209 Further developments in low, medium and high energy accelerator facilities for sterilisation, material modification and research including complex turnkey installations
Philippe FONTCUBERTA, Didier MORISSEAU: Linac Technologies SAS, 16 rue Nicolas Appert, 91400 ORSAY, France
E-Mail: info@linactechnologies.com
Abstract
The paper presents e-beam accelerator facilities from small in-line self-shielded units to medium power high energy industrial and research facilities and discusses latest developments to existing technology and the new systems which have been developed in the past few years.
A self-shielded sterilisation system using low energy electron beam has been installed on more than a dozen pharmaceutical production lines worldwide for surface sterilisation of products entering a filling line. The paper traces the evolution of this system from the first units installed in 2002 on production lines with isolators, through design updates on the e-beam accelerator, shield, software and conveyor to the latest design incorporating a ventilation / sterilization system enabling the sterilisation unit to be connected to an open aseptic zone, without an isolator.
A self-shielded sterilisation system using medium energy electron beam has been designed and built for core and/or terminal sterilisation of medical devices or components entering an aseptic zone.
A high energy high power accelerator is being installed in a Research Center. It is a powerful and reliable industrial radiation source which at the same time can meet a wide range of specific settings for academic research. It has an in-built flexibility which means that certain parameters can be varied in order to carry out research into irradiation treatment of food, in particular into dosimetry and process control aspects.
Thanks to its RF circuit based on the recirculation of the RF power, the accelerator produces a "selectable energy" beam with an energy of 5 MeV, 7.5 MeV or 10 MeV. Beam power is 5 kW with a potential for subsequent refit to 10 kW (obtained by changing a few components).
The installation is a turnkey project including the main ancillary equipment - treatment conveyor, water cooling system, ozone extraction and dosimetry - and the secondary ancillary equipment - electricity supply, lighting, security and fire detection systems, ventilation and air conditioning.
Key words : sterilisation tunnel, electron beam accelerator, in-line sterilisation system