David Ogren, President of OMED of Nevada, agrees that LED won't take over the refurbished market for quite some time, if at all. "We have a continuous request for overhead lighting primarily because of the development of outpatient surgery centers and boutique health care centers or specialty centers," he says. "No one seems worried about the LED lights making halogen obsolete."

Refurbishing surgical lights involves a lot of work, but once completed, they are like new.


"The nice thing about halogen lights is that in most cases there is not any part on there that would make it obsolete," Larson says. "Every part is replaceable. You can put a new coat of powder on there, paint, add new parts; essentially your parts of the light head include the lens, reflector, focus mechanism, bolts, heat shield, covers...once you repair those and fix them up, you are basically getting a brand new set of lights."

Mighell explains that there are three main parts that need to be looked at during any refurbishment process-the mount with the arms, the light head itself and the control box. They are completely disassembled, repainted and then built back up.

"Each of those parts is separated from the whole. The control box is sent to our bio-med department and completely disassembled and any faulty components replaced," he says. "The arms are completely taken off center mounts and all bearings are gone through and replaced as necessary, all the wiring replaced and the head is taken off and disassembled. Arms all completely replaced. Lenses are examined, cleaned and often times replaced."

According to the used market dealers, the difference between buying new and used can be measured anywhere from 40% to 60% savings. The range for new ceiling mounted, dual head lights start at $25,000 and for the same light setup on the reconditioned side, it would cost approximately $9,500. Of course, prices vary by the type and size of the lighting used.

In and Out

These lighting systems are very technically advanced and shouldn't just be installed or de-installed by your local electrician or contractor. In fact refurbishers prefer to do most of this personally.

"We have customers who buy and want to install themselves but you have to tell them that there's more to it than putting in a few screws and bolts and having them function. You have breaking mechanisms that determine amount of drifting, the up and down movement, maneuverability of lights, how they are leveled," Larson explains. "Any time we purchase lights we ask to de-install them ourselves because if they are not taken down properly, they can be ruined."

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