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| Symbol | Last | Change | Opening |
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| ^NZ50 | 3,332.77 | 0.00 (0.00%) | 3,332.56 |
11 °C04:32
| Symbol | Last | Change | Opening |
|---|---|---|---|
| ^NZ50 | 3,332.77 | 0.00 (0.00%) | 3,332.56 |
There are two fundamental properties of all electron beam accelerators: the electron energy and the beam current. Since electrons have mass and electrical charge, their penetration into materials is limited by their energy and by the mass and density of the target material.
The intensity or degree of exposure to electrons is called the absorbed dose, which is characterized in the System International (SI) as the gray or as commonly used in industrial processing, the kilogray (kGy) where 1 kGy = 1 J/g absorbed energy per mass.
Over the decades of industrial use, key market segments such as Surface Curing, Shrink Film, Wire & Cable and Sterilization have found reliable industrial accelerators suited for their requirements.
Given an overlap of tail ends of the depth-dose penetration, two sided electron beam exposure results in an effective 2.4 multiple of the Electron Beam penetration itself. Thus, fairly large, low bulk density packages can be irradiated if the item is turned over during processing.
High beam current is what distinguishes industrial electron beam accelerators from equipment that is commonly used solely for research purposes. Most industrial accelerators have beam currents in the tens of milliampere range (>10 mA). High beam currents are required in industry because product through-put rates are proportional to beam current.
Since material through-put is dependent upon beam current and beam power, one can see why industry prefers to use high beam current and high power accelerators. High beam currents also imply very high dose rates. Industrial electron beam dose rates are in the order of 100 kGy/second or 360,000 kGy/hour. This is five orders of magnitude greater than the dose rates from cobalt-60 gamma-ray sources, which are ~10 kGy/hour or 2.8 × 10-3 kGy/second.
The development of high-energy electron accelerators with very high-power electron beams has made X-ray processing a practical alternative to gamma-ray processing for applications, such as the sterilization of packaged medical devices and the preservation of foods, which require greater penetration than can be provided by energetic electron beams. The feasibility of radiation processing with high-energy X-rays has been demonstrated in various industrial facilities in several countries.
Recent comparisons have shown that the capital costs and electric power costs for accelerators with electron energies of 5.0 MeV to 7.0 MeV can be lower than the capital costs and source replenishment costs for cobalt-60 source loadings greater than 2.0 MCi. The capability to turn the radiation source on and off and to control the X-ray intensity are attractive features of an accelerator facility.
When an accelerated electron impinges upon any material it generates X-radiation or X-rays. Characteristic mono-energetic X-ray photons are produced by the electron interaction with orbital electrons; bremsstrahlung photons are produced by the interaction with the nucleus of an atom. High energy bremsstrahlung X-rays are a penetrating form of ionizing radiation. Such X-ray intensities from high power, high energy industrial X-ray generators exceed by far those of common medical X-ray equipment.
X-rays are produced by interposing a metal target between the electron beam and the product to be treated. To enhance electron-to-photon conversion, these X-ray targets are made of high atomic number (high Z) metals. Water cooled tantalum is preferred for large area targets.
X-radiation has a forward peaked emission and the rate at which a material receives X-radiation photons, the dose-rate, can be controlled by a combination of the distance from the target, the beam current and under-beam transport speed.
The forward peaked emission of X-rays is significantly different from the panoramic emission of gamma-ray sources. This property facilitates the treatment of single pallet loads of product. X-ray penetration is much greater than E-Beam systems and is even better than gamma ray penetration. X-ray dose-rates are at least one order of magnitude higher than gamma rays, but significantly less than EB.
The advantages of X-ray processing for industrial applications are thus:
•Controllable dose-rates, which can facilitate monomer polymerization.
•Not a thermal process, which eliminates adverse effects on materials due to heat.
Electron beam crosslinked wire and cable insulation presents several favorable properties. Electron beam crosslinking protects wire and cable insulation from the heat of soldering, short-circuits or at high-temperatures in places such as near the engine or exhaust pipe of an automobile. Tensile strength, especially at elevated temperatures, is increased as are abrasion resistance, stress crack resistance and solvent resistance.
