The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 19, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 13, 2001
John Thomas Allen, San Diego, CA (US);
George Michael Sullivan, San Diego, CA (US);
Colin Brian Williams, La Jolla, CA (US);
Surebeam Corporation, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
Articles move on a conveyor mechanism in a first direction past a radiation source for an irradiation of the articles (by e.g., an electron beam, x-rays or gamma rays) by radiation moving in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the fires direction. The distance between the radiation source and the articles on the conveyor mechanism may be adjusted to provide for the irradiation of each position in the articles and to minimize the amount of the radiation which does not pass into the articles. The adjustment may be made by (1) adjusting the position of the radiation source in a particular direction corresponding to the direction of the radiation source and the articles on the conveyor mechanism, (2) actuating an individual one of a plurality of conveyors for moving the articles past the accelerator, each conveyor being separated from the radiation source by a distance different from the distance of the other conveyors from the radiation source or (3) repositioning the articles on a single conveyor in the particular direction. The distance between the radiation source and the conveyor mechanism may be varied dependent upon changes in the dimension of individual articles relative to the dimension of other articles, in a direction substantially perpendicular to (a) the direction of the radiation source and (b) the path of movement of the articles on the conveyor mechanism. Instead of irradiating a single article at any one time, the system may simultaneously irradiate a batch or stack of articles of the same or different sizes.