Still, there are some negative factors affecting the industry. Clinics seem to have less money, reimbursement issues still abound and the cost of material is high.

"The London metals exchange is checked constantly for the commodity pricing on copper, lead and steel," says Campedelli. "We buy a lot of that material every month and the last couple of years the price has been sky high."


The prices have been dropping over the last six months, but staying competitive with pricing will almost always come down to material costs.

"Right now our dilemma is that we have seen an increase in material delivery charges and materials have gone up a great deal. Everyone thinks they should be paying less for shielding but our costs have increased," says Mark Holder, Operations Manager of Global Partners in Shielding, Inc. "Everyone is looking to cut corners but when it comes to shielding, it's not something you can do. You have to do the walls, the floor and ceiling to do the job."

According to Turner, since everyone is dealing with material costs, a company should differentiate themselves from the competition by offering other value-added services outside of just the installation service.


New Challenges

One of the biggest challenges through the years occurred when MRI machines started moving from the corner ground floors to other levels, which created some shielding problems with structure and cost. But solutions came and for the most part, companies can design a proper MRI shield for just about any MRI room.

"Shielding over time, has dealt with things that we hadn't thought of before but then it came into play and solutions were developed," Thompson said. "With shielding, pretty much wherever you need it now, you can do it."

Over the last few years, new challenges have popped up concerning safety issues.

"What we're seeing now is a requirement to have the door swing to the outside," says Profeta. "We have also seen more strict and stringent requirements on the vent piping for the magnet. In the event that the magnet venting system fails, you do not want the room to pressurize and keep the door from opening. In every new installation when given an option, they prefer to have the door swing out and it's something that needs to be considered with every new design."

The challenge with the door concerns space, since now you need to capture the square footage outside the box for the door swing. If you have to have the door swing in, you can add a pop-out hatch-a safety hatch-that will open in the event of a pressurized condition but that too adds cost.

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