X-ray Machine Preventative Care Tips for your Clinic

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This guide provides practical, experience-backed tips to help clinics extend the lifespan of their imaging systems covering everything from insurance and environmental control to cleaning routines and power management.

1. Insure Your X-Ray System Properly

Standard business insurance rarely provides the level of coverage required for high-value imaging equipment. We strongly recommend arranging specific item insurance for your X-ray, OPG, CBCT, or DEXA systems.

Where possible, ensure your policy includes:

• Breakdown Cover – To protect against sudden electrical or mechanical failure.
• Accidental Damage Cover – For incidents such as power surges, impacts, or transport mishaps.
• Business Interruption Cover – To safeguard clinic revenue during equipment downtime.

While Medic Cloud is not an insurance broker, our recommendations come from decades of experience helping clients recover from breakdowns, floods, and accidental damage events. Always seek independent professional advice from your insurer or legal advisor to ensure your policy provides adequate coverage for medical imaging assets.

2. Cleanliness Is Key – Wipe It Down Regularly

Routine cleaning is one of the simplest and most effective ways to preserve the life of your X-ray equipment.

• Wipe down the machine surfaces using non-abrasive, approved cleaners.
• Keep the room dust-free, particularly around moving parts such as tables, wall buckys, and tube stands.
• Avoid aerosol sprays or alcohol-heavy solutions near sensitive components.
• Keep generator areas and equipment bays clutter-free to ensure proper ventilation and cooling.

Clean environments protect delicate electronics and reduce wear on moving mechanical assemblies, helping your system maintain peak image quality.

3. Control the room temperature and humidity

Environmental control directly affects the reliability and lifespan of your imaging systems. Most X-ray, OPG, CBCT, and DEXA machines operate best between 18°C and 24°C with 40–60% relative humidity.

For clinics in tropical or coastal regions such as Cairns, Mackay, and Darwin, additional control measures like dehumidifiers or air conditioning are essential. High humidity can lead to corrosion, electrical failures, and fogging of optical components, while excessive heat can damage internal boards and power supplies.

Maintaining a stable room climate is one of the most effective long-term strategies for protecting your imaging investment.

4. Power Management – Switch it off when not in use

Turning your systems off when they’re not in use significantly reduces component wear and power costs.

Leaving systems running continuously increases heat stress, power supply fatigue, and unnecessary fan use. However, some equipment such as servers or acquisition PCs may require constant operation for remote access or DICOM transmission.

If unsure, consult your Medic Cloud engineer for advice on which components can be safely powered down after hours and which should remain active.

5. Schedule X-ray machine preventative care

Regular preventative maintenance is vital for ensuring ongoing compliance, image consistency, and safety. During service visits, Medic Cloud technicians inspect and calibrate every system component, including:

• X-ray tube output and generator performance
• Detector calibration and exposure uniformity
• Mechanical movement and alignment accuracy
• Electrical connections and grounding
• Cooling systems and airflow paths.

By addressing small issues early, X-ray machine preventative care reduces downtime and extends the life of your system.

Experience you can rely on

Our recommendations are based on years of hands-on experience across medical, chiropractic, dental, and veterinary clinics throughout Australia. We’ve seen how minor oversights can shorten equipment lifespan and how disciplined maintenance habits can add years of service to critical diagnostic assets.

All information provided is general in nature and based on risk mitigation best practices. For insurance coverage and legal requirements, we recommend seeking independent advice from your insurer or legal representative.

Contact us today for a conversation.

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