Notebook 10

Tube Rating and Anode Cooling Charts

Tube Rating Chart
Shows techniques of kVp and mAs that are safe to use.
Any kVp below mA line is safe, anything above it could potentially harm the x ray tube
Question: If you have a kVp of 115, an mA of 200, and .03 seconds, will the technique chosen be too
high?
According to the rating chart, if you find .03 seconds on the x-axis, and 200 mA on the y-axis and
meet them in the middle, your point will fall right under 120 kVp. So since our kVp was 115, our
technique will not be too high.

Anode Cooling Chart

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The cooling chart permits the calculation of the time necessary for the anode to cool enough for
additional exposures to be made
All cooling charts are calculated in radiographic heat units
HU= kVp x mA x time x rectification constant
To use the cooling chart, you must first calculate your factors into heat units

Question: If you have an exposure with a kVp of 85, an mA of 150, at 0.1 seconds using a single phase
generator, how long will it take for the tube to cool down before using it for another exposure.
If you take the equation HU= kVp x mA x s and plug in your technique, you would get 85 x 150 x
0.1=127,500. According to the cooling chart and your 127,500 heat units stored and 350 HU/sec, it
would take around 7 minutes for the anode to cool down.

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