Dear Karen,
I am a new startup company, and am trying to get my product validated for e-beam sterilization. How many samples do I need to send you for the material test? And, while we’re talking about material tests….what are they?
Sincerely,
Material Girl Read More
Although we may not recognize them for what they are, hydrogels are very useful and are becoming more and more common each day. We can find hydrogels in a wide variety of today’s products, from medical devices to contact lenses to your lunchtime Jell-O snackpack.
So, what exactly is a hydrogel? Read More
Are you looking for a tough material with high abrasion resistance? The e-beam process can greatly improve the abrasion resistance of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene.
Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene is also known as UHMWPE. It’s pretty cool stuff. As the name implies, it is polyethylene with really long chains. In fact, its molecular weight range is typically 100 times more than high density polyethylene (HDPE)! This makes it naturally more resistant to abrasion and impact than your typical polyethylenes. Read More
Dear Karen,
I have qualified my product for sterilization at a gamma facility, but am interested in transitioning to electron beam. I already know what dose my product needs for gamma sterilization. Is this dose going to be the same for e-beam sterilization?
Sincerely,
Max Dose (Name changed for privacy. And because I’m a sucker for puns.) Read More
With a show of hands, how many of you wear makeup on a daily basis? I myself never leave home (and actually rarely even walk around home by myself) without mascara and some form of gloss or lipstick. And in today’s world, a lot of us care a lot about what goes into our makeup. But how many of us think about what it takes to create quality packaging for our favorite blushes and contouring palettes? Read More
We’re celebrating this Throwback Thursday with some old school E-BEAM marketing! The graphics may be dated, but the facts presented are tried and true and still help many customers make great products to this day.
Today, we’re taking a look back at a piece (Crosslinked Thin-Wall Wire and Cable) that promises to demonstrate that “cross-linked thin-wall wire and cable products exhibit outstanding strength and environmental-resistant characteristics.”
Here at E-BEAM, we frequently use our high-energy electrons to crosslink jacketed wire and cable products. Why? Electrons crosslink the polymer molecules into a permanently altered 3D configuration that improves performance characteristics without changing the existing dimensional properties. Crosslinking of the polymer jacket can enhance structural performance, such as improved temperature, chemical, stress, and abrasion resistance. These cables then can be used in the automotive, aerospace, and communications industries, to name a few.
E-beam crosslinking, unlike chemical crosslinking, does not limit jacketing materials, minimum wall thicknesses, or line speeds, and does not require the use of special equipment for hazardous chemicals or SDS documentation. Additionally, e-beam treated wire and cable products do not contain peroxide byproducts or unreacted residuals.
So what polymers are suitable for the jacketing crosslinking process? We have seen success with polymers like: PVC, ETFE, PVDF, polyolefin, EPDM, CPE, Hypalon, EVA, Neoprene rubber, and ethylene-propylene rubber.
Still have questions about your particular wire and cable product? Email us at ebeam@ebeamservice.com, or give us a call at 513-933-0031 for a free consultation with one of our Technical Services representatives!
This past Tuesday, E-BEAM Services partnered with BioOhio and NAMSA to present the first ever Regulatory Pathways and The Science of Sterilization forum.
The forum worked as a kind of Sterilization 101 class, with an introduction from BioOhio’s President and CEO, John Lewis, an overview from NAMSA’s Carla Weise of global regulatory pathways and tips for successful FDA submissions, a walk-through of the sterilization validation process by E-BEAM’s own Olivia Radcliffe and Dan Yasenchak, and a brief synopsis of the three major sterilization methods: ethylene oxide gas, gamma irradiation, and, of course, electron beam irradiation (the most distinguished and resplendent of the three, though I may be a tad biased… 🙂 ) by E-BEAM’s VP of Technology and Business Development, Bill Crilley. E-BEAM’s President and CEO, Paul Minbiole, served as Master of Ceremonies to help keep the day rolling smoothly.
After the presentations and lunch, the group migrated back to the E-BEAM Services facility in Lebanon for a quick tour of one of the electron accelerators in action, and visitors were gifted with a Lichtenberg figure paperweight made in-house.
Overall, the day was insightful to both attendees and their hosts, as questions about topics such as controlled substance sterilization and frozen processing led to in-depth discussions.
Want to be involved in E-BEAM’s next event? Just email Karen and we’ll make sure to send you a personalized invitation!
In Part 2, we irradiated three samples of LLDPE with the electron beam to impart long chain branching and we achieved the improvement in melt tension we were looking for.
In Part 3, we irradiated one of the samples with a higher dose to produce LCB (long chain branched) LLDPE with a melt tension measurement of 14 cN.
In the first demonstration, we extruded, as a control, 100% unirradiated LLDPE sample B into a slot die with a three stack chill roll take-away device. The neck-in was measured as an indication of the drawability of the material. Then we extruded a pellet/pellet blend of 20% LDPE and 80% unirradiated LLDPE. Finally we extruded a pellet/pellet blend of 20% LCB LLDPE and 80% unirradiated LLDPE sample B.
Not only did the 20% LCB LLDPE blend reduce neck-in significantly, it also eliminated the edge weave problem observed in the 100% unirradiated LLDPE.
In a second demonstration, again, as a control, we extruded 100% high flow PP and measured neck-in as described earlier. Then we extruded a pellet/pellet blend of 20% LDPE and 80% high flow polypropylene (PP). Finally, we extruded a pellet/pellet blend of 20% LCB LLDPE sample B and 80% high flow PP.
Conclusion:
LCB LLDPE can be used as a melt strength modifier in both PE blends and PP blends, and at the same time offer the improved properties and higher heat resistance of the LLDPE.
Hypothesis: long chain branching of LLDPEs can improve melt strength in terms of drawability.
We irradiated 3 LLDPE feedstocks with an electron beam and compared the properties of the 3 processed resins to a LDPE Control. The starting samples were:
Radiation Processing
We dosed the samples with a 150kW, 4.5 MeV electron beam accelerator. The electron beam irradiation initially breaks the polymer chains, creating free radicals that subsequently reform as long chain branches. Improvements in melt behavior are attributed to this branched structure.
Observations
We observed a decrease in melt index and an increase in melt tension as dose was increased. For LLDPE sample B, at dose level 3 the melt index and melt tension are equivalent to the LDPE Control. This indicates that the desirable melt strength properties of LDPE can be imparted into LLDPE.
In Part 3 of this study we will blend these dosed samples with polyethylene to increase the properties of the alloy.
E-BEAM Services is proud to announce the newest member to their accelerator capacity family, a sweet little 1.5 MeV Dynamitron electron beam accelerator!
Coming in at more than 10,000 pounds and measuring more than 20 feet, this newest addition will be upgraded and installed in a future location, becoming the 5th accelerator owned and operated by E-BEAM Services (which is already the largest contract service provider for electron beam processing in North America).
The E-BEAM family is doing well, and is very happy with the potential for additional capacity to help meet the projected business growth and increased demand for e-beam processing.
