Tweet
Paul, JC and All,
One medical area where there may still be a need (certainly was 10 years ago, when I last had a look at the problem), is detecting hypodermic needles. There are at least two problem areas. 1) If a needle breaks off when they are giving an injection. Undetected bits of needle can travel in the body, from the site of the original injection. 2) Stray needles which get into the hospital laundry and injure people sorting the linen, with the attendant dangers on catching something nasty.
The problem here, is that you are looking for a thin tube of high grade stainless steel, which is extremely hard to detect with any method. Maybe your very short, high frequency pulse idea would work. I certainly can't detect them my fastest PI unit at 1uS delay with a 2.5in coil.
Other hospital applications, as JC suggested, are post operative scanning to see that no surgical instruments had been left behind. Again we are dealing with high grade stainless steel, but these are larger and are usually detectable at standard PI short delays.
Other things that get left behind are swabs, which are obviously not detectable as they stand. I was asked once if a small metal loop was woven into the swab, whether this would make it detectable. Again, it would have to be stainless steel and very thin, but the fact that you have a continuous loop would help in radiating area.
A portable hand instrument is most desirable here for quickness and ease of use. As you can guess, X-rays are out of the question in the majority of cases.
Regarding the above, similar problems must be encountered in other establishments, such as prisons
Another medical area for metal detectors, is vetinerary, both in operations on animals, and locating metal things that animals have swallowed. I used to make a standard PI detector called the Vettec, which came in a case with a selection of coils and probes. In one case it was used on a sick cow and located parts of a birdcage in one of its seven stomachs.
Starting a new thread seemed appropriate, as these applications are quite different from treasure hunting, and we may get some interesting comments.
Eric
One medical area where there may still be a need (certainly was 10 years ago, when I last had a look at the problem), is detecting hypodermic needles. There are at least two problem areas. 1) If a needle breaks off when they are giving an injection. Undetected bits of needle can travel in the body, from the site of the original injection. 2) Stray needles which get into the hospital laundry and injure people sorting the linen, with the attendant dangers on catching something nasty.
The problem here, is that you are looking for a thin tube of high grade stainless steel, which is extremely hard to detect with any method. Maybe your very short, high frequency pulse idea would work. I certainly can't detect them my fastest PI unit at 1uS delay with a 2.5in coil.
Other hospital applications, as JC suggested, are post operative scanning to see that no surgical instruments had been left behind. Again we are dealing with high grade stainless steel, but these are larger and are usually detectable at standard PI short delays.
Other things that get left behind are swabs, which are obviously not detectable as they stand. I was asked once if a small metal loop was woven into the swab, whether this would make it detectable. Again, it would have to be stainless steel and very thin, but the fact that you have a continuous loop would help in radiating area.
A portable hand instrument is most desirable here for quickness and ease of use. As you can guess, X-rays are out of the question in the majority of cases.
Regarding the above, similar problems must be encountered in other establishments, such as prisons
Another medical area for metal detectors, is vetinerary, both in operations on animals, and locating metal things that animals have swallowed. I used to make a standard PI detector called the Vettec, which came in a case with a selection of coils and probes. In one case it was used on a sick cow and located parts of a birdcage in one of its seven stomachs.
Starting a new thread seemed appropriate, as these applications are quite different from treasure hunting, and we may get some interesting comments.
Eric
Comment