Market driven design of accelerator systems for sterilization of medical products

Historically, most scientific accelerator systems are the primary ingredient of a given facility. In commercial applications of accelerators the customers needs are for a systems in which the accelerator is a part of a process. In the case of the sterilization of medical products, the accelerator is part of a process which ensures a sterile dose to FDA standards to a variety of products. The process includes a variety of hardware and specifications for parameters that are unrelated to accelerator technology. In addition, the customers are in general unfamiliar with accelerator technology. This creates the need for a different approach to design including a multidisciplined group of designers as well as the need for the design of equipment that has industrial ruggedness and reliability, so as to be usable by relatively low skill levels. In addition, the systems must be highly cost efficient, because the accelerator technology will be competing with alternative technologies which invariably are less expensive. This paper describes the design of the TB 10/15 accelerator system which is currently being operated in several locations around the world. The description includes the market needs that were addressed and how the system was designed to meet them.