Nicholas Reina, son of Leo Reina (current president and CEO of Reina Imaging), gives us his behind-the-scenes story on the evolution of Reina’s company brand – from his earliest memories of sitting on a workbench near his father cleaning analog cassettes he had repaired (and the frequent trips to Chicagoland-area hospitals to repair cassettes), to the creation of Reina’s innovative line of Mobile DR Panel Holders, read on to learn how Reina became the company it is today.

From Nicholas Reina:

“My father, Leo Reina, started and ran a one-man business out of the basement of his house in a small, Northern Illinois town called Fox River Grove. At that time he (appropriately) named the company X-Ray Cassette Repair Company, Inc.

He quickly grew his reputation as a reliable, creative and a hardworking individual who his customers could trust with his unrelenting drive to get the job done quickly and correctly. This spurred company growth, and the company became the go-to repair shop for X-ray cassettes.

The long hours of work began to pay off, so Leo expanded the company. This pattern continued through the nineties, and the product offerings grew with it. The company became the largest reseller of anti-scatter grids in North America during that time.

X-Ray Cassette Repair Company, Inc., had morphed into the ‘grid guys’.”

Product Offering Evolution – How We Became the ‘Grid Guys’

In the early nineties, the employees at Reina Imaging (at that time the company was called X-Ray Cassette Repair Company, Inc.) branded themselves as the experts on a product line that most people know little about – anti-scatter grids.

Grids are an integral part of the imaging chain, and there are very few people who understand the intricacies that impact their performance.

Choosing the right anti-scatter grid can be daunting to say the least. With that in mind, here’s a little background about anti-scatter grids (for those who are not involved in diagnostic imaging).

Anti-scatter grids are in the simplest terms a filter. They filter scatter, or secondary, radiation. When X-ray photons interact with matter, some of the photons will go in unpredictable directions. This can cause a blurred or undesirable image.

Anti-scatter grids, comprised of thin strips of lead with an interspaced material, absorb scatter radiation – so only the wanted X-ray photons can pass through, eventually being visualized on the final image – thus creating a radiograph with more detail and contrast.

As the industry itself seemed to be rebranding, we felt it was time for a new company name, too. X-Ray Cassette Repair Company, Inc. became Reina Imaging – we had officially become the ‘grid guys’.

Where We Are Today

As the radiographic industry continues to evolve, so too does Reina Imaging. With the advent of digital radiography, we morphed yet again.

Flat panel detectors (FPDs), the most commonly used and newest imaging receptors on the market, are heavy and expensive. Reina now designs and manufactures custom protective devices for FPDs to offer protection for these capital investments.

Today, our company name is still Reina Imaging, but we have adjusted our focus and are evolving into the ‘protection people’.

Whether it is evidenced through our Weight Distribution Cap or the Mobile DR Panel Positioning Partner, through our products and our brand we continue to innovate and change with the times, providing the industry with user-friendly solutions that make radiography departments more efficient, increasing profits and improving healthcare across the board.

Regardless if you have known us as the ‘repair guys’, the ‘grid guys’ or the ‘protection people’ – we look forward to serving you as best we can.