Liquid helium is used by MRI equipment to cool its superconducting magnets. With the goal of reducing the amount of helium—a nonrenewable element that is vulnerable to supply disruptions—Siemens invested years in designing a magnet that maintains its cool via its own refrigerator. As a result of the work, an MRI scanner was introduced that requires only 0.7 liters of liquid helium, as opposed to 1,500 liters for previous equipment.
The core of Siemens’ MRI plans is technology. During a May 7 earnings call, CEO Bernd Montag stated that by 2030, all of the company’s MRI machines will be built using low-helium technology. To achieve that goal, the corporation is expanding its manufacturing capacity.
Siemens has started building a 56,000-square-meter plant close to Oxford, where it will develop and produce superconducting magnets. In the end, the plant will take the place of an existing one in the adjacent village of Eynsham. The company aims to export about 95% of the magnets it produces.
In 1982, Oxford Instruments established a location in the area after developing the first superconducting whole-body MRI magnet. Siemens and Oxford Instruments established a joint venture for magnet technology, which was later acquired by Siemens.
The 600 employees at Eynsham will move gradually to the new Oxford location. Siemens projects that, barring a spike in demand for its products from the location. The Oxford campus, like Siemens’ other new locations in Bangalore, India and Forchheim, Germany, is operationally carbon neutral. Siemens plans to implement measures to lower its energy consumption.
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