Device for unloading radiographic cassettes in daylight

Claim 1

A daylight cassette unloading and radiographic film dispensing apparatus comprising a light-tight cassette unloading chamber, a light-tight film storage chamber having at one side of its lower end an entry opening adapted for communication with said unloading chamber and within which chamber exposed film sheets are accumulated as a stack for delivery one by one to a film processor for development of the latent radiographic images, said storage chamber being arranged in generally vertical orientation to hold the film stack therein in generally upright position and having at the opposite side of its lower end a film exit opening which can be placed in light-tight communication with the entrance to the film processor, means for locating a loaded cassette in a predetermined unloading position in said unloading chamber, mechanisms for automatically opening the thus-positioned cassette in said chamber and transferring a film sheet from the open cassette along a generally arcuate path upwardly through said entry opening into said film storage chamber against one side of said stack therein, and a dispensing mechanism operating independently of said transferring mechanism for dispensing film sheets from the stack in said storage chamber via said exit opening one by one and in the order in which they are received from said cassette unloading chamber, said dispensing mechanism comprising stack retaining means periodically projectable across said storage chamber exit opening for engagement with the lower edges of the sheets in said upright stack and associated sheet withdrawing means operative to engage said lower sheet edges when free of said retaining means for withdrawing from the stack the outermost sheet on the other side from the one side against which newly unloaded film sheets are stacked.