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INTRODUCTION
In the late 1950's electron beam accelerators began to be.used at Ford
Motor Company for the curing of coatings. These systems were generally, of
voltages in the range from 300 kV (kilovolts) to 800 kV and were scanned or
swept beams. In the 1960's, such scanning electron beam accelerators were
applied to crossliaking film, crosslinking wire insulation, and crosslinking
heat shrinkable tubing. Generally, these EB systems had product
configurations which attempted to utilize efficiently all of the energy in.
the electron beam. Nevertheless, because such high energies were used,
there was typically some energy in the beam wasted and in some applications
indiscriminate heating, for example of a wire'conductor, was undesirable.
At the time there were no electron beam systems treating products in air
that were at energies below 500 keV.
It was recognized that a lower energy electron beam system could have a
much higher percentage of energy transfer from the accelerator to the actual
product. Moreover, operating an accelerator at a lower voltage allows for a
more compact system and, typically, can be expected to yield. higher
reliability. In 1970, Energy Sciences began to design lower energy electron
beam systems that would operate at 300 kV or below, typically down to about
165 kV. . These systems.were able to be selfshielded, indicating that they
needed no additional biological shield or vault external to the system.
They therefore could be conveniently placed in line and could be used in
almost any continuous processing operation whether for webs, filamentary
products, large rigid products or small samples.
