All categories
Featured selections
Trade Assurance
Buyer Central
Help Center
Get the app
Become a supplier
(4621 products available)
Ready to Ship
Ready to ShipUltrasonic probe transducers come in diverse types, each adeptly tailored for specific medical imaging applications. A few common types are:
Convex Transducers
Convex transducers, renowned for their curved shape, excel in penetrating deeper tissues, making them the ideal choice for imaging abdominal organs. The broad scanning surface of these transducers captures wide fields of view, which is particularly advantageous in fetal imaging and geographies where the organ of focus is located deep within the human body.
Linear Transducers
Linear transducers emit a rectangular wave and provide a flat scanning surface, which ensures a high-resolution image of blood vessels and other superficial organs. They are mostly applied in vascular studies, dermatology, and musculoskeletal imaging. The linear transducer is noted for its impressive ability to produce images with uniform clarity, with no significant drop in that clarity, even at shallow depths.
Phased Array Transducers
Phased array transducers comprise multiple small elements that enable the focusing of the ultrasound beam at varied depths. Their compact design gives them the ability to access deep organs, making them ideal for imaging the heart and other thoracic organs. Phased array transducers play an important role in echocardiography, which ensures precise dynamic heart monitoring.
Sectorial Transducers
Sectorial transducers, bearing similarity to phased array transducers, possess a wedge-shaped field of view that allows for scanning in a pyramid form. This enables them to cover a significant area, though limited at shallow depths. They are widely used in applications like fetal cardiac imaging and spotting fluid collections, with particular focus on the space between pleura and peritoneum.
Endocavitary Transducers
Endocavitary transducers are specifically designed to produce high-resolution images from within body cavities. Their small and slender forms make them ideal for transvaginal or transrectal imaging. These transducers provide detailed insights into pelvic organs, aiding in gynecology and urology diagnostics, and making them an important tool in these respective fields.
Developmental Materials
Ultrasonic probe transducers are manufactured from a variety of materials, each selected due to their specific acoustic and physical properties. Piezoelectric ceramics like lead zirconate titanate (PZT) are conventionally used to convert electrical energy into ultrasonic waves since they have high sensitivity and efficiency.
Advanced transducers now majorly utilize piezoelectric polymers such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its copolymers. These give great flexibility, allowing the creation of thin, lightweight transducers to be used in diverse applications. The transducers, both PZT and PVZ, can be made up of composite materials that integrate both to form a device that takes advantage of deep tissue penetration and surface detail imaging.
Protective Coatings
Durability and performance are greatly impacted by protective coatings to the ultrasonic probe transducer, which is a major determinant during warranty and maintenance. Transducers, particularly those intended for surgical and other sterilized environments, feature abrasion-resistant and non-porous coatings to prevent damage from repeated use, exposure to disinfectants, and other thermal or chemical degradation elements.
Sealings and Domes
Many ultrasonic probes come fitted with protective membranes or bellows that are fabricated from elastomeric materials such as silicone or latex. This is especially true for probes used in endoscopic or invasive ultrasound applications. These membranes are designed to be fluid- and puncture-resistant, protecting the transducer from exposure to body fluids, blood, or other debris while ensuring easy sterilization and transducer safety.
Transducer Housings
Ultrasonic transducer probes feature strong, impact-resistant housings that guarantee structural integrity during normal and expected rough handling. Most of these housings are constructed of high-quality plastics or polycarbonate that are lightweight yet tough.
Durability of Ultrasonic Probe
Transducer durability depends on the materials used in its construction and the design principles underlying its operation. Additionally, regular maintenance, proper storage, and care are vital in prolonging its lifespan. Protective coverings, in combination with strong materials, are essential in promoting future-proofing and in ensuring that the transducer is able to reliably perform in many clinical settings.
Diagnostics Imaging
In Vik and non-invasive settings, ultrasonic transducers are integral to the emerging field of ultrasound imaging. These transducers are used in mapping the internal organ structures and processes, producing fetal growth images in obstetrics, and aiding in the spot-checking of tumors or cysts in a more classical sense. Due to the real-time nature of ultrasound, healthcare professionals can track physiological changes as they happen, which is important in clinical decision-making and improving patient care.
