Oscillating ultrasound scanhead.

摘要

The scanhead (10) uses a shaft mounted, oscillating rotor (22) driven by a shaft mounted motor (14). Energy storage and repulsive means, provided by magnetic "bumpers" (56, 58) helps to reverse the direction of motion of the rotor (22) at the end of the scan angle (30) of an ultrasonic transducer (26) which is mounted on said rotor (22). The oscillating scanhead (10) has the advantage of being less expensive to produce in that only a single transducer (26) is required, thereby avoiding the problems associated with matching transducers and aligning them on the same axis.