Up and atom: gantry at proton therapy centre

17 January 2019

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Industrial installation company Lifthing NV has used an Enerpac SBL500 gantry to lower two therapy units into at the University Hospitals Leuven (UZ Leuven), Belgium’s first proton therapy centre.

The two 57t synchrocyclotron units and a 75t therapy unit were lowered into the hospital’s Particle Therapy Interuniversity Center (ParTICLe), a clinical and scientific collaboration between five university hospitals and their network hospitals.

Lifthing opted to use its SBL500 gantry due to the space restrictions at the Gasthuisberg campus. The synchrocyclotrons and therapy unit were skidded along the gantry’s skid tracks and lowered into the research bunker and clinical treatment bunker respectively.

Pieterjan Van Iseghem, managing director at Lifthing, said: “Gentle and accurate handling was essential when handling the synchrocyclotrons and therapy unit. The Enerpac SBL500 gantry, equipped with header beam, powered side shifts and wireless control, gave us the lifting capability and precise positioning we needed for this important project.”

The new proton therapy centre at UZ Leuven is scheduled to begin treating patients in the second half of 2019.