GROULEFF DK

Over the years, Grouleff DK has developed and produced a wide range of products for the medical industry, but it is the first time they have made a chair and a bed for a MEG scanner.

A MEG scanner maps the magnetic signals of a brain and at the slightest interruption of the scan the images can deteriorate which can have fatal consequences for a patient. Grouleff DK was therefore asked for the delivery of a specially designed chair and bed in anti-magnetic materials with fine-mechanical solutions designed to fit the customer’s MEG scanner precisely. Grouleff needed external resources in connection with the assignment which is why DIS was contacted to assist with the task.
In cooperation with Grouleff DK, DIS developed and constructed the first prototype of the bed and the chair, and assisted with project management, statistical and hydraulic calculations, purchase of custom-designed parts and testing of the products.

- It was a very demanding requirement specification we received from our English customer. We have had a large amount of technical challenges, where we have worked with alternative solutions. A chair and a bed had to be developed with the option to fine-adjust the patient down to the nearest millimeter, so that the person gets the correct position in the brain scanner. At the same time, the equipment had to be designed in 100 percent anti-magnetic materials and without any electronic parts in order not to interfere with the scanning, says Jørgen Grouleff, Director at Grouleff DK.

Custom made anti-magnetic solutions
With the newly developed fine-mechanical solution, the patient is lifted and lowered by means of hydraulics controlled by a foot pump. The chair has more adjustment options, where fine tuning is done using cone shaped gears and handwheels. At the bed there is a safety mechanism which is an active docking system ensuring the patient’s position relative to the scanner as well as a breaking system that locks all four wheels by activating one of the wheels. In order to avoid magnetic materials, Etronax, aluminum and acid-proof stainless steel have been used.

The first and second prototype of the chair and the bed have past tests successfully and Grouleff DK are now ready to start production of the two new products.