| 摘要 |
<p>A ferrofluidic seal arrangement for sealing a high-speed rotary shaft (15) which passes between an environment at atmospheric or high pressure and an environment (14) at high-vacuum is provided, which is especially useful in a high-speed rotating anode apparatus for generating x-rays in a CAT Scan apparatus or the like. A differentially-pumped region (50) between a multi-stage ferrofluidic seal (19,22,48,49) and a single-stage seal (43 to 47) insures that no seal bursting into the-high-vacuum region occurs. Bearings (17, 18) supporting the shaft are arranged in a mechanically-stable arrangement but are isolated from the high-vacuum environment. Thus, neither the high-vacuum environment (14) nor the differentially-pumped region need be continually mechanically pumped, and a relatively light-weight apparatus results. The apparatus is electrically grounded by transferring the charge on the anode (58) through the high-speed shaft out of the vacuum environment and to a slower-rotating shaft (40) via an electrically conductive, flexible drive belt (37), the slower shaft rotating at a speed at which grounding by conventional means (41) is feasible. <IMAGE></p> |
