Types And Purposes of Medical Chillers

Certain types of medical products and equipment need to stay at cooler temperatures, and this is where medical chillers come in. When medical equipment runs, it generates a lot of heat, and medical chillers remove this heat so that the machine doesn’t have to shut down to chill off. Medical chillers keep many types of medical equipment cool enough to function appropriately, including:

MRI Machines

The magnet inside MRI machines has to stay cool in order for the machine to work efficiently. Air and water-cooled medical chillers both work well for MRI machines, but they transfer heat to different areas. Water-cooled chillers transfer heat to a water source such as a plant chilled water system or cooling tower. Air-cooled chillers transfer heat to the surrounding ambient air, and they work well for facilities that don’t have a water source.

CT scans

CT scanners have an x-ray tube that heats up fast and requires about 10 to 30 minutes of cooling time. This cooling time delays patient care and increases medical costs. Without this cooling time, the machine could operate more efficiently and help more patients. Medical chillers keep CT scanners cool so that they don’t require cooling time.

PET scans

PET scanners produce three-dimensional images of body processes, and they also generate too much heat. Like CT scanners, they require medical chillers to operate continuously for long periods of time.

Oncology Linear Accelerators

These machines produce x-rays with electromagnetic waves that accelerate charged particles. Their x-ray tubes generate a great amount of heat, and the tubes require chilled water circulating around them at all times.

Types of Medical Chillers

Open Loop Chillers

Open loop medical chillers continuously circulate a liquid to control its temperature. The liquid moves from a remote open tank through the chiller and then back into the tank. These chillers often use a water source instead of air for cooling. This allows for a reduced size of the chiller and lessened energy requirements because the chiller has no fans and a water-based condenser with a small surface area. Open loop chillers are also less noisy because they don’t have fans. They work well for cooling MRI machines, CT scans, and pharmaceutical processing applications.

In-Line Chillers

In-line chillers cool passing fluid under pressure with an evaporator inside the chiller. The fluid comes from a remote tank, and a pump is near the tank, which circulates the fluid. These chillers work well for CT scans and other applications that need the pump near the tank.

Drop-In Coolers

These chillers sit on top of a tank and cool fluid that surrounds an evaporator coil. The stainless steel evaporator coil submerges into the tank, and an agitation pump circulates fluid around the evaporator coil for proper cooling throughout. A controller monitors the fluid’s temperature and controls fluid cycling to maintain it at a certain temperature. Drop-in chillers are ideal for CT scanners.

Closed-Loop Coolers

These coolers circulate coolant from a tank that sits inside the cooler. Coolant moves through a sealed coolant loop and spindle before returning to the tank. The coolant dissipates heat in an evaporator before going back to the tank. A temperature controller senses the coolant’s temperature and controls the evaporator to keep coolant at a desired temperature. Closed-loop coolers are ideal for PET scans, x-ray machines, and linear accelerators.

At J.C. Younger Company, we rent out medical chillers to many types of facilities. We’re an ETL Listed & Inspected Manufacturer in the USA, and we’ve been a family owned business since 1956. To find out more about our medical chillers, please contact us. We offer single-month and long-term rentals of medical chillers.