Energy Sciences, Inc.

A review.A new generation of low cost electron beam dryers in the 80 to 110 kV range has been developed.Electrons accelerated at these low energies are suitable for curing photoinitiator-free inks, coatings and laminating adhesives up to 30 g/m².Some of the other advantages include more compact, less expensive equipment with higher processing speeds and lower power consumption.The advantages of EB curing, together with equipment design and capabilities at these low voltages, will be presented.

A real time radiation monitor (RTRM) has been developed for monitoring the dose rate (c.d.) of electron beam processors.The system provides continuous monitoring of processor output, electron beam uniformity, and an independent measure of operating voltage or electron energy.In view of the device's ability to replace labor-intensive dosimetry in verification of machine performance on a real-time basis, its application to providing archival performance data for in-line processing is discussed.

A review with 9 references on the industrial use of large width (approx. 2 m), high dose rate (1 megarad at 1500 m/min) electron beam machinery.Self-shielded machinery capable of up to 1000 mA of current at 300 kV is now in com. use, and the essential features of these designs are presented.A variety of product handling geometries for use with these accelerators has been developed for processes involving flexible web, rigid sheet, and three-dimensional objects in both the polymerization and sterilization applications.One of the major power-intensive processes to which these machines are currently applied is that of the reduction of pollutants (NO_x, SO₂, etc.) in the flue gas from fuel combustion, particularly those fossil fuels used in power productionThe preferred technique utilizes the treatment of the ammoniated gas at modest dose levels (0.5-2.0 megarads) to enhance the formation of ammonium salts which are then removed from the gas stream by conventional filtration.