
if we have something that fails,
then we're going to affect the sense of geometry.
Because the transport assembly won't be functioning quite
at the same speed,
it will have a tendency to slow down when it slows down.
We increase development time
types of lubricants heavy,
such as heavy Greece's.
We can also talk about such things as Vaseline.
One thing that comes to mind in the category of heavy
is,
uh,
Oesterle gelatin,
which is very common around the hospital.
This should not be used for any reason in an automatic
processor,
because sterile gelatin cake it'll get
very hard.
And when this occurs,
of course,
it's no longer a lubricant.
Light lubricants such as three in 1 oil
machine oil sewing machine oil.
You might also be used except because it is
light.
It will migrate around inside the process,
and you have a much greater chance of getting it into the chemistry
and onto the film.
Very light lubricant is glycerin,
which has also come into a hospital,
and this can be used with a
small toothbrush or a small brush to coat
those components that need to be
lubricated.
You might use the light oil in
motors and in bearings out of solution,
of course,
of chemical solutions.
Use the glycerin on the exposed
gears
in this particular process.
Er,
we can see that we have lubrication ports on the top
and the bottom of our circulation pumps.
There's a little hole right there.
We put a drop and there's one on the bottom.
And then there's an oil ports here and here,
both ends of your main drive shaft.
There's also these gears to be
lubricated.
These gears are not necessary to lubricate,
but if you do lubricate them,
you make it easier to remove dirt as the dirt
builds up.
This puts an increased load or friction on the system and can
cause damage.
Lubrication is affected by misalignment,
abrasion and wear dirt build up,
and the lubricant itself will be oxidized by heat,
and when it oxidizes,
it forms tar pitch asphalt.
It is in effect,
dirt.
Here's an indication at this point,
once his bearing is gone,
this is in a dryer takeoff mechanism to drive the
dryer assembly.
Once it starts to wear like this,
you can put all kinds of lubricant on,
and you won't prevent further where it is already
spent.
Be sure that your components are level.
If they're not level,
then you will increase the strain on
the bearings and on the drive components.
And this will create heat and
friction,
which will tear up the lubricants as well as the rest of the
components.
Here we see oxidized developers,
and probably one of the harshest things is that the oxidized developer
hides those components in there.
And we can't really see if,
if it's wearing the chain is wearing properly on the sprocket
teeth.
We can only see a little indication.
We can't see if this is broken,
so it's best to keep off these old lubricants,
so we can better see the condition
of the component.
These processors use a bronze bearing the bronze
bearing,
as such is porous,
and the oil will migrate through it so that there is no
need to drill a hole through that bearing in
to facilitate lubrication
alignment.
Look to see.
First of all,
if it's clean enough,
you'll see this look to see if the teeth of the
sprocket are properly centered in the center of
each of the links of the chain.
This one appears to be slightly cocked,
so you want to look at the alignment.
And sometimes this has been best done when the
unit is running.
B,
of course,
very careful not to have any loose clothing or to be near
enough that you might be injured by the turning
chain and sprockets.
Here's a simple kind of lubrication device.
It's a disposable syringe,
which you will allow you to put a drop of oil exactly where you
want it.
In this particular slide.
We can also notice that here we have plastic
nuts on the inter stainless steel drive shafts,
and we have plastic face plates and,
uh,
fiberboard face plates,
just similar materials that will heat and expand cooling
contract at different rates,
causing these components to get out of alignment.
So you want to be aware of this and
then just inspect them on occasion and make sure that they
are tight here.
We see that there's a build up of dirt on the
chain and debris,
and that should be cleaned off
in the dryer drive mechanism.
We have a bearing at each one of these
locations requiring lubrication heavy lubricant
on this right angle drive gear.
The chain that you see here is very clean.
That's the way your chain should be.
Also,
a light amount of lubricant should be applied,
but also a short period of time removed
and a new application made so it never gets dirtier than what you
see there.
Precautions.
To keep in mind,
you need to keep it out of the chemistry off your hands,
because if it's on your hands and lubricants,
you will touch the rollers,
and then that will touch the film.
And in any of these cases,
if we get oil on the film's lubricants on the
films,
this will inhibit development use sparingly but
continuously on schedule.
Now,
in discussing the processor,
we can say that this is a dirty processor,
and I show this only in case you're not sure of
dirtiness.
We can see that there's stains in each of the tanks that
the splash route has been removed and we have chemicals splattered
all around here.
Incidentally,
when the developer dries,
it oxidizes brown very much the way
the lubricants will fixer when it
oxidizes will oxidize to a white
here.
We want to make sure that when we clean this machine that we inspect the
ports that you see here,
make sure they're free of crystals and debris and
pour hot water down each one of the
drains to make sure that they're free.
Clean up the spills and splatters.
Don't allow this debris to go this
far from the fumes of the fixer and
splashes this sleeve on this particular
Kodak processor is an external bearing and it
should never turn.
It should remain stationary,
although here we can see some indications of turning here we
can see a spring that is corroding.
All of this is our indications of failure
on this particular slide.
The entrance to this assembly
would be from this side.
This is your entrance.
Cross over into the developer.
We can see stains on the fixed developer to fix
crossover and on the fix,
the wash they're both white.
This indicates that these are fixer
fumes.
These crossovers and any processes should never be
interchanged because then the fixer fumes
and crystals on the roller.
Once the film coming out of the developer hits,
it will cause a dissolving of them and we'll end up
with some stain and contamination.
This particular roller,
all the way over here that you see is black and
appears to be coated with black rubber is actually
coated with gelatin and silver.
That is a roller that originally looked
exactly like this one and certainly
is in dirty state of a condition.
Here is another rack that we can say is dirty.
We can see the gelatin is so thick it's starting to pull
off from the rollers and we'll play it back on the films.
Here we see the splash spilled fixer.
This problem didn't just occur.
It's been running on for some time now,
and this leads to other problems,
and we also notice that the tubing is very black.
Even the fixed line is black.
It's long overdue for being changed.
The tubing shrinks,
gets very hard and can create blockages.
This roller again is coated with gelatin and silver,
and it's very sticky,
as you can see by the lint on the
film that lent it was the result of wiping
this roller with a limp filled rag.
Here we see a roller that has moved it slid and slid
down the shaft.
It should be right here.
We can also see how the chemicals and the heat has oxidized
this stainless steel shaft.
We can see how the debris sitting in the little
support blocks in the dryer assembly is scouring this in
place,
keeping it Chinese.
This demarcation line here,
where it's brown and then it's a lighter shade.
This is because the drive belt only comes to this point.
It does not cover the whole gear,
so this is understanding how the equipment works and
how it wears a bent
rack covered with silver because of
chemical contamination,
most likely from the use of systems cleaner,
which would cause an etching of silver and a deposit of silver in
the developer rack and tank assembly.
This is dirty inside of a pick somatic
process er,
a leak that has been running on for some time and has been
ignored.
Here we see the classical build up a fixer
debris.
The fixer,
as such is aluminum soul fight and
needs to be removed
wearing way sprockets,
and the story goes on,
its endless of all the various problems that we can have.
So we need to consider that this
is a very important task these are due
consideration so that the machine and the
machinery is consistent to give us consistent
radiographic quality.
Oh,
yeah.