High performance electron processing systems

Many of the processes of immediate interest for commercial electron curing require large, single pass doses at high speed. The machine designer is faced with some practical upper limits to the dose rate (or electron current density) which can be used efficiently by the chemistry being initiated in the product. In addition, he must pay attention to the temperature excursions in the product due to the relatively low glass transition temperatures or softening temperatures in the substrates of interest. A new family of processors is described capable of delivering up to one megarad at 1500 meters per minute (typically 10 megarads at 150 m/minute). Product temperature excursions are controlled by the use of a shielded drum located within the processor. Considerations of the real time diagnosis and control of these processors in production application are discussed, along with typical uniformity and penetration performance in the product. (author)