Advanced Mobility's director of sales, Michael Hardesty, has also seen the business of refurbishing new units and trailers boom.

"Many clients like Insight and Alliance are choosing to upgrade their MRI systems to the latest and greatest systems without buying new. They also are upgrading their coach as well," says Hardesty. "When we perform the upgrade to the scanner, which is changing the electronics, we are also repairing the RF room, replacing the air conditioning, chiller systems, putting in new cabinets, walls, floors and systems. We re-skin the trailers and upgrade the undercarriage and suspension of the trailers to return them to their original condition."


Shrinking storage space
The economic slowdown has also forced an upswing in the demand for storage, especially in the fixed-site magnets. Ambrose Rigging, a full-service moving and rigging company that warehouses and transports magnets, has seen its business increase 10 to 15 percent this year.

"We are getting more MRI units parked at the facility. Now we have three or four at any given time. Our customers don't have a place to put the trailers because there are so many fixed sites that have flooded the markets. People who were prone to rent or lease these units are now turning to fixed-site systems," says Fran Ambrose, president of Ambrose Rigging. "The people buying and selling these units need a place to store them for a short period of time. We have 10 MRI bays. Originally, we set up shop to house and keep-cold four units. With the customers' demands, we have increased that to 10 bays, complete with 480 amps and chiller service."

One-stop shop
Providing regular maintenance to the stored equipment is critical to providing one-stop-shop service.

Full service includes refrigeration and helium-fills, which cover the whole range of cold heads, compressors and helium lines. Helium levels in the magnets need to be monitored daily. The cold head should be observed for icing and leaks. The chillers also are serviced on a routine basis.

“One of the services we provide is helium filling magnets, and I have seen an increase in that business in the mobile environment,” says Tom Freund, general manager of MRI services at Oxford Instruments, a magnet service company. “Some people that run mobile units are steering away from big contracts with helium-fill providers and OEMs.”

As a fixed-site provider that offers trailer storage, Ambrose adds, "With some superconductors holding as much as 1,000 liters of helium, our customers are very interested in our storage as opposed to letting their systems go warm.”

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