Practical application of electron beam accelerator in ship building

Various rubbers such as styrene butadiene, nitrile, and chloroprene rubber are used in sound and vibration damping in shipbuilding. In a typical application vulcanised SBR of 51 mm thick tile is glued on to ABA steel structure using epoxy putty. Earlier acid etching of rubber surface was used conventionally to improve the adhesion strength between rubber and metal. In present technology Electron beam accelerator is used for grafting of polyester on to rubber surface to enhance the adhesion properties of rubbers. The EB accelerator is a high voltage accelerator, which generates electron beam of 700 keV energy at maximum current of 10 mA and scan the electron beam over a width of 1000 mm. (author)