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John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | September 17, 2018
From the September 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
New coldheads and parts must undergo long hours of testing to ensure they can perform efficiently as replacements. For this and other reasons, Mykleby recommends replacing entire coldhead systems and associated parts rather than just switching out individual components, a practice more frequently found in Europe. Doing so reduces the risk of misdiagnosis and avoids repeat visits for multiple failures due to the out-of-sync life spans of different parts.
“You may get it working temporarily, but you’re not going to get any longevity out of it because all of the other parts haven’t been replaced,” said Mykleby. “If you have to go back in a month or two months or a week, now the money you potentially are trying to save has gone out the window from the costs of having to go back on-site, the waiver, and the expenses.”
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Coldhead repair and replacement technology becomes even more complex when taking into account the different types that exist, the types of associated parts, and the repair procedures involved with each.
Coldheads and components such as compressors and helium
lines should be inspected at least twice a year for
maintenance and if need be, replacement.
Knowing your system
Different magnets have different coldheads and with them, different procedures for maintenance, repair and replacement. Serrano said that with such variations comes a need for specific sets of hands and expertise.
“Use only field service engineers that have been trained in the replacement of coldheads for the specific magnet being worked on,” she said. “Some require the use of a heater box, some require the magnet to be ramped down prior to replacement, and some are rebuilt on site.”
In addition, a thorough understanding of the different types of associated parts used in conjunction with coldhead technology is also necessary for proper maintenance. Water-cooled compressors, for instance, are more common than air-cooled ones due to their lower prices, but require greater maintenance and expenses for maintaining clean, full supplies of water and clean filters. They also are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, reasons for coldhead compressor shutdowns.
Air-cooled ones, on the other hand, require large capacities for heat removal, necessitating the need to upgrade air conditioning systems within the computer room to handle the amount of heat dumped there by the cool air compressor. More expensive “split” air-cooled compressors like Sumitomo’s FA-70, which consists of controls, customer interface and the adsorber on the indoor unit, and a compressor capsule, heat exchanger and fan on the outdoor unit, also may be present in some systems.
