ALLURTRON Plant
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Next is a visit to ALLURTRON Plant which is an electron beam processing facility. At ALLUTRON, electron beam irradiations are used to treat finished products such as tubes, wires and cable. Currently the facility is servicing commercial automotive wire and heat shrinkable tube manufactures to crosslink their products using electron beam. Electron beam could also be used for sterilization purposes. At commercial level, sago hydrogel based products such as facial mask, wound dressing and “cool-fever” patch are irradiated for simultaneous sterilization and cross linking. The finished products will have better physical properties compared to those crosslinked by conventional chemical method. We also briefed about how the electron beam machines operates.
Alurtron operated with 3 electron beam machines which are the EPS-3000 electron beam machine is provides fast irradiation processing with a high efficiency, high uniformity and good control. Next is ELV 4 is a low voltage electron beam machine with the energy up till 1.0 MeV. It was installed to complement irradiation services provided by the EPS, specifically for products with low energy requirement. The ELV 4 is a transformer type, direct accelerator, while the EPS-3000 is of Cockroft-Walton type.The Curetron on the other hand is specially used for R&D in surface curing and modification.
The potential products are sterilizable medical grade PVC compounds, sterilizing medical products, disinfecting consumer products, pasteurizing and preserving foods, treatment of flue gases, treating waste water, modifying semiconductors and colouring gemstones.
There are many advantages of electron beam Irradiation which the finished products have better physical properties compared to those crosslinked by conventional chemical method. E-beam crosslinking also does not require any additives, nor does it generate hazardous chemical by-products. This method is energy efficient, and the minimal amount of exposure time. Throughput is higher with low operating costs.
The electron beam treatment is an effective and environment-friendly approach of disinfecting drinking water, sewage, and sludge. Besides decolorize the water, EB process is also used to change non-biodegradable to biodegradable. Last but not least, Alurtron provides irradiation services for research and commercial product. Researchers are welcome to use the facility at Nuclear Malaysia.