GE HealthCare (GEHC) has unveiled Freelium, a next-generation sealed magnet platform for MRI scanners at ECR 2025 in Vienna.
With helium permanently enclosed in the magnet, the platform enables imaging with less than 1% of helium used in conventional magnet technology, GEHC said. This helps support the company’s diagnostic accuracy and sustainability goals, it noted.
To maintain power efficiency, Freelium can operate with no additional cooling and power requirements, while the platform’s intelligent sensor technology can remotely monitor the MR system and enable automated magnet protection and recovery capability without the need for field engineer intervention, GEHC said. In addition, Freelium magnets will be able to be transported and installed in hospitals and in markets where access to helium is limited and without significant helium loss during transport, the company said.
Freelium marks the evolution of GEHC’s established lightweight intelligent platform magnet technology, which was first introduced in 2020 and now boasts over 2,000 installations worldwide at 1.5-tesla and 3-tesla magnetic fields, GEHC noted.