Dive Brief:
- Siemens Healthineers is investing 250 million pounds ($314 million) in a facility to make imaging technology in the U.K.
- The site in Oxford, England, which Siemens expects to open in 2026, will produce technology for cutting the amount of helium required by MRI machines.
- Siemens said in the May 10 announcement that the facility will support 1,300 jobs, including the more than 600 people it currently employs in the area. The company has recently laid off diagnostic staff in the U.S. and Europe.
Dive Insight:
MRI machines use liquid helium to cool their superconducting magnets. Seeking to minimize the use of helium, a nonrenewable element prone to supply disruptions, Siemens spent years working to design a magnet that uses its own refrigerator to stay cool. The work led to the launch of an MRI machine that uses 0.7 liters of liquid helium, compared with as much as 1,500 liters for older technology.
The technology is central to Siemens’ plans in MRI. CEO Bernd Montag said in a May 7 earnings call that all the company’s MRI devices will be based on low-helium technology by 2030. The company is adding manufacturing capacity to support that ambition.
Near Oxford, Siemens has begun construction of a 56,000-square-meter facility that will design and manufacture superconducting magnets. The plant will ultimately replace an existing facility in the nearby village of Eynsham, which Siemens has said exports around 95% of the magnets it makes.
Oxford Instruments, which created the first superconducting whole body MRI magnet, set up a site in the village in 1982. Siemens formed a magnet technology joint venture with Oxford Instruments and went on to buy its partner out.
The 600 workers at Eynsham will make a phased transition to the new Oxford site. Siemens estimates it will finish the transition by 2030, subject to demand for products from the site.
Like Siemens’ other new sites in Forchheim, Germany, and Bangalore, India, the company has designed the Oxford facility to be operationally carbon-neutral. Siemens will adopt strategies to reduce its energy demand.
