Philips is the industry's first and only 1.5T fully sealed magnet, relieving you from helium-related complications and unpredictability. BlueSeal magnet requires only 0.5% of helium compared to a conventional Philips MR system. Addressing helium scarcity through innovating with purpose to secure the future for all MR patients.
“We won’t have any problems of refilling during the machine’s lifetime and we can forget about the helium. This will save us money and help us be more environmentally friendly”
Dr. Marίa del Mar Travieso, Head of Radiology Department, Hospitales San Roque, Spain
Siting with classic magnet
On a classic magnet, long vent pipes must be installed to meet safety requirements and direct helium to an outside vent in case of a magnet quench. Because no liquid helium can escape1, the Philips BlueSeal magnet does not need a vent pipe, significantly reducing construction costs of new installations.
“In the event of a major disaster like an earthquake we can get these machines up and running again relatively quickly making them excellent from the perspective of hospital risk management too.”
Prof. Hashimoto, Tokai University Hospital, Japan
IEC International standard 60601-2-33 describes the particular requirements for the safety of magnetic resonance equipment for medical diagnosis. Since the BlueSeal magnet has a fractional amount of helium contained in a closed cooling system, no helium can escape during a loss of field. As a result, the following IEC requirements do not apply, which helps to simply on-site safety procedures:
1 Even in the rare case of the magnet becoming unsealed, the negligible amount of helium escaping would not materially affect the oxygen level within the room.
2 Compared to the Ingenia 1.5T ZBO magnet.
3 In isotropic 3D MSK VIEW scans, compared to Philips scans without Compressed SENSE.
4 Marketech June 2017 study (across vendors).
