Agfa Imaging Equipment Certified By OSHPD For Earthquake Resistance

California's Seismic Safety Act requires hospitals to meet requirements to ensure safety of the public and continued operations following an earthquake.

Agfa, a global leader in imaging technology, has successfully renewed its OSHPD Special Seismic Certification Pre-approval in California for the company’s DR 600 X-ray room. This pre-approval ensures that the DR 600 complies with the AC-156 acceptance criteria for nonstructural components to be used in healthcare facilities in California.

The successful completion of the stringent live tests also offers an important indicator of earthquake resistance for healthcare facilities around the world in areas that are subject to seismic activity.

seismic
Agfa DR 600 imaging equipment

Seismic activity in earthquake-prone regions poses a special challenge to hospitals, in terms of both construction practices and equipment installations. Many of these regions have adopted codes and standards to ensure that structures and equipment maintain their integrity despite earthquakes.

Following a devastating earthquake in California in 1994 that caused significant damage to multiple hospitals, California passed legislation to improve hospitals’ resilience to seismic events. The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development of California (OSHPD), which regulates the healthcare facilities in California, offers equipment manufacturers the possibility to have their equipment pre-approved for use on healthcare facility projects under OSHPD’s jurisdiction.

The testing comprised in the AC-156 acceptance criteria cannot be carried out through analysis, but only through live shake tests to simulate the impact of a real earthquake.

Agfa’s equipment is a ceiling-suspended, fully automatic DR 600 direct radiography (DR) room that delivers high speed precision and comfort, with technologies including ZeroForce Technology for quick, easy manual movement of the tube head and EasyStitch Technology for full leg/full spine imaging.

Rigorous live testing was carried out on the DR 600, including the elevated table, the fully automated X-ray tube suspension with bridge, the motorized tilting bucky on a wall stand, the workstation, the DICOM widescreen touch monitor, and generator and storage cabinet. To ensure compliance, Agfa developed specific software and a mounting kit for the DR 600.

Testing was carried out by a third-party engineering facility, which found that the DR 600 meets the AC-156 requirements for structural integrity and manufacturer requirements for functionality.

“The successful renewal of our DR 600 seismic certification with OSHPD proves our ability to provide top-performance solutions that are reliable, even under very challenging conditions,” comments Louis Kuitenbrouwer, vice president, Radiology Solutions at Agfa. “The California certification requirements are known to be very stringent, so this result is important for hospitals anywhere that want to be prepared to continue providing care after earthquakes.”

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