An MRI magnet is one of the heaviest single pieces a Chicago hospital will ever bring through its doors — and it has to arrive without a scratch, inside a building that never closes. We plan the route, rig the magnet and its components, and set them for the OEM's install team across the Chicago metro.
Quick answer: Badass Logistics provides MRI & medical equipment rigging in Chicago, IL and the surrounding metro. We rig MRI magnets, CT, PET/CT, cath lab, and linac components into and out of hospitals and imaging centers — on planned routes, with tilt and shock monitoring, sequenced around the OEM's install team. Our crews work across Chicago and nearby Illinois metros, and moves between facilities run as project freight under the same plan — usually quoted the same day. Call (307) 284-1332.
Imaging equipment does not move like freight. A magnet has strict tilt and shock limits, a CT gantry carries delicate rotating components, and the route runs through corridors, elevators, and floors that were built for patients. In Chicago's hospitals and imaging centers, the move is also planned around infection control and a schedule that keeps clinical areas open.
Badass Logistics plans the route from the truck to the suite — rated elevator, wall or knockout opening, or a crane pick to an upper floor — and checks floor loading at every stage. Magnet ramp-down, cryogens, and calibration stay with the OEM; we rig and set what they hand us, with monitoring recorded throughout. How to move an MRI machine →
Chicago's imaging work is anchored by its health systems — Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush University Medical Center, and UChicago Medicine — and by the outpatient imaging centers that ring them. Each of them replaces scanners on a cycle, and each replacement means a magnet out, a magnet in, and a suite that has to reopen on a date.
Chicago, IL runs on heavy manufacturing & the nation's rail hub, and almost none of it stays put. Same crews and the same MRI and medical equipment rigging standards across the region:
Hospital imaging departments, outpatient imaging centers, and cancer centers across Chicago replace equipment on a steady cycle. The equipment we rig for them includes:
The buildings set the route. Loop and Streeterville high-rises, the Illinois Medical District and university campuses, and O'Hare and Midway airports carry some of the largest central plants in the country, and an imaging suite in any of them can sit on an upper floor, in a basement, or behind a corridor that was never built for a magnet.
Magnets rigged in, out, and between suites with tilt and shock monitoring across the Chicago metro.
Gantries, tables, and cabinets moved and set for the install team across the Chicago metro.
C-arms, ceiling mounts, and components handled as one sequenced job across the Chicago metro.
Linac components rigged into vaults on planned routes across the Chicago metro.
Plenty of Chicago jobs start and finish on one floor. The rest have to travel — to a new building across the metro, a sister plant down I-55, I-80, I-90 and I-94, or a facility in another state. We don't hand that part off. It runs as project freight inside the same plan: machines crated or prepped on site, loads sequenced to the rig-out, transport through our licensed broker and carrier partners with dedicated capacity for bigger moves, and our crew waiting at the destination to set it.
Research imaging adds a second kind of job. University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Argonne National Laboratory run scanners and instruments outside the clinical schedule, often in older research buildings where the route has to be engineered around floors that were never rated for a magnet.
Every MRI & medical equipment rigging job in Chicago, IL is quoted from the actual work, not a rate sheet. These are the things that move the number — send them with your request and you'll get a real quote back fast:
Photos of the equipment, its nameplate, and the path out of the building save a site visit on smaller Chicago jobs. For bigger moves we walk both sites before we price anything.
The same Chicago crews handle every kind of industrial rigging. If your job looks more like one of these, start here:
Running a trucking fleet out of Chicago? See truck dispatch for fleets of 4+ trucks.
Working throughout Chicago, IL and the surrounding metro — backed by a nationwide network of 88 locations when a move crosses state lines.
MRI & Medical Equipment Rigging throughout Chicago and the industrial suburbs around it — the towns below are where the plants, shops and distribution parks actually sit:
| Town | County | From downtown |
|---|---|---|
| Joliet | Will County | 32 mi |
| Aurora | Kane County | 35 mi |
| Naperville | DuPage County | 26 mi |
| Elgin | Kane County | 35 mi |
| Cicero | Cook County | 5 mi |
| Gary, IN | Lake County | 24 mi |
| Hammond, IN | Lake County | 20 mi |
| Bolingbrook | Will County | 24 mi |
| Bedford Park | Cook County | 10 mi |
| Romeoville | Will County | 27 mi |
| Elk Grove Village | Cook County | 20 mi |
| Waukegan | Lake County | 37 mi |
| Arlington Heights | Cook County | 24 mi |
| Evanston | Cook County | 13 mi |
| Schaumburg | Cook County | 26 mi |
| Palatine | Cook County | 27 mi |
| Skokie | Cook County | 13 mi |
| Des Plaines | Cook County | 17 mi |
| Orland Park | Cook County | 19 mi |
| Tinley Park | Cook County | 20 mi |
| Oak Lawn | Cook County | 11 mi |
| Berwyn | Cook County | 7 mi |
| Mount Prospect | Cook County | 21 mi |
| Wheaton | DuPage County | 24 mi |
Moving across the metro or out of state? See all our Chicago services or get a quote.
Most Chicago jobs don't stop at one service. The crew that rigs a machine out is the crew that manages the move and sets it back down — so you're dealing with one company from the disconnect to the re-level, not three subcontractors pointing at each other.
Machine has to come off the floor, through the door, or onto a pad before it travels? That's the rigging side of the same Chicago crew.
Chicago riggers →Presses, compressors, generators, full production lines — disconnected, rigged, hauled, and re-leveled across Chicago as one accountable job.
Chicago machinery moving company →Machine tools are instruments, not freight. VMCs, lathes, and grinders moved on air-ride and squared back to the builder's spec in Chicago.
Chicago CNC movers →Moving the whole floor instead of one machine? Phased teardown, sequenced loads, and reinstallation planning for Chicago plants.
plant relocation in Chicago →In Chicago we also run riggers, machinery movers, CNC movers, and plant relocation, plus project freight for the jobs we rig — or see every service we offer in Chicago.
The same Chicago crew also handles millwright services, machinery removal, crane and rigging services, and machinery loading and unloading.
Specialty rigging in Chicago: heavy lift rigging, chiller and HVAC rigging, transformer and generator rigging, lab equipment moving, printing press moving, and data center rigging.
Tell us what's moving and where. We'll route the nearest crew and quote it fast.
Get a Chicago MRI Rigging Quote