Bence builds a screen
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• Bodybuilder W W Bence, has just built its first mobile breast-screening unit for South Manchester Health Authority.
The £100,000 unit is designed to offer women over 50 medical screening facilities close to home.
The 10-tonne GVW rig has a 9.1m articulated trailer fitted with X-ray equipment, a darkroom, a changing room for patients, rest rooms, waiting rooms and an office.
A translucent roof has been installed to provide constant daylight. Air conditoning units keep the vehicle to a constant temperature and 180-litre tanks supply hot and cold water. The trailer's interior walls are insulated against radiation.
Bence took three weeks to design the vehicle and just over a month to build it. The unit is expected to provide breast screening for up to 40,000 women a year, visiting nine different treatment sites in the Manchester area.
The unit is one of a series of mammography vehcles about to take to the road natonwide, as part of a major new government health initiative.