Easy-e-Beam : The Wire & Cable E-Beam Crosslinking Solution
Easy-e-Beam™ integrated system is based on the proven industrial reliability of the Dynamitron® accelerator. It handles cables up to 30 mm², reaches a line speed of up to 1000 m/min and can be installed almost anywhere in a facility thanks to its self shielding.
Thanks to its unique self-contained concept, Easy-e-Beam™ ™ integrates in one unique system the E-beam accelerator and the wire handling system, both of them being managed by a single PLC-based Control System.
Wires and cables that are wound on reels are fed into the Easy-e-Beam™ ™ and then, after electron beam treatment, are rewound onto take-up reels. Easy-e-Beam™ ™ can handle up to 30 mm² of cable and reach a line speed of up to 1000 m/min.
Food irradiation is a process by which foodstuffs are exposed to a controlled amount of ionizing radiation so as to kill harmful bacteria like E. coli, Campylo-bacter & Salmonella. It can also delay fruit ripening and help prevent vegetables, such as potatoes and onions, from sprouting. And with some food, such as spices that are dried in the sun, irradiation kills bacteria without changing their flavor, aroma or color.
Pathogenic microorganisms cause millions of infections and thousands of hospitalizations every year. Irradiation will reduce, and in some circumstances eliminate, pathogenic microorganisms. Treating products at the maximum safe dose of irradiation set by regulations could result in a significant reduction or even the elimination of certain pathogens.
Today, health and safety authorities in over 40 countries have approved irradiation of over 60 different foods, including grains, chicken, beef, fruits, vegetables - and spices. The FDA has evaluated the safety of this technology over the last 40 years.
E-Beam and X-ray food treatment
E-Beams have been successfully used to combat threats from foodborne diseases, control pest infestation of grains and extend the shelf life of products.
X-rays are the latest technology introduced together with the development of high power Electron beam accelerators. Thanks to their high penetrating properties, X-rays can pass through thick food and allow treatment plants to be designed for pallet treatment.
X-rays for food
IBA’s X-ray solution for Food treatment, eXelis® Food, is an excellent alternative for Food Sanitary and Phytosanitary applications. It is fully powered by electricity, which avoids the contact of any harmful chemicals with the environment and the human body.
X-rays also offers the possibility to treat food on pallet, reducing the facility labor requirements.
E-beam for food
Electron beam for food treatment is a well established process today. Recent studies even suggests that E-beam food treaments are much more effective than Gamma treatments, as viruses are sensitive to E-beam radiations at a significantly lower level than with Cobalt 60.
Medical devices
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.
Food
Food safety is a worldwide issue affecting hundreds of millions of people who suffer from disease caused by contaminated food. The World Health Organization (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.
Curing of Composites for Vehicle
Curing of Composites for Vehicle Components
Some traditional uses of metals in vehicle components and vehicle manufacturing, such as steel or aluminum, can be replaced by carbon-fiber 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 intial 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 in lieu 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 auto 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.
Tires
The tire industry has found that electron beam cross-linking 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 cross-linking 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 to save material and reduce cost. A thinner tire also generates less frictional heating on the road.
IBA’s solution for Tires is the Dynamitron.
Cable and wires
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 flow, increased resistance to solvents and corrosive chemicals as well as some other important characteristics.
Cargo Inspection
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 crossings. 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.
Mail Sanitization
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.
Heat Shrinkable Products
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 at 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.
Environment and Waste
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.
Surface Decontamination
With the development of the capacity to provide low voltage electron beam systems (70-220 keV), 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.
Glass and Gemstones
Improving the color of glass and gemstones.
Efficient and electrically powered
A very diverse range of medical devices are today sterilized using E-beam processing. The selection between E-beam and X-ray as your sterilization technology will depend on two key criteria: product density and product packaging. Low and medium density products packaged in cardboard boxes are ideally treated with E-beam. X-rays are a viable alternative to radioactive gamma-ray sources for sterilization of high density products or products packaged on pallets.
E-beam Sterilization
Low and Medium Density Products Packaged in Boxes
Many packaged medical devices have a low bulk density: electron penetration is therefore appropriate. If need be, packages can be irradiated from two sides, thereby increasing the beam penetration. The success encountered by E-beam over the past years is due to the very competitive sterilization price per unit. E-beam also answers to an industry key concern which is to sterilize without using chemical poisons and without dangerous radioactive sources.
