Radiation image recording and reproducing method

Claim 1

In a radiation image recording and reproducing method wherein stimulable phosphor sheets are subjected to a radiation image recording step in which the stimulable phosphor sheet is exposed to a radiation passing through an object to have a radiation image of the object stored thereon and a radiation image read-out step in which the stimulable phosphor sheet carrying the radiation image stored thereon is exposed to stimulating rays which cause it to emit light in proportion to the stored radiation energy, the emitted light being photoelectrically detected to obtain an electric image signal for reproducing a visible image, the improvement comprising the steps of; providing each of a plurality of stimulable phosphor sheets with its own identifying code, said identifying code being non-erasable and irrelevant to the radiation image stored thereon identifying each stimulable phosphor sheet; randomly circulating said stimulable phosphor sheets free of a conveyor; identifying each randomly circulated stimulable phosphor sheet by reproducing its identifying code when the stimulable phosphor sheet is subjected to said radiation image read-out step; storing identifying code information of each stimulable phosphor sheet subjected to the radiation image read-out step; and counting the number of times each stimulable phosphor sheet is subjected to the radiation image read-out step; subjecting the stimulable phosphor sheet to an erasing step which is carried out after the stimulable phosphor sheet is subjected to said radiation image read-out step and in which the stimulable phosphor sheet is caused to release the radiation energy remaining thereon after said read-out step, and returning the erased stimulable phosphor sheet to the radiation image recording step for reuse; and selectively removing stimulable phosphor sheets upon reaching a predetermined number of random circulations based on the stored data and indicative of stimulable phosphor sheet wear out.