Patent ID: 7446331

Claim:
A radiation image reading apparatus, comprising: a cassette receiving section adapted to receive in a fixed position a cassette housing a stimulable storage phosphor sheet; a scanning section; an erase section; and a transport section adapted to remove a stimulable storage phosphor sheet from a cassette fixedly located at the cassette receiving station and to transport the sheet along a substantially linear transport path to and from a travel end point in forward and reverse directions, respectively, through the scanning section and the erase section, wherein the scanning section is mounted to at least a segment of the transport section and comprises: (i) an excitation source for directing excitation energy of a first wavelength toward the sheet; (ii) a detector for receiving light excited from the sheet by the excitation energy; and (iii) a gimbaled mounting mechanism which mounts the scanning section and the at least a segment of the transport section and which is configured to register the scanning section to the surface of the sheet.