How Our Attenuation Material is Made
When it comes to attenuation materials, Burlington Medical offers a variety of options using two distinct processes: curing or extrusion. These different manufacturing processes each result in unique qualities and benefits.
Thermal Curing Process
Most attenuation material manufacturers employ the conventional thermal curing method, which involves hand or automatic spreading of a viscous mixture on a flat support surface, followed by heating, thermal baking, and rolling the final solidified sheet. This method produces high-quality radiation-protective, yet flexible sheets, that can be utilized in diverse environments where primary and scatter radiation is present. Most often, the mixture is mixed using metals, such as lead, tungsten, antimony, barium, and bismuth, in a vinyl-based elastomer.
Extrusion Process
A modern technology for the production of radiation-protective materials is the extrusion process. Raw protective metals, such as tungsten, antimony, bismuth, barium, and lead, are uniformly mixed in a suitable elastomeric matrix (vinyl-based, polyolefin-based, and others) with the aid of high shear and heat and are subsequently pelletized. Afterward, the pellets (one, two, or more types of pellets) are fed into the extruder, where the final sheets of attenuation material are produced. This method ensures better control of the process parameters during the manufacturing process compared to the conventional thermal curing method, thus, enabling better quality control of the final attenuation materials. Extrusion also allows for the use of nanotechnology and nanomaterials for the components.
The final attenuation materials can be chosen from the vinyl-based or olefin-based proprietary elastomer category. The vinyl-based attenuation materials are more cost-effective, have limited toughness, and are still satisfactory for many applications without compromising their integrity and protection level.
Our attenuation materials have outperformed competitors’ materials in independent laboratory tests and provide superior radiation protection over an extended range of X-ray energies. For instance, independent testing shows significantly superior toughness of our attenuation materials made with our patent-protected proprietary elastomer, allowing for our materials’ greater flexibility and durability. Moreover, the careful selection of the protective metals, their particle sizes, and particle size distributions using nanotechnology enables us to provide superior radiation protection against primary and scattered X-rays.
All of the attenuation materials offered by Burlington Medical deliver exceptional performance and reliability, providing optimal protection against ionizing radiation and x-rays.
Attenuation materials from Burlington Medical are used in aprons, drapes, barriers, and curtains—which means finding the proper selection for your specific need is crucial.
The material is sold in rolls by the yard, so working alongside the experts at Burlington will ensure you get the right product and amount needed.
Explore our attenuation material offerings, and reach out to a representative for purchasing and personalized guidance or if you have any questions.
