Uptime / System Maintenance

The stakeholders in your particle therapy facility

The stakeholders in your particle therapy facility count on its performance and continuous availability. With over 300 accelerator systems installed worldwide, IBA has experienced the learning curves with regard to system maintenance and design. Of course any new entrants to the particle therapy equipment market will also experience learning curves to maintain their system designs.

The particle therapy systems installed today by IBA incorporate proven technologies which have stood the test of time, in some cases utilizing 3rd and 4th - generation design improvements.

The IBA Proteus system has been designed with self-maintainability as a key goal. This is a natural consequence of IBA philosophy to be a user as well as a developer for most of the equipment it commercializes. Having to be on the user/application side of the equipment drives our attention to all factors that can simplify the life of the User and reduce equipment maintenance costs. Many technical choices have been derived from this philosophy. Cyclotrons are much simpler, and generally speaking much sturdier and less expensive to maintain than synchrotrons.

Maintenance schemes have been developed with precise schedules and plans. Since 1986, when IBA was founded, the core philosophy behind all the new machine developments has been to simplify the existing designs, increasing the operability and reducing operating costs. In particle therapy, the steps taken to design the first commercial in-hospital proton therapy system incorporated this same philosophy. Both the reliability and the operability of the system have profited from the simplicity of the design of the cyclotron, the use of proven technologies and IBA's vast experience in the design of such machines.

As manufacturer and user of IBA particle accelerators, we have developed rigorous and systematic schedules of monitoring and preventive maintenance, assuring you of trouble-free operation and maximum system uptime.

As the final configuration is defined and subject to the patient base load, the number of shifts per day, the hospital staff available, and the level of expected uptime, IBA is pleased to analyze and discuss with its clients the tailored shared maintenance or non-clinical operation service scheme that best fits its needs, from on-call consulting to full operation control, spare parts management and maintenance of the particle therapy system. This information will drive the plans for technical support of the system, including such considerations as preventive maintenance, consumable materials supply and staffing.

Maintenance Contracts

Platinum Operation and Maintenance Contract including Spare Parts

The IBA Platinum full service contract provides for complete non-clinical operation and maintenance service, including a stock of spare parts and a full-time on-site staff as necessary to achieve the guaranteed availability goals.

The IBA on-site staff perform all the tasks required to service and maintain the system, including:

• All Preventive Maintenance tasks
• Curative Maintenance
• Software Maintenance including:
  • Bug fixing
  • Regression testing
  • Hardware upgrades
  • Configuration Management
• Non Clinical operation of the equipment including:
  • Start-up and Shut-down of the equipment
  • Operational support (logging and system surveillance)
  • Monitor and maintain the spare parts stock

With and only with the Platinum contract, IBA will guarantee the overall availability of the System.