Equipment for ultrasonic examination

Claim 1

Equipment for ultrasonic examination by the pulse-echo method, comprising (a) a plurality of spaced sound transducers spaced in a predetermined pattern, each sound transducer comprising a primary sound transducer and being operable to project a sound beam defining a sound path into a common sectional plane of an object to be examined, and to receive echoes originating in the sectional plane in response to the projected sound beams for deriving echo signals therefrom, the sound paths being spaced from each other in the sectional plane, (b) a scanning mechanism operable in cycles to sweep the sound paths in the sectional plane oscillatingly so that the sound path defined by the sound beam of each sound transducer coincides at least once during each cycle with a predetermined line of reflection in the sectional plane, (c) display screen means operable to receive a part of the echo signals to display them in a section scan mode, (d) sound transducer control means operable to operate said primary sound transducer for operating each sound transducer when none of the sound paths defined by said plurality of sound transducers coincides with the predetermined line in each given cycle, and (e) scan mode control means operable when the sound path coincides with the predetermined line for displaying said section scan mode in response to the echo signals from said primary sound transducer in a different scan mode in a plurality of times per cycle when none of the sound paths defined by said plurality of sound transducers coincides with said predetermined line.