The success encountered by E-beam Sterilization over the past years comes from the very competitive cost per unit sterilized. E-beam also allows sterilizing without using chemical poisons and is fully powered by electricity not requiring managing dangerous radioactive sources.
Much more penetrating, X-rays are very similar to Gamma rays generated from Cobalt with the difference that X-ray's are generated by a machine powered by electricity. X-ray sterilization isn't as fast as E-beam processes but X-rays penetrate much more deeply in the products to be treated, even more than Gamma rays. this allows medical devices to be sterilized on their original pallets packaging.
Giving wire and cable insulation more strength and resistance thanks to electron beam crosslinking is one of the most well established industrial use of E-beam processing. Product improvement obtained by irradiation includes increased tolerance to high temperature environments and overloaded conductors, increased abrasion resistance and tensile strength, reduction in cold flows, increased resistance to solvents and corrosive chemicals as well as some other important characteristics.
Taking advantage of a memory-effect imparted to the material through the use of electron beam processing, tubing, films and connectors are advantageously crosslinked. The crosslinking of a product induces elastomeric properties at specific temperature ranges and, in other temperature ranges (especially important when storage temperature plays a role), maintains its stability.
Electron beam accelerators are the heart of these large industries. Resulting product characteristics are far superior to those obtained with chemical crosslinking.
IBA's solution for Heat Shrinkable Products is the Dynamitron.
With the development of the capacity to provide low voltage electron beam systems(70-220keV), new applications in the field of aseptic filling have emerged.
The advantages are lower cost, smaller size and simpler shielding requirements allowing this material to be placed in production environment where health and regulatory agency approvals are required.
In the past and up to now, various decontamination techniques such as EtO, dry heat, autoclave, UV pulses, etc... have been used to ensure that microorganisms are inactivated. Unfortunately, these systems have disadvantages such as side effects or long cycle time.
thanks to low energy electrons, these accelerators are designed for surface decontamination. They barely penetrate the material thus preserving the mechanical features of the packaging as well as the contents.
Food safety is a worldwide issue affecting hundreds of millions of people who suffer from disease caused by contaminated food. The World Health Organisation (WHO) calls it "one of the most widespread health problems and an important cause of reduced economic productivity".
E-beam and X-ray irradiation are chemical free solutions to this safety issue protecting food from decay over long periods of time. Irradiation has also been determined to be the only process that can be applied to a large variety of food products without spoiling the quality, flavor appearance or consistency. Additionally, irradiation can reduce massive recalls of contaminated food resulting in severe industry economic loses.
While X-rays have long been used to take radiographic for inspection purposes, they were used mainly to outline the shapes of concealed objects. As these old methods were subjective and slow and revealed little information about what those objects were actually made of, only a small fraction of trans-border traffic was ever examined.
Recent national security initiatives are now targeting 100% inspection of border cargo at seaports, airports, and land crossing. The new objectives call for high throughputs and automated detection, the ability to locate concealed high Z materials, and demonstrate a greatly improved false-positive/false-negative rate. Additional capabilities may also include the ability to identify an object's specific elemental and isotopic composition, so as to reveal the presence of hidden explosives and drugs, or to discern between dangerous and benign isotopes. To achieve these goals many of the new inspection methods being realized, such as NRFI, require the use of IBA's Rhodotron.
Recent improvements in the "cold cracking" process requires relatively low levels of electron beam treatments to break long-chain hydrocarbons into smaller molecules and to reduce crude oil viscosity. In this manner, radiation processing can be used to improve the value and transportability of various grade of crude oil and oil reserves. Treatment facilities may be located at multiples point within an oil refinery or at collection centers close to where the crude is extracted.
As the world's crude oil supply rebalances, the process will dramatically improve the efficiency and costs of heavy crude and residual refining, and make viable the use of untapped reserves such as those found in tar-sands. Ongoing research in the field is also geared to using the cold cracking technique to assist in the desulfurization and recycling of some oil supplies.
Cutting silicon wafers from the ingot by proton irradiation makes the manufacturing process two to five times more efficient.
Some traditional uses of metals in vehicle components and vehicle manufacturing, such as steel or aluminum, can be replaced by carbonfiber composites so as to obtain significant weight loss while maintaining structural integrity.
A typical steel auto body weighing 750 kilos would weigh only 155 kilos if replaced with carbon-fiber composites. Structural parts, such as the vehicle chassis, could also be manufactured with carbon-fiber composites. With only 20% of the initial weight, smaller, lower horse-power and more fuel efficient engines could be used to power such vehicles. Commercial aircraft manufacturers that have adopted carbon-fiber structures instead of aluminum estimate a 20% savings in fuel costs for large planes. These are still made with conventional material engines, tires, interiors and the like. A fuel efficient car now running at 10 kilometers/liter would more than double its fuel efficiency given the nearly 80% weight savings attained by using carbon-fiber composites just for the vehicle body. As with aircraft, conventional systems for propulsion (motors), braking, tires and interiors could still be used.
Radiation curing can simplify the manufacture of carbon-fiber composite vehicle components. Highly penetrating X-rays derived from high current, high energy electron beam (EB) accelerators can be used to cure structural composites while they are constrained within inexpensive molds; thus reducing cure cycles, eliminating heat transfer concerns and concerns over potentially hazardous emissions during the curing process. Since X-rays can penetrate mold walls, the curing process is quite versatile, enabling diverse components with varying designs to be cured using a common X-ray source or multiple parts of the same design could be cured at once.
Large quantities of mail were quarantined as soon as the anthrax attack was identified in September 2001
This mail was sanitized with ionizing energy in the form of accelerated electron beams or X-rays. All mail addressed to government offices in Washington, D.C. were sanitized with this method as a precautionary measure. This process is still ongoing.
Other methods of sanitizing the mail were considered and rejected by the USPS.
The thickness of material that can be treated from opposite sides is equivalent to a bundle of about 90 envelopes, each one containing three sheets of paper folded into nine layers, or about 1,200 sheets of typical copy paper. Bundles of flat mail, such as magazines, brochures and reports, can be sanitized with energetic electron beams.
Electron beams breakdown complex organic molecules into simpler and less harmful chemicals. In addition, the technology can be used to breakdown other airborne compounds and improve air quality.
E-beam can be used for elimination of harmful organic chemicals such as nitrogen and sulfur oxides (NOx and SOx) from exhaust and flue gases. It is an excellent choice for destruction of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Electron beam treatment is also an effective means of disinfecting drinking water, waste water, sewage, and sludge.
Improving the color of glass and gemstones.
The tire industry has found that electron beam crosslinking of rubber sheets used in the tire-making process improves the manufacturability of tires by adjusting the tack and allowing other improvements which reduce total manufacturing costs.
Automobile tire tread sections are irradiated to obtain partial crosslinking before the tire is assembled. This stabilizes their thickness during the final thermal curing process. It also prevents the steel belt from migrating through its supporting rubber layer. The result is a higher quality tire with more uniform thickness and better balance. This allows the tire to be made thinner tire also generates less frictional heating on the road.
IBA's solution for Tires is the Dynamitron.
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