Patent ID: 7482613

Claim:
A multicassette autoloader for vertically oriented storage phosphor cassettes, said autoloader having a front, back, and opposite sides, comprising: an input bin for receiving multiple vertically oriented storage phosphor cassettes stacked together in face-to-face contact; wherein said cassettes are oriented front-to-back with faces facing said autoloader sides, wherein each of said cassettes contains a storage phosphor which is removable from said cassette; a storage phosphor read location at which a storage phosphor is removed from and replaced in a storage phosphor cassette positioned at said storage phosphor read location; a storage phosphor cassette pre-read location, and a storage phosphor cassette post-read location located on either side of said storage phosphor read location; an output bin for receiving storage phosphor cassettes for subsequent removal; wherein said input bin and said output bin are beside each other at the front of said autoloader, and said storage phosphor cassette pre-read location, said storage phosphor read location, and said storage phosphor cassette post-read location are beside each other at the back of said autoloader and in line front-to-back with said input bin and said output bin; an assembly for transporting a storage phosphor cassette along a path from said input bin, to said pre-read location, to said read location, to said post-read location, and then to said output bin, wherein said read location is positioned to the back of but overlapping said input and said output bins; and wherein said output bin has an output telescoping wall which is retracted when a read cassette is to be transported from said read location to said post-read location.