For these scanners to operate at the highest levels of efficiency, the magnet inside the scanner has to be as cool as possible. Liquid helium is often used as the refrigerant. There are two cooling methods available: air and water cooled chillers. While both of these medical chillers are responsible for removing heat from the MRI scanner, they differ in terms of where they transfer that heat – either the surrounding ambient air or a water source such as a cooling tower. If your facility doesn’t have a reliable water source such as a cooling tower or a plant chilled water system, an air cooled chiller is really your only choice. A water cooled chiller is your best bet if you do have a cooling tower provided that the water is 85°F (29°C) and that the cooling tower has enough reserve capacity to handle the additional load.

A CT scan has many uses, computed tomography or CT scanners are extremely valuable tools for medical diagnostics. They suffer, however, from a serious mechanical problem that not only diminishes their use but raises their cost. The x-ray tube in the scanner heats up so fast, about 1 to 3 minutes, that it has to be shut down and cooled for 10 to 30 minutes. Because of this patient throughput is very low while costs are high. A properly cooled CT scanner can provide life-saving information in a trauma center, but a critically injured patient can’t wait for the machine to cool down. An enhanced cooling system using a chiller would mean long-term and continuous operation.

A positron emission tomography or PET scanner is a nuclear medicine medical imaging machine for producing a three dimensional image or map of functional processes in the body.

Linear accelerators are devices that produce high energy x-rays by using electromagnetic waves to accelerate charged particles. To relieve the heat generated by the x-ray tubes, chilled water is circulated on the tubes.