International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Research Applications and Utilization of Accelerators
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AP/IA-12
Review of Industrial Accelerators and their Applications R.W. Hamm R&M Technical Enterprises, Inc., Pleasanton, United States of America Corresponding Author: bob.hamm@comcast.net Of the particle accelerators that have been manufactured by for-profit entities worldwide, about half are used for industrial applications. These industrial systems utilize a wide range of accelerator technologies, including direct voltage systems, RF and microwave linacs, and cyclic accelerators. They accelerate either electrons or ions with energies and currents spanning more than six orders of magnitude. Their numerous applications cover a broad range of business segments from low energy electron beam systems for welding, machining, and product irradiation to high energy cyclotrons and synchrotrons for medical isotope production and synchrotron radiation production. Although industrial accelerator manufacturing is not a high profile business, these systems have a significant impact on people’s lives and the world’s economy, as so many commonly-used materials and products, both durable and consumable, are processed by charged particle beams. Wide scale industrial use of many of these processing tools has resulted in the rapid growth of the industrial accelerator business. This paper is a review of the current status of this business worldwide, including the technologies, the applications, the vendors and the market sizes.
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