Medical equipment moving in Dubai: MRI, CT and linac

An MRI scanner does not move like a machine of the same weight. A 3T superconducting magnet arrives at destination with liquid helium still holding it near absolute zero, and that single fact reshapes the whole job — the cold-head, the quench pipe, the magnetic field that must be ramped down and ramped back up with the OEM in attendance. The rest of a hospital's heavy estate carries its own demands: CT scanners with gantries that cannot be jolted, linear accelerators wrapped in tonnes of lead and tungsten, cath labs, mammography units, fixed and mobile X-ray, PET-CT and the ultrasound fleet. With 22 years' experience and 1,213+ moves delivered, Seemleius relocates medical and imaging equipment for clinics and hospitals across Dubai, the wider UAE and the Free Zones — usually inside a live facility and out of hours, and always with the biomedical-engineering handover treated as part of the move rather than an afterthought.

Equipment categories handled

Why medical equipment is different

Relocate a press or a lathe and the job finishes when the asset is levelled and powered up. Imaging and oncology equipment carries hazards and dependencies that a general industrial move never meets, and the first of them 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 ever loses superconductivity. A move that disturbs the cryogen system without the OEM present risks a quench — an uncontrolled boil-off that can cost a five-figure helium recharge and days of downtime. So the magnet ramp-down before transport and the ramp-up after it are scheduled with the manufacturer's field engineer, and the cold-head, quench connection and helium level are checked against the OEM's procedure at every stage.

Weight is the second difference, and it is concentrated. A linac head packs dense lead and tungsten shielding into a small footprint, which is why the survey records its mass from the OEM's data and the lift plan accounts for it before anyone touches the equipment. The third difference is the building. Most of this work happens inside a running hospital, where a lift has a stated capacity that the loaded equipment must not exceed, corridors are narrow, doors are sized for beds rather than gantries, and the route crosses zones with their own infection-control rules. Imaging suites also sit behind lead-lined walls and doors that constrain access. The fourth difference is the clock: a scanner room cannot be closed during clinic hours, so the heavy work runs at night or across a weekend to keep clinical disruption to a minimum. And the move is not done when the equipment lands — it is done when the hospital's biomedical-engineering team and the OEM have re-calibrated it, run the acceptance and image-quality checks, and signed it back into clinical use.

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 cryogen safety, shielded weight and a live clinical building.

OEM liaison first. Before a date is fixed, we bring the equipment manufacturer's field engineer into the plan. On an MRI that means agreeing the magnet ramp-down and ramp-up windows, the cold-head and quench-pipe procedure, and how the magnet and its helium are handled in transit; on a linac or cath lab it means the disassembly the OEM mandates to keep the warranty and the calibration intact. The manufacturer's procedure sets the sequence, and our plan is built around it.

Air casters and skating in clinical corridors. Inside the building the heavy assets travel on air casters where the floor finish and infection-control route demand a clean, low-vibration glide, and on machine skates and toe-jacks where overhead lift is not available. Loads are kept under the rated capacity of every lift and floor on the path, and the route is protected so ward and theatre traffic is not disturbed.

Crane for external lifts. Where a scanner cannot leave or enter through the building — a magnet too large for the goods lift, an imaging suite reached only through an external wall — a mobile crane handles the lift through a window or roof opening, with the lift plan signed by the appointed person before the day.

Gantry and specialist rigging. A gantry system raises and lowers shielded heads and magnets in confined plant rooms where a crane cannot reach, and purpose-built cradles carry the OEM's transport locks so the gantry, table and detectors stay in their packed geometry through the move.

Re-set and hand over. At destination the equipment is positioned to the marked footprint, the magnet ramped back up with the OEM, services reconnected, and the unit handed to the biomedical-engineering team for re-calibration and the acceptance checks that return it to clinical use.

The site survey, in detail

Nothing is quoted firm until an engineer has walked the origin site (and the destination, when it is in the UAE), 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 3T 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, note overhead obstructions, and confirm whether a crane lift through a wall or roof is needed because the building access will not take the asset. We map the infection-control route through the facility — which zones the equipment may cross, where it must be wrapped or cleaned, and which doors must stay sealed — and we agree the out-of-hours window with the facilities team so the work avoids clinic time. The output is a written method statement covering the OEM liaison plan, the cryogen procedure where an MRI is involved, the lift and rigging plan, the infection-control route, and the biomedical handover sequence. The free survey is the foundation of every quote, and for a UAE site we can usually arrange it within a working day or two of your enquiry.

Explore the rest of our machinery moving work

Medical equipment moving is one strand of our wider machinery moving service, and the engineering detail behind every move is set out on the methodology page. If equipment is leaving the country, our corridor guides cover exporting machinery and industrial plant to the United Kingdom and to Germany.