Textile and nonwoven materials processing on the base of atmospheric discharge with runaway electrons

In the present report the results of some textile and nonwoven materials processing by the atmospheric discharge with runaway electrons are shown. These runaway electrons have the energy making tens of kiloelectronvolts and can fly centimeters and even tens of centimeters in atmospheric air, activating a material surface, increasing it hydrophily or capillarity with efficiency comparable with the vacuum glow discharge. In particular the same hydrophily level of a natural cotton is obtained by the ADRE-processing at the average power put in the discharge (on the unit of a surface area) in 2-3 times lower than at processing by the atmospheric barrier discharge. Herewith capital expenses and working costs for the textile ADRE-processing plant is in 1.5 times less than for installation on the low pressure glow discharge and need no off-site processing rooms and personal. Thus the atmospheric discharge with runaway electrons is the most perspective technological base at present for continuous effective surface activation of many textile and nonwoven materials.