All equipment leaving our shop, or being evaluated, must pass an Electrical Safety Test, as per manufacturers specifications.

This is a new section to our website. Over time we will be adding more hints and tips to help you improve your imaging equipment's performance and efficiency while reducing your cost of ownership. We provide this information because we like keeping our  customers informed as well as happy. Contact us for additional information, or for support and help with any of your imaging equipment care and maintenance questions. No pressure and never any obligation:

• please call our toll-free number 888 838 7488
• use our online quote form
• email us at sales@sentinelultrasound.com.

We also have a new medical equipment forum if you would like advice from out technical and sales staff.

• Tip #1.....Fluid infiltration: One of the more common issues we see in our probe repair facility, especially with the B&K probes, is fluid infiltration in the ultrasound probe connector box. Most often this is caused by an improper seal on the connector box cover, allowing fluid to enter the connector box during the disinfection and sterilization process. It sounds simple, but we have seen connector box leakage cause $1000's of damage to both ultrasound probes and ultrasound systems. If you are using B&K probes, make sure those connector box covers are tight before immersing them.  If you are using other brands of probes, the connector boxes should be kept dry and fluid free at all times. It is your responsibility to follow the Manufacturers' instructions for disinfection and sterilization to the letter.  Though we specialize in B&K probes, Sentinel Imaging provides fluid leakage inspection, testing and repair for all brands.  If you would like your probes inspected at no charge, contact us today. We also do a full image quality evaluation and electrical safety test during this free inspection process.

• Tip #2.....Keep your imaging equipment cool: Electronic components like to be cool. Digital electronic devices exhibit erratic behavior when components overheat. When your imaging equipment is operating, the sound you hear are the fans running,  keeping those circuits cool and happy. The more airflow, the better. As part of our PM procedure, Sentinel Imaging cleans all system air filters. The filters prevent dust and dirt from being pulled into your imaging equipment. In doing so, those filters collect dirt and dust particles and, over time, begin to restrict the amount of air available for cooling. Overheating can cause serious damage to your system, so keep those filters clean. Sentinel Imaging offers service contracts or PM only contracts that address this and many other routine maintenance issues. If you would like to clean these filters yourself and need more information, please do not hesitate to call.

• Tip #3.....Power failures, brown-outs and surges: Power outages and surges happen unexpectedly. They can cause serious component damage to your imaging equipment. Another issue caused is hard disk corruption. Your imaging systems are writing to its hard drive(s) more often than is noticed. These systems not only write to disk when saving studies but do house-keeping and various updates, even when it is running but not in use. If your system is writing to disk and a power failure occurs, it may only write out a portion of the data it was supposed too. This leads to disk corruption and may require service and possibly a software reinstall to correct. This leads to an unexpected repair bill and downtime of your imaging equipment. Sentinel Imaging recommends that customers protect their ultrasound systems with a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). These units are like a battery backup and keep your system running when the power goes out and protects against damaging surges. If you would like to purchase a UPS or simply need information on sizing a unit you are purchasing elsewhere, please do not hesitate to contact us.

• Tip #4.....System disks: In a lot of cases, we have seen the disks that are supplied with imaging equipment treated like the packing material that came with the system. In many cases your service provider can obtain the necessary disk if your system needs a reinstall but it some cases it may lead to less downtime if the correct disks are readily available for the technician. Keep those disks where you know you can easily retrieve them. Sometimes these disks can go bad, no matter how organized and careful you are. Sentinel Imaging can make backup copies of your important system disks. Contact us if you would like more  information about this service.

• Tip #5.....System backups: Besides those system disks, a repair technician may need to reinstall system settings and configuration files. These files are not updated, with your settings and information, on the original system disks. Your imaging equipment provides utilities to back up these files. If a technician needs to reinstall your system or your configuration file become corrupt, it is a lot quicker to recover this information from a backup rather than re-generating all your configurations and settings. To keep your system running consistently after disk problems, back up those files. If you would like to have your imaging systems backed up or need information on how to perform backups yourself, contact Sentinel Imaging today.

• Tip #6.....Electrical Safety Testing: Ultrasound systems and transducers work by utilizing electricity, sometimes high voltages. Every system has a grounding circuit that diverts electrical faults and leakage to an earth ground. If these circuits are faulty, electrical current can be dangerously diverted through the patient to ground. This is especially true with TEE probes, which are close to the heart. Every manufacturer has a recommended periodic testing interval. Sentinel Imaging provides Electrical Leakage Testing on ultrasound systems and transducers as part of our PM (Preventative Maintenance) procedures. We also test all equipment we sell and repair before it leaves our facility. We provide Electrical Safety Tests as part of our equipment evaluation services. If you would like your imaging equipment tested or would like more information, please give us a call. 

We hope these tips are helpful. More updates will be added soon so check this site often. Thank you...The Sentinel Imaging Group Team.

If you need service, visit our service and repair section.