Patent ID: 7645224

Claim:
An apparatus for transporting and positioning a capsule, in which a radioactive source is present, from a screened safe into an applicator to be temporarily placed in the body of the patient, which apparatus is provided with: a capsule connected with one end of a transport wire, which is slidable by a drive motor; a safe for storage of the capsule and provided with a channel for taking the capsule into and out of the safe via the transport wire; at least one applicator; a number of transport tubes corresponding with a number of applicators, which each have a first end connected to an applicator; a switch-connecting plate with multiple passages, wherein each second end of each transport tube is connected to a passage; a switch with a passageway which, on the one hand, can successively be brought into a position in line with one of the passages in the switch-connecting plate and, on the other hand, connects to a first end of a tube whose other end connects to the channel through the safe; at least one further switch with a passageway, which can be brought in line with one of the passages in the switch-connecting plate, in the same manner as like the passageway of the first switch, so that a further capsule on a further transport wire can be displaced by a drive motor through the transport tube connecting to the passage selected by the position of the further switch, wherein each switch is provided with a connecting element, wherein the connecting elements of the respective switches are displaceable independently of one another, the connecting elements are mutually independent pivoting arms, which are provided with a passageway and are pivotable about a common centerline, around which common centerline the passages are arranged so as to be radially symmetrical with their centerlines and parallel to that common centerline, wherein the mutually independent pivoting arms are alternately drivable and the pivoting arms are controlledly displaceable in the direction of the common centerline; actuators for actuating said switches and said transport wires, said actuators being programmable so that, from the safe, via the tube, the passageway, a passage determined by the position of the switch and a transport tube connected thereto, said capsules can be introduced into an applicator and can be withdrawn into the safe again, in a manner independent of other capsules with regard to location and residence time; and said apparatus characterized in that, for enabling controlled displacement, a pulling magnet is present, which can displace each of the pivoting arms, which are forced in the direction of the common centerline towards the switch-connecting plate, individually in opposite direction.