Patent Number: 048333352
Section: summary

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a door for a treatment room with a medical accelerator which produces x-ray beams used in cancer therapy. This door prevents the escape of neutrons from the room while permitting access to the accelerator. 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKGROUND ART Various neutron shield are known in the prior art. However, most are expensive to manufacture and can be complicated to use. It is currently the practice in the medical accelerator art to manufacture doors for therapy rooms from relatively expensive materials (such as various plastics with boron or boric acid). Accordingly, a need in the art exists for a simple and effective neutron shielded door for a room housing an accelerator. This door should be easy to operate and inexpensive to manufacture. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a neutron shielded door for a radition therapy room which is inexpensive to manufacture. It is another object of the present invention to provide a neutron shielded door which is simple to operate and maintain. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a neutron shielded door for a room housing an accelerator which will be effective in shielding personnel from low levels of neutrons. Another object of the present invention is to provide a neutron shielded door which may be incorporated into existing structures or which may be a part of newly constructed rooms for housing accelerators. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a neutron shielded door which may be specifically used in conjunction with a high energy medical accelerator used for cancer therapy. These and other objects of the present invention are fulfilled by providing a neutron shielded door for a radiation therapy room housing an accelerator which discharges neutrons during use, said door comprising a front face, a rear face, two side faces, a top face and a bottom face which define a hollow interior portion, movement means for readily permitting opening and closing of said door to premit access to said accelerator, inlet means for permitting a neutron retarding fluid to be introduced into said interior portion, said fluid deterring the escape of neutrons from said accelerator, and baffle means arranged in said hollow interior portion for preventing surging of said fluid during movement of said door. Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilld in the art from this detailed description.