Combining high-power and high energy, IBA's Rhodotron is unique amongst E-beam accelerators. The Rhodotron is available in a wide range of power levels. The Rhodotron can provide one or several beam outputs from 2 to 10 MeV and power ranging from 35kW to 700 kW. IBA also provides a team of sterilization system experts so as to help you find your way in the Sterilization options.
E-beam Center (MAKE A LINK TO THE PAGE “Rhodotron Sterilization Solution”)
X-ray Sterilization
Medium and High Density Products Packaged on Pallets.
When products are too dense for E-beam, or if medical devices are packaged on pallets, X-ray Sterilization is the solution. Much more penetrating than E-beam, X-ray is very similar to Gamma rays generated from Cobalt with the key difference that X-ray´s are powered by electricity. This allows medical devices to be sterilized on their original packaging pallets.
eXelis® Sterilization is the X-ray Sterilization solution for Medical devices. X-ray sterilization with eXelis is the ideal alternative to Gamma for Medical Device Manufacturers. X-rays offer better dose uniformity, faster product turn-over time and do not require complex transport management of radioactive sources.
The Reference of Electron Beam Accelerators
The strengths of the Dynamitron® are its ruggedness & reliability together with its adaptability.
Operating conditions, such as electron energy, beam power, conveyor speed and dose, can all be changed quickly for different applications.
The adaptability of the Dynamitron® makes it the perfect solution for both flexible, multi-product processing environments and for specialized applications.
It is powerful and tunable in energy for applications such as crosslinking, and extremely accurate and tunable in current for applications such as silicon wafer processing.
| 550 kV | 70/100/160 mA |
| 800 kV | 70/100/160 mA |
| 1000 kV | 60/100 mA |
| 1500 kV | 40/65mA |
| 3000 kV | 50/75 mA |
| 5000 kV | 30/50 mA |
Accelerators, such as the Dynamitron®, work on the same principle as a television tube. Electrons are generated by a heated filament which forms the electron gun. A voltage gradient draws the electrons away from the gun and accelerates them through the vacuum tube. As the high voltage beam of electrons passes from the beam tube and through the scan magnet, an oscillating magnetic field sweeps the beam back and forth across the scan window.
A television operates at about 25 kV, which is enough to generate images from the electrons striking the fluorescent screen of the picture tube. The voltage of the Dynamitron®, however, ranges from 500kV to 5 MeV which is high enough to accelerate the electrons through the metal foil of the scan window and irradiate product passing beneath. Electrons accelerated under a voltage of 5 MeV are traveling at approximately 99.6% of the speed of light, or nearly 300,000 km/sec, when they enter the scan window.
Beam current is an indication of the number of electrons being accelerated. In a television set, beam current is in the order of several microamps. In a Dynamitron®, the beam current is a thousand times higher. It is interesting to note that 1 mA of beam current represents about 6 million billion electron particles every second.
Where the objective of a television is to create a picture, a Dynamitron® bundles electrons into a 3 to 5 cm diameter beam to irradiate industrial products. The enormous number of electrons and the high acceleration voltage produces rapid reactions by operating directly on the molecules within the product. This produces an efficiency that is outstanding when compared to other methods such as heat, light, and chemical reagents.
Sterilization of Medical Devices
Cable and Wire crosslinking
Heat Shrinkable Products
Food, Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Surface decontamination
Petroleum upgrading
Solar
Composite Curing
Environment and waste
Glass and gemstone
Tires
The Rhodotron is in commercial use since the late 1990’s and has proven its very high uptime. Its advanced control system includes not only extended troubleshooting possibilities and a remote access but also a customized maintenance planning.
The Rhodotron is the only machine able to combine High Energy and very High Power. Flexibility is also one of its key words since Multiple Beamlines make possible the use of the same Rhodotron for both E-Beam and X-ray.
The IBA Rhodotron is available in several configurations.
