Hi all,

Below is a diagram where I have deconstructed the various photos and videos of X-Ray machine C-arms into their various components in preparation for my Blender build. Obviously there is a lot of guesswork involved, but it is all I need to go forward with this design. As you will see I have identified six discrete objects. I pondered a bit over the Image Intensifier and it’s interface assembly with the C-arm. On some machines the intensifier and the assembly appear separate and on others they appear to be one unit. So I have gone for two different objects.

Things to note is that the Image Intensifier has to be precisely opposite the X-ray tube in order to receive the x-rays. This is the case when it rotates, as I hope to be able to rig it to do.

Note that the piping needs to be flexible to move with the rotation.

The C-Arm also needs to tilt to each side. So a front-on view of that would look like this.

The C-arm appears to be a variety of H-beam. I would guess that within the mount is some sort of engine that grips the H-beam and drives it up and down to achieve rotation. Whereas a section of the mount appears to swivel to achieve the tilt. In the diagram above the slightly orange part of the mount represents the part that remains motionless. Hence between rotation and tilt the patients can be x-rayed from any perspective.

So I think I understand the C-arm now.

As with my previous diagrams, this has been put together using PowerPoint. Never under-estimate it as a tool for really rapid if simplistic diagrams.

In my next post I will design the patient bench and then I can look at actually how I will approach the Blender build.

Thanks for reading

regards

Greg