Never ran into this before--Need Help

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kbrandt

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I just looked at a health care facility and they are getting a new x-ray machine.

Here's the question old machine was 480 volt and 480 volt breaker is in the room where x-rays are taken and new machine is 240 volt, they have a 50 KVA transformer to knock down the voltage and want it installed in same room where the breaker is located and the patients lay down and get x-rays and this transformer will be less than 5 feet from the table they use to x-ray patients. Don't seem like a good ideal to me.

I looked in NEC and found nothing or just missed it. Any help would be great.

Thanks
 
Stray magnetic fields from the transformer will not affect the x-ray image, but might cause concern from the manufacturer.
Some patients who have strong feelings about EMF effects might object if they can see the transformer. :)
But a properly selected and well built transformer should not have much in the way of stray fields.
 
I like the idea, those rooms are always freezing. Put shirt and shorts on tranny, get X-Ray, put on toasty warm cloths.:thumbsup:
 
GoldDigger said:
Some patients who have strong feelings about EMF effects might object if they can see the transformer. :)
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They have to know what it is before they will be concerned. Most of them only know what a substation transformer is, and maybe what high voltage transmission lines are. Same people are probably scared of X-rays anyway. They definitely have to be scared of MRI technology.:happyyes:
 
kbrandt said:
I just looked at a health care facility and they are getting a new x-ray machine.

Here's the question old machine was 480 volt and 480 volt breaker is in the room where x-rays are taken and new machine is 240 volt, they have a 50 KVA transformer to knock down the voltage and want it installed in same room where the breaker is located and the patients lay down and get x-rays and this transformer will be less than 5 feet from the table they use to x-ray patients. Don't seem like a good ideal to me.

I looked in NEC and found nothing or just missed it. Any help would be great.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I don't see a problem with it as long as everything is grounded and wired to code. In fact, I think its actually fairly common to have a step up or step down transformer in the room. In some cases, the xray vendor will provide these as an option. And I believe the xray generator is basically another transformer anyway.
 
kbrandt said:
I just looked at a health care facility and they are getting a new x-ray machine.

Here's the question old machine was 480 volt and 480 volt breaker is in the room where x-rays are taken and new machine is 240 volt, they have a 50 KVA transformer to knock down the voltage and want it installed in same room where the breaker is located and the patients lay down and get x-rays and this transformer will be less than 5 feet from the table they use to x-ray patients. Don't seem like a good ideal to me.

I looked in NEC and found nothing or just missed it. Any help would be great.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Is it new or used? If new, I can't understand why they wouldn't have ordered another 480 volt unit if that is what was there in the first place. I have somewhat limited experience with X-ray machines, but what experience I do have they are very particular about voltage drop, 480 volts is easier to deal with voltage drop than 240 is for the same sized unit.
 
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