A bespoke Toshiba air-conditioning system is being used to cool a transportable MRI scanner, the first of its kind to be developed by Toshiba Medical Systems, and believed to be the UK’s first self-loading, relocatable MRI system.
The transportable facility, incorporating a Toshiba Vantage Elan MRI machine just 3.5 metres wide, enables high resolution scans of individual limbs or the whole body to be carried out on location. Cooling has been provided by Just Air Conditioning, working with Toshiba distributor, AMP. The climate control specialist provided a modified vertically-ducted VRF unit, twinned with a split system condensing unit, to deliver the cooling required for the facility’s examination room.
Wayne Raven, who headed up the project for Just Air Conditioning, said: “Due to the powerful magnetic fields generated in the examination area, it is not possible to site air-conditioning within the room itself. We therefore designed a special ducted system, which had to pass through a radio-frequency cage, to keep the equipment cool, and ensure patients and staff remain comfortable at all times.
“Space was a major design consideration, as MRI scanners are normally located in their own suites.”