Therapeutic Ultrasound
Ultrasonic probes are also used in therapy, especially in physical rehabilitation. These insonated probes deliver ultrasonic waves into the tissues, promoting deep heating that improves blood circulation, reduces pain, and speeds up the healing process of injured or chronically affected areas. This modality of ultrasound therapy is applied by physical therapists treating sports injuries, joint pain, and soft-tissue damage to enhance recovery.
Guided Procedures
Ultrasonic probes are extensively used to help procedures such as biopsies, drainage, and injection of fluids. In these applications, real-time imaging enables the precise location of needles or catheters with minimal patient invasion. This reduces the ultrasound's inherent ability to navigate guided surgery in various hard-to-reach body parts like the liver, lungs, or prostate.
Emergency Medicine
Rapid evaluation in emergency diagnostics is essential, and ultrasonic transducers enable quick assessments of trauma victims, such as identifying internal bleeding or fluid collection. Their portability and versatility make them an important tool for first responders and those working in the emergency department, as they can be used to do critical life measurements on the spot.
Other Industrial Applications
Apart from the medical field, ultrasonic transducers also find a place in industrial cleaning, non-destructive testing (NDT) of materials, and in the field of agricultural management through monitoring of livestock and crop conditions. In industrial cleaning, these transducers create ultrasonic waves that generate micro-amoebas for effective cleaning processes. While in NDT, transducers check for signs of wear or internal discrepancies in critical components to ensure safety and longevity. In agriculture, transducers are used to assess the health of the crops and the internal welfare of the livestock, which leads to enhanced productivity and early signs of illness being detected.
Several factors determine the appropriate ultrasonic transducer probe for any ultrasound application:
Application Specific
When choosing an ultrasonic transducer, the ultrasound probe transducer application it will be used for must be taken into account. Convex transducers are better suited for abdominal scanning because of their wider field of view, while linear transducers produce better images of superficial structures like blood vessels and surface organs. Phased array and sectoral transducers are invaluable for cardiovascular and fetal imaging, respectively, because they efficiently penetrate deep tissues.
Frequency
Ultrasonic transducer probe frequency is another important criterion to consider. Lower frequencies of 2–5 MHz offer better penetration and are suitable for imaging organs located deeper within the body. Conversely, higher frequencies of up to 10 MHz are better for providing finer resolution images of superficial structures. Thus, the choice is primarily dependent on the clinical requirement and the specific anatomical area of focus of the healthcare professionals undertaking the procedure.
Type of Housing Compatible
The design and layout of the transducer probe should be compatible with the ultrasound machine and other relevant equipment. Transducer probes are available in various sizes and shapes, depending on the ultrasound machine type or specialized equipment. Other than ensuring mechanical compatibility, one has to ensure that the transducer probe and ultrasound machine work at similar frequency ranges for optimal performance.
Cost and Quality
The cost and quality of the transducer probe should be assessed. Quality transducer probes are normally costly, but with good quality comes better image resolution and longer life expectancy. While budget constraints usually factor in, the cost should not be a deterrent in the choice. Many reputable manufacturers produce high-quality transducer probes without costing a fortune.
Maintenance Factor
In the case of healthcare facilities, another factor to be considered is the maintenance and durability of the transducer probe. Probes with strong, durable housings and protective coatings tend to have longer lives and require less maintenance, which is vital in clinical situations that have high workloads.
The ultrasonic probes are placed on the surface of the organ, from where they send and receive sound waves that travel through the tissue in order to create an image. These probes are also used in ultrasound-guided surgeries to ensure the accuracy of the procedures.
Besides the medical field, the ultrasonic probe has numerous applications. They are critically used in industrial cleaning, where the probes do an ultrasonic cleaning by removing dirt and debris from fragile items. Moreover, ultrasonic probes are used in non-destructive testing to check for signs of wear and internal flaws in materials, which helps ensure safety and quality control.
Ultrasonic probe transducers are usually constructed from piezoelectric ceramics and advanced piezoelectric polymers. The former offers exceptional efficiency and versatility, while the latter provides flexibility that makes them ideal for different applications.
These protective coatings are designed to increase durability and performance for transducer probes that are used in extreme conditions. The abrasion-resistant and part-resistant coatings increase the transducers' life by protecting them from wear, disinfectants, and exposure to harsh environmental conditions.
Application, frequency, compatibility with ultrasound machines, cost considerations, and maintenance requirements should be taken into consideration when selecting an ultrasonic transducer probe, as these factors influence the probe's performance in various clinical settings.
