It was interesting to hear of the different applications – most folks will be aware of the use of particle accelerators in the field of medicine, notably, X-rays, and radiotherapy and proton therapy for treatment of cancer. We also learnt that particle accelerators are used amongst other things, in the scanning of cargo to ensure that what is in a shipping container is what is in the manifest and not cash, drugs, gold, uranium, cigarettes or cars – it works by measuring the attenuation of X-ray transmission through the cargo.
Particle acceleration is also used in bonding polymer strings together – an application that is often used to make cable insulation that doesn’t melt. I can also be used to make the polymer shrink when heat is applied. This process is used to wrap most chickens, turkeys, pizza etc as well as lots of electronics and tamper proof packaging. The major producer of cross-linked packaging uses more than 125 industrial electron-beam accelerators in its global manufacturing operations.
And whoever knew that Electron Beam curing is used in the printing of cereal boxes?
Fascinating stuff and there were lots of questions from the audience.
The second day started promptly at 9.30 and our keynote address was given by Susan Smith, Head of Daresbury Labs. Susan was followed by:
Mike Jenkins (Alliance Medical Radiopharmacy)
John Allen (Elekta)
Iker Rodriguez (ISIS Neutron Source)
Austen Rose (Diamond Light)
Simon Fletcher (Huddersfield University)
Tobias Juniger (TRUMF and HZB)
Luke Bladen (Daresbury Labs, STFC)
Thanks to all the speakers for an amazing set of presentations.
All presentations are available in our files section and you can see photographs of the speakers in our photo album
During the lunch break there was a student poster presentation and the winner was announced towards the end of the day. Victoria Hill won a £75 Amazon voucher, kindly donated by IMechE - below, Susan Smith presents Victoria with her prize.
Most of the presentations were filmed so look out over the next few days as I will be posting the links.
We’ve already received lots of positive feedback after the event (with a 100% recommendation rate), including the following:
"A well organised event with the right mixture of talks and networking”
“Good amount of lectures with both connections to industry and others. Very interesting to hear more from the medical community when it comes to accelerators”
“The event was really valuable to see the different uses, applications and engineering of accelerators in the UK. The talks were all very relevant and high quality. I would definitely attend again”
Oh, and the title of this blog? You’ll have to watch Dan Faircloth’s presentation to see where that came from so do keep checking back for those links!
