Patent ID: 7072434

Claim:
A tomography scanner system, comprising: a base; a gantry supported on the base and including, an outer, non-rotating support ring, and an inner rotatable component ring supported for rotation on the support ring about a rotation axis of the gantry; an annular main body adapted for attachment to the inner rotatable component ring, the annular main body defining a source aperture and a detector aperture, wherein the source aperture is diametrically opposed on the annular main body from the detector aperture; an x-ray source and an x-ray detector array secured to the annular main body for rotation with the annular main body; an x-ray containment shield enclosing the x-ray source and the x-ray detector array and secured to the rotatable component ring for rotation with the component ring; a first, non-rotating x-ray containment tunnel extending from an open end to the rotating x-ray containment shield coaxial with the rotation axis of the gantry, and a second, non-rotating x-ray containment tunnel extending from the rotating x-ray containment shield to an open end coaxial with the rotation axis of the gantry; and a continuous conveyor belt including a forward path extending through the tunnels and the gantry and a return path extending outside the tunnels and the gantry.