The Importance of On-Time Medical Equipment Repair

When you have a business in the medical field, you need to make sure that your equipment is running smoothly. When something breaks, you need to call a repair person quick or else you’ll have to reschedule appointments, which can hurt your bottom line. When your equipment needs new linear accelerator parts, you need a trustworthy repair company that will come out and fix it so that you can go back to running your healthcare clinic.

When you hire the right company, you want to make sure that they come out when they say they will because if they are late or not following the schedule, you’re not only losing money, patient care suffers. Your medical equipment is what makes your practice or clinic money and is imperative for seeing patients. When it’s broken, you need it up and running fast! You have no time to waste because broken medical equipment can take a while to repair, especially if you need to order special linear accelerator parts.

Finding a reliable medical equipment repair company is so important, you might want to look into having some back up refurbished linear accelerators just in case anything happens. This way, you’ll be able to still see patients while your other equipment is being fixed. You won’t have to shut down for the day or reschedule your patients since the refurbished linear accelerators in your office will work just as good as your primary ones.

Refurbished linear accelerators are merely older models that have been refurbished with new linear accelerator parts so that they’re in working condition. In fact, many run smoother than brand new equipment as it has had time for the kinks to be worked out. Having more than one machine in your practice means you won’t be rushed into finding an on-time medical equipment repair company. You won’t have to stress about not being able to accommodate patients and your repair person can take their time figuring out when your primary machine isn’t working properly. Although you ideally want to find an on-time medical equipment company to come out to service your machines, you won’t have as much of a headache knowing that you have a backup refurbished linear accelerator to handle your patient load in the meantime.

Learn more about Radparts and the variety of services and parts they offer to repair medical equipment including: linear accelerators parts, CT scanners parts, linac parts, and radiation oncology equipment at www.radparts.com.  To contact one of our medical equipment repair specialists for parts or service call toll free 877.704.3838 for 24/7/365 support.

Analyzing Linear Accelerators and Their Major Components

Linear accelerators are widely used for the treatment of cancer using high radio-frequency electromagnetic waves to speed up electrons to increased energy in a linear path inside of an accelerator waveguide.  The frequency is medical LINACs is around 3 billion Hertz.  As the most common form of external beam radiation treatment after a cancer diagnosis it is crucial for end users to have a basic understanding of what a LINAC is.  As well as how the major components within LINAC systems work in conjunction with one another to produce radiation treatment.
Consider how a microwave oven works.  This is in the most basic sense how a linear accelerator operates.  A LINAC uses microwave technology to accelerate charged particles within a waveguide, tube like structure.  These electrons then strike a metal target producing photons. It is these photons that are focused on the cancerous tumor.  This radiation is delivered in the shape of the tumor to avoid contact with healthy tissues with the use of a variety of positioning devices.   Now that we have a general understanding of the linear accelerator lets take a look into the major components that allow LINAC systems to operate as we know them to as of today.

Drive Stand:

A drive stand is a rather large cabinet, usually rectangular in shape, that secures the LINAC machine to the floor of the treatment room that houses the gantry.

Gantry:

The gantry is a moveable frame of the LINAC that is located in the drive stand and rotates on a horizontal axis.  It helps direct the photon beams directly into the patient’s tumor.  The gantry rotates 360 degrees on its axis.  There are three components that are found within the gantry: the electron gun, accelerator structure, and treatment head.

Klystron:

The klystron is a major component that is located within the drive stand that delivers the microwave energy that is used to accelerate the electrons through amplified RF electromagnetic waves.

Accelerator Guide:

The energy from the klystron moves to the accelerator structure to speed up electrons.

Treatment Head:

The treatment head of a LINAC encases the components that shape the radiation to the specific size of the cancerous tumor.  This can include: bending magnets, primary collimator, beam flattening filter, wedges, blocks, and compensators.

Cooling System:

The water cooling system in a linear accelerator is located within the drive stand and gantry to regulate the temperature in the space.
In our next installment we will look in greater detail to the treatment head of a LINAC system and the variety of components housed within that help shape radiation beams into the shape of different cancerous tumors.
Learn more about Radparts and the variety of services and parts they offer to repair medical equipment including: linear accelerators parts, CT scanners parts, linac parts, and radiation oncology equipment at www.radparts.com.  To contact one of our medical equipment repair specialists for parts or service call toll free 877.704.3838 for 24/7/365 support