Making the machines to deliver state of the art cancer treatment for patients across the globe
By Dave Remmer, Manufacturing Director, Elekta
估计使全球缺乏放射治疗的癌症患者数量为3亿。bob娱乐官网低收入国家和中等收入国家拥有全球癌症负担的80％，但只有32％的全球放射治疗资源。bob娱乐官网
Cutting-edge radiation therapy systems have critical roles to play in helping to address disparities and expand access to potentially life-saving care. At Elekta our ACCESS 2025 strategy is designed to provide access to radiation therapy by placing 800-1,000 new linear accelerators (linacs) in underserved markets.
“我们位于克劳利制造工厂的专家正在制作挽救生命的机器以发送全球，现在我们的生产机器编号为5,680。”
Experts at our manufacturing facility in Crawley are making life-saving machines to send around the globe and right now we have machine number 5,680 in production. This state-of-the-art manufacturing facility has made a machine for almost every country in the world – delivering Rwanda’s first machine last year.
通常，一次有14或15台机器，我们最大的年产量是403台机器。这些机器经历了五个不同的组装阶段，总共需要275小时才能建造，测试和调度。每台机器都有大约60个小时的测试，以确保已设置并正确配置满足客户需求。我们是100％的订单构建，每台机器都在工厂经过时都标有客户名称。
The linac itself, which includes the gantry, base, beam generation module and the beam shaping device, weighs just over 6.5 metric tons. Each machine is mainly made of fabricated and then precision machined steel with tungsten and lead used strategically for radiation shielding purposes. The waveguide that the electron beam is accelerated in is made from around 70 high specification oxygen-free copper cells that are machined and vacuum brazed together on site in Crawley. After a complex manufacturing process, they are tuned to the right specification by our specialist engineers. Many other components including printed circuit boards and other electrical and mechanical components are purchased from our list of approved suppliers selected for their expertise, quality, or geographical location.
Details of the serial numbers of the critical components, calibration information for test equipment and tooling, training records for all employees that have worked on the machine need to be recorded at every stage of the manufacturing process. This is because it forms part of the device history record, a regulatory requirement that must be complete and verified before the machine is signed off before leaving the factory.
“每次机器离开设施时，我们都知道我们为改善潜在的挽救生命的护理提供了进一步的贡献。”
Finally, the machines are disassembled into five parts so they can be packed up and sent to their destination. It takes on average around 14 days from the start of the assembly process to the point where the machine leaves the site and starts its journey to the customer. Every time a machine leaves the facility, we know that we have made a further contribution to improving access to potentially life-saving care.
Click这里要了解有关Elekta的Linacs的更多信息。
