| Actually, this sort of thing has already been explored...
There are two companies in the US, perhaps only one now, which
already are doing this.
Radiation Dynamics Inc., located on Long Island, N.Y. has been
manufacturing high voltage electron beam accelerators since the
1960's. The other company, High Voltage Engineering, which was
located across RT 128 from the Burlington mall (or the building
still is anyway), also manufactured electron beam accelerators.
I don't know if High Voltage is still in business, but RDI still
is, and they've recently just moved to another site on Long Island.
Their accelerators are currently producing the highest voltages
in the business, and are being marketed worldwide.
These machines are used for a variety of applications, one of
which is the vulcanization of rubber. They've been placing rubber
in the path of the electrons for a few years now, and I believe
the military have been watching ever since they first got word.
These machines also have many medical applications, but mostly
they are currently used for the irradiation of non-metallic
medical supplies. Band-aids for example. This process has great
potential, especially for sterilization.
The most promising application, (lucrative?) is food treatment.
The military has been using irradiated food, with much success.
The process poses no threat to the potential consumer of the
irradiated foods, and greatly increases shelf life.
The tires of the future most likely will be treated by electron
beam bombardment, hopefully...
P.S. My dad helped start RDI, he built his first accelerator
in the basement of a small house in St. Louis, before
packing up and heading for New York. And no, this isn't
a joke, everything I said is true, you can research it...
Regards, Face
|
| Re .1: Surely most spring in a tyre comes from the air inside it?
I would have thought that the biggest worry about super-hard-wearing
rubber would concern loss of traction. Look at motor car racing tyres
which are ultra-grippy by being ultra-soft, and wear out after one race
or less.
> <<< Note 1856.2 by USWAV7::CLELAND "Why, I oughta..." >>>
> -< Radiation Dynamics, Inc. >-
>
> The most promising application, (lucrative?) is food treatment.
> The military has been using irradiated food, with much success.
> The process poses no threat to the potential consumer of the
> irradiated foods, and greatly increases shelf life.
In the UK at least, food irradiation is quite controversial! The worry
is that unscrupulous food wholesalers will irradiate food that's past
its sell-by date, then resell it as 'safe'. While it may well have very
low bacteria levels, the previous high level of bacteria may have left
behind chemical toxins that were unaffected by the radiation. I think
that in the UK irradiation has still not been passed as a safe method
of preserving food.
Rod
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