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PCT Engineered Systems, LLC (PCT) is an American multinational engineering services provider, automation systems integrator and custom machine builder headquartered in Davenport, Iowa, United States. PCT is an OEM for a line of electron beam (EB) systems sold under the BroadBeam label; and its Innovation practice provides industrial automation integration solutions primarily to organizations having a metals market focus (coil processing, cleaning, rolling mills and furnaces). The company was founded in 1986 as Patel, Cutright and Thompson as a control system integrator. Electron Beam Systems

EB technology has been used in industrial applications for over twenty-five years, and is used primarily for the curing of printing inks and coatings for packaging applications, crosslinking of plastic shrink films, lamination of paper, film and foil for packaging, curing of coatings for woods and composite building materials, and metal coil coating. Alternate curing solutions to EB include to ultraviolet (UV) curing and thermal curing. Both UV and EB curing are considered Radiation Curing (or RadCure) because each ionizes targeted surfaces during the curing process.

How EB Curing Works

In an EB system, electrons are generated in a vacuum chamber using and electronically charged filament, usually tungsten. These electrons are accelerated through a thin foil window – usually titanium or a titanium-coated aluminum – onto a moving web surface at atmospheric pressure. These accelerated electrons ionize most organic materials, leading to the formation of free radicals, which initiates polymerization of liquid polymer monomers and oligomers.

Trends in EB Technology

There is a growing interest in EB curing because this technology is able to penetrate opaque materials (like pigmented coil coatings); does not require a photoinitiator in its curing process like UV; does not produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like thermal curing; provides higher conversion and more consistent output; and offers more efficient energy usage that other curing technologies. It does, however, require nitrogen inerting for curing, and element not needed for other forms of curing.