Weight Saving in Gamma Radiography
Posted: 2015-2-6
By:
Mark Brooks
Source:
http://www.gilligan-engineering.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79:light-gamma-radiography&catid=30&Itemid=226
Weight Saving in Gamma Radiography
Site radiography can involve a lot of walking and carrying and usually comes with the shouts of 'why does this stuff have to be so heavy?!' At Gilligan Engineering when designing our products we try to bear this in mind.
Materials to shield radiation are always dense and heavy and unfortunately there is very little we can do about it. What we have done however is to use careful and clever design to ensure that the radiation shield provides the shielding required while allowing the container to be as small and light as possible. Using Tungsten allows for the design of the Viking as you see it; when you look at the container what you see is the radiation shield, there's no encasing, or packing or foam or shells. All of this helps to save weight, a saving you will notice when you carry the container.
The container is not the whole story however.....
From the big to the small we have aimed to reduce the weight of the entire radiography system. This doesn't stop after the initial design, we are constantly trying to shave gram after gram from the amount of weight you have to carry around all day.
Our latest improvement has seen a 1kg weight saving from the windout by changing the design of the aluminium cage. Compared to this the 70 grams saved by adding extra holes into the gearbox halves and 150 grams from cut-outs in the gearwheel seem like very little, however they all add up.
All the material removed is material that isn't needed and while we always aim for weight saving we have never compromised quality, integrity and robustness of any component.
One of the earliest weight saving triumphs was the addition of our blue windout housings to our radiography system. Setting out to better the long used yellow windout hoses we not only achieved a light product but also a crush resistant and cheaper hose - an all-round success.
Safety and reliability are paramount in the design of our products however making them light weight plays a key part in the design process. This can be seen in the Viking range, our range of electrical safety equipment and our radiation shielding material GammaShield. With every product we design, comes another step forward.
Site radiography can involve a lot of walking and carrying and usually comes with the shouts of 'why does this stuff have to be so heavy?!' At Gilligan Engineering when designing our products we try to bear this in mind.
Materials to shield radiation are always dense and heavy and unfortunately there is very little we can do about it. What we have done however is to use careful and clever design to ensure that the radiation shield provides the shielding required while allowing the container to be as small and light as possible. Using Tungsten allows for the design of the Viking as you see it; when you look at the container what you see is the radiation shield, there's no encasing, or packing or foam or shells. All of this helps to save weight, a saving you will notice when you carry the container.
The container is not the whole story however.....
From the big to the small we have aimed to reduce the weight of the entire radiography system. This doesn't stop after the initial design, we are constantly trying to shave gram after gram from the amount of weight you have to carry around all day.
Our latest improvement has seen a 1kg weight saving from the windout by changing the design of the aluminium cage. Compared to this the 70 grams saved by adding extra holes into the gearbox halves and 150 grams from cut-outs in the gearwheel seem like very little, however they all add up.
All the material removed is material that isn't needed and while we always aim for weight saving we have never compromised quality, integrity and robustness of any component.
One of the earliest weight saving triumphs was the addition of our blue windout housings to our radiography system. Setting out to better the long used yellow windout hoses we not only achieved a light product but also a crush resistant and cheaper hose - an all-round success.
Safety and reliability are paramount in the design of our products however making them light weight plays a key part in the design process. This can be seen in the Viking range, our range of electrical safety equipment and our radiation shielding material GammaShield. With every product we design, comes another step forward.
