Medical Equipment Moving (MRI, CT, Linac)

A diagnostic scanner is not a machine you move by its weight alone. A 1.5T or 3T MRI arrives at its destination with a superconducting magnet still cold, held near absolute zero by a few hundred litres of liquid helium, and that one condition rewrites the entire job — the cold-head, the helium level, the quench line and the field that must be brought down and back up with the OEM's engineer present. The rest of a hospital's heavy estate brings its own constraints: a linear accelerator carries tonnes of lead and tungsten shielding in a treatment bunker, a CT gantry must travel square and shock-free on its transport locks, a cath lab rebuilds to a registered geometry, and almost all of it sits behind lead-lined doors inside a building that cannot stop treating patients. In India there is a further layer a general industrial mover never meets: radiation-emitting equipment is licensed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, and the machine cannot simply be unbolted and driven away.

Seemleius has relocated diagnostic and oncology equipment for corporate hospital chains and diagnostic networks across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata, and for the tier-2 expansion projects those groups are now running. Across 1,213 recorded moves we have learned that the engineering of the lift is only half the work; the other half is the regulatory choreography — AERB intimation and NOC at the source, a fresh layout approval and a re-commissioning licence at the destination — and the OEM handover that returns the machine to clinical use. We plan a medical move as a programme that ends when the biomedical-engineering team and the manufacturer have re-calibrated the equipment and signed it back into service, not when the truck is unloaded.

Equipment categories we relocate

Why a medical equipment move is different

Move a press or a lathe and the job is finished when the asset is levelled and powered up. Diagnostic and oncology equipment carries dependencies a general industrial move never touches, and the first is regulatory. In India any radiation-emitting installation — a Linac, CT, PET-CT, cath lab or brachytherapy unit — is licensed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board against a specific site and layout. You cannot lawfully decommission and shift it without filing the AERB intimation and obtaining the relevant NOC at the source, and you cannot switch it on at the destination until a fresh layout has been approved and a re-commissioning licence issued for the new bunker or suite. The Radiation Safety Officer carries this with the OEM's regulatory team, and our programme is built so the physical move slots into the regulatory timeline rather than colliding with it.

The second difference is cold. A superconducting MRI magnet holds its field in a bath of liquid helium near minus 269 degrees; the cold-head and chiller keep it there, and the quench pipe exists to vent that helium safely if the magnet loses superconductivity. Disturbing the cryogen system without the OEM present risks a quench — an uncontrolled boil-off that means an expensive helium recharge and days of downtime — so the controlled ramp-down before transport and the ramp-up afterwards are scheduled with the manufacturer's field engineer. The third difference is concentrated weight behind shielding: a Linac head and a cath-lab gantry pack tonnes of lead into a small footprint, and the lift plan is built on a surveyed figure, not an estimate. The fourth is the live building — narrow corridors, lifts with a stated capacity, false floors and lead-lined doors, infection-control zones — which is why the heavy work runs at night or across a weekend so no clinic session or treatment list is lost.

Methodology and equipment

The work follows the same backbone as every industrial move we run, set out in full on our machinery moving methodology page, adapted here for AERB clearance, cryogen safety and a live clinical building.

AERB and OEM workflow first. Before a date is fixed we map the regulatory path with the hospital and the OEM. For a radiation installation that means the decommissioning intimation and NOC to AERB at the source, and the layout submission, approval and re-commissioning licence at the destination, with the Radiation Safety Officer named at both ends. In parallel we bring the manufacturer's field engineer in — for an MRI to agree the ramp-down and ramp-up windows and the cold-head and quench procedure, for a Linac or cath lab to agree the disassembly the OEM mandates to keep the warranty and the calibration intact. The regulatory and OEM timelines set the sequence; the lift is planned around them.

Controlled helium management on MRI. We plan a controlled magnet ramp-down with the OEM, monitor helium level and pressure, keep the cold-head and chiller managing the magnet through the move, and decide with the manufacturer whether the magnet travels charged or de-energised. The magnetic-field exclusion zone is marked and ferrous tooling kept clear, and quench avoidance governs every decision until the field is ramped back up at the destination.

Shielding, false floors and clinical corridors. Lead-lined doors, lead-shielded panels and the false floors and false ceilings that conceal cabling and chillers are removed and reinstated to a logged layout. Inside the building the heavy assets travel on air-ride-equipped handling and machine skates, kept under the rated capacity of every lift and floor on the route, with the path protected so ward and theatre traffic and infection-control discipline are not disturbed. A gantry system raises and lowers shielded heads and magnets where no crane can reach a confined bunker or plant room, and shock and tilt recorders ride with the load so any jolt is evidenced for the OEM acceptance.

Re-set, re-calibrate and hand over. At destination the equipment is positioned to the approved layout, the magnet ramped back up with the OEM, shielding and services reinstated, and the unit handed to the biomedical-engineering team and the manufacturer for re-calibration and QA — for a Linac, the type acceptance and beam re-commissioning to AAPM TG-51 before patients return.

The site survey, in detail

Nothing is quoted firm until an engineer has walked both origin and destination, and for medical equipment the survey is the part that protects the patient timetable. We record the rated capacity of every lift on the route and weigh it against the loaded equipment, because a charged magnet or a shielded Linac head can sit close to or beyond a passenger lift's limit. We measure door and corridor clearances against the gantry or magnet envelope, identify which false floors and false ceilings must come up, and confirm whether a crane lift through a wall or roof opening is needed where the building access will not take the asset. We map the infection-control route — which zones the equipment may cross, where it must be wrapped or cleaned, which lead-lined doors stay sealed — and agree the after-hours window so the heavy work avoids clinic and treatment time.

For a radiation installation the survey also captures what AERB will need: the existing licensed layout, the proposed layout at the destination, and the shielding to be reinstated. The output is a written method statement covering the AERB and OEM workflow, the cryogen procedure, the lift and rigging plan, the shielding and false-floor sequence, the infection-control route and the biomedical handover. The survey is free, and for a site in any of the metros we serve we can usually arrange it within a working day or two of your enquiry.

Explore the rest of our machinery moving work

Medical equipment relocation is one strand of our wider machinery moving service, and the engineering detail is set out on the methodology page. The same survey-led approach runs through our industrial equipment relocation, heavy lifting and rigging and plant and factory relocation work. If equipment is leaving the country, our corridor guide covers exporting machinery and industrial plant to the United Kingdom.