Creos pins hopes on new x-ray engine

Creos International of Fife,Scotland, has developed a line of extremely compact high-performancex-ray generators that the firm hopes will radically transformthe design of radiographic and radiography/fluoroscopy equipment.Rather than residing in the usual refrigerator-sized generatorcabinets, Creos generators can fit within a small 24 x 15 x 15-inchspace.

"There will no longer be large boxes sitting in frontof the (x-ray) tables," said Douglas C. Anderson, Creos chairman."These generators will be built into the equipment."

Creos developed its first compact generator under contractto scanner vendor Elscint. The 60-kW unit was built small enoughto ride on the gantry of Elscint's premium CT Twin scanner. Creosmanufactures the CT generator in its Denver facility, while itsown radiographic line is made in Scotland, he said.

The firm has been selling its generators to U.S. companiesfor about two years, but only introduced the line in Europe atthe European Congress of Radiology meeting last September. Creossells through a distributor, Swissray, in Switzerland and Germany,Anderson said.

Although Creos was founded in the early 1980s, its productefforts only gained momentum following the arrangement of financingin 1989 from institutional investors in the U.K., Anderson said.

The Creos generator technology has a number of performanceadvantages apart from its compact size, he said. Tube life benefitsfrom the fact that no stored energy is maintained within the generatoritself.

"If you have a dead short in the tube, the only energyis that which is stored in the cables. None comes out of the generatoritself. That extends the tube life significantly," he said.

The generator technology is also completely software-driven.Installation can be accomplished in a morning rather than twoto three days, Anderson said. Set-up calibration is automatedthrough an installer's laptop computer.