The new Rhodotron® TT100 is a very cost effective E-beam solution ideally suited for customers with medium production volumes. The TT100 delivers up to 45kW giving customers the possibility to build medium throughput sterilization facilities processing an average of 80 000 m³ of sterilized medical devices per year.
The Rhodotron TT200 is the typical solution for medium to large E-Beam sterilization centers. With 80kW of power, the average yearly throughput of Sterilized Medical Devices is 135.000 m³. The TT200 can also be upgraded to the TT300 allowing you to meet your future growth requirements.
The Rhodotron TT300 is suited for very large sterilization centers handling up to 250.000 m³ of sterilized medical devices per year.
These very high power Rhodotrons (respectively 290 kW and 700kW) are specifically designed for X-Ray treatment.
The Rhodtron® can be supplied with numerous configurations each having a specific use or advantage linked to a customer's request or needs. A non exhaustive list of these possible options can be found below.
Multiple energies
Multiple beam lines rated at different energies can be extracted from a single RhodotronR. IBA Industrial has already fitted up to 3 different beam lines / energies on to one single Rhodotron®.
270° bending magnet
The 270° bending magnet bends the beam by 90° (down or up) in order to allow vertical beam irradiation on the conveyor while the Rhodtron® can be placed at another level. Only the Rhodtron® has the capability of properly bending its beam thanks to its very low beam energy spread (compared to DC accelerators).
Pseudo parallel beam
The Rhodotron® can be supplied with a scan horn system that delivers a scanned but non-diverging (parallel ray) beam.
Offset beam
The Rhodotron® can be supplied with an adjustable off-set of the center of the scan. For certain facility configurations using a horizontal beam to irradiate products passing beside (not under) the beam, this is a major advantage. When processing horizontally, the base of the product carrier is usually fixed, and thus to treat products in that position on the carrier, the beam has to be scanned at the maximum setting. If the full height of the carrier is not used, then empty space has to be irradiated. By reducing the scan setting and then off-setting the center of the scan downwards, there is no need to waste beam in empty space.
X-Ray target
Tantalum X-Ray targets can be adapted to the scanning horns. These are supplied with a specific cooling device and are designed in compliance with the working conditions linked to the customer's specific application.
Rhodotron cavities are shaped as a coaxial line shortened at both ends and resonating at 107.5 MHz or 215 MHz. The beam crosses the cavity in the median plane through successive diameters. External window-frame magnets are used to bend back the electrons emerging from the cavity and to redirect them toward the cavity centre.
A high power RF system using a tetrode produces the electric field allowing an energy gain of 0.833 or 1 MeV per crossing. Ten or twelve crossings of the cavity (which means nine or eleven bending magnets) are required in order to obtain 10 MeV electron beams.
The cavity diameters of both the TT200 and TT300 is 2 meters. In these conditions, energy gain is 1 MeV per crossing. In these Rhodotron models, five and ten successive crossings are therefore needed to obtain respectively 5 and 10 MeV at the exit of the Rhodotron. A smaller cavity (diameter of 1 meter) was selected for the TT100 Rhodotron 10 MeV / 35 kW guaranteed power in order to have a very compact design. Energy gain of the TT100 is 833 keV per crossing. Therefore, 12 crossings are necessary to reach 10 MeV at the exit of this accelerator.
The electron gun is located at the outer wall of the accelerating cavity. In order to match the RF frequency (the electrons have to be injected into the cavity when the field is accelerating), the gun is pulsed at the RF frequency and the pulse width is equal to 60° of the RF period. Electrons are injected into the cavity at a voltage of about 35 - 40 kV. The use of the grid allows to modulate the emitted current.
The RF system consists of a voltage controlled oscillator followed by a chain of amplifiers.
The role of the deflection magnets is multiple: first, they are needed to send the electrons back into the cavity after each diameter crossing in order for them to undergo another accelerating cycle. The magnets also contribute to the focusing of the beam. It is possible to position a straight beam exit at each port, i.e. at energies of 1 to 10 MeV, in steps of 1 MeV.
Sterilization of Medical Devices
Cable and Wire crosslinking
Heat Shrinkable Products
Food, Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Surface decontamination
Petroleum upgrading
Solar
Composite Curing
Environment and waste
Glass and gemstone
Tires
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