[ RadSafe ] x-ray tube fade

[John Jacobus]

Joel,
What was the interval between each exposure? X-ray
tubes have a rated heat capacity.  The tube needs to
cool down in order to provide the same output.  Also,
your exposure times of 2.5 seconds is very long which
may also be a problem. Dental x-ray tubes are not
designed to heavy workloads which is what you may
subjecting it to. 

--- cehn at aol.com wrote:

> Doing QC checks with a dental x-ray unit & RadCal,
> I'm seeing fading of the dose with successive
> exposures.  Did 10; the first 2 were about the same
> dose (~40 mrem; 77 kVp, 12 mA; 2.5 sec).  Next 8
> dropped by about 0.1% each time. Final exposure was
> about 1% less than the first. Steady drop.  But kVp
> measurements held steady.  Is this normal, or does
> it indicate a problem?  Thanks in advance.
>  
> Joel Cehn
> joelc at alum.wpi.edu
> 

+++++++++++++++++++
May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion. 
Dwight D. Eisenhower  

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com