Coating, Printing and Lamination are the major industrial application area for the low energy electron beam accelerator. some typical applications in this area will be reviewed with the emphasis on the advantages of electron beam accelerator. Also some recent development will be introduced to overview the future trend of the low energy electron beamindustry.

The typical proven applications and products from all over the world regarding the three area of application, coating, printing, and lamination,which is classified according to the process line configuration would be as follows.
Coating 1 Top coat for decorative papers ( USA, Germany, UK)
             2 Top coat for decorative packages ( USA )
             3 Top coat for paper bags (USA)
             4 Top coat for wood-grain printed papers ( USA )
             5 Top coat on metallized film, papers (USA, Australia)
                      EB-cured base coat applied and cured prior to direct metallizing,
                      EB-cured topcoat applied and cured after metallizing, to make highly reflective, low cost, printable label stock
             6 Top coat for casting paper (USA)
             7 Top coat of easy erase white board (Japan)
             8 Top coat to upgrade paper ( USA)e.g. kraft, upgraded to a white paper
             9 Base coat for metallizing papers, film and non-woven (USA,Belgium)
                EB-cured base coat and top coat on metallized thermal liningfor heat insulation in jacket, etc.
             10 Silicon release coating (USA)
             11 Magnetic media (Japan)cross-linking/curing iron oxide binder
             12 Ceramic tile coating (Japan)art tile
             13 Coating on pressure sensitive paper for video printer (Japan)
             14 Anti-static coating (USA)
             15 Anti-fog coating (Japan)
             16 Adhesive tape and labels (Europe and Japan)
             17 Protective film for steel plate (PSA) (Japan)
Printing 18 Folding cartons (USA, Canada)
                  EB-cured web-offset inks and overprint varnish on SBS(solidbleached sulfate) board for food packaging
             19 Flexible packaging (USA)
             20 Aseptic packaging (many countries)
                  EB-cured web-offset multi-layer board for aseptic packaging ofjuice, milk, etc.
             21 Printing on plastic sheet or board (Japan)
                  sheet-fed type EB processor
                  EB-cured sheet-offset printed inks and overprint varnish onPolypropylene for table placemat and notebook cover
             22 Security printing (USA)
Lamination (Adhesive)
             23 Coating and laminating of wood products (USA, Europe)
                  EB-cured adhesive between pre-printed paper and MDF board
                  EB-cured high gloss clear coating over the paper for makingReady-to-Assemble furniture
             24 Aluminum foil to polyester laminate for radio frequency shielding
             25 Paper to paper laminate for playing card (USA)
             26 laminating PVC to steel coil (Japan)
             27 Laminating film to steel coil (Japan)
             28 Flocking (USA)
             29 Abrasive (USA)

The trend of the low energy EB is going toward the development of the equipment which is of more compact and of lower cost, of higher productivity, easier installation and higher reliability and the development of various additional new functions to the equipment. The development of extremely low voltage processor might have a possibility to further broaden the utilization of EB technology. The advantage of the extremely low energy(100 - 130 keV) is that it can treat the relatively thin coating without damaging the base substrate such as film and paper. Another issue would be the technic developed to reduce the cost of nitrogen in the free radical induced EB process. One is the nitrogen recirculation system equipped with an automatic oxygen control and the other is the Hybrid Inerting system in which the lower purity level gas froma non cryogenic nitrogen supply is used in conjunction with high puritycryogenically produced nitrogen.