In today’s globalized world, becoming part of an international supply chain is key to the prospering of small businesses and their ability to create jobs. Meeting the quality requirements set by the multinationals that head these value chains is often tough for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) operating on shoestring budgets. The country’s nuclear agency, Nuklear Malaysia, is doing its bit to help.
Thanks to the support of the Nuklear Malaysia, Wonderful Ebeam Cable has become the first SME in the country to supply cables to Malaysia’s booming automotive sector. “By using radiation technology, we have been able to improve our product line and meet the requirements of the car manufacturers,” said Managing Director Ir Chan Chang Choy. “This has allowed me to grow my business and increase the workforce.”
Due to the high temperature in engines, cables used in the engine compartment of vehicles need to be heat and flame resistant to make sure they, and the car, do not catch on fire. To improve the heat resistance and flame retardance of the insulation of copper wires, their polymers need to be crosslinked, forming an extremely tightly packed network of interconnected polymer chains. Crosslinked insulation material increases the service temperature of cable for instance from 75⁰C in the case of normal PVC to 100⁰C for crosslinked PVC.
Crosslinking can be achieved using chemicals, but the process requires higher temperatures. The alternative, the irradiation of polymers, leads to the formation of permanent bonds between the polymer chains at room temperature – which requires lower operating costs.
No SME in Malaysia has the technology in place to carry out such irradiation, and banks are reluctant to provide loans for the purchase of irradiation equipment, Chang Choy said. “These machines are expensive, and the banks do not accept the equipment itself as collateral, because there is no second hand market for irradiation equipment, so the banks cannot sell it if my company were to go bankrupt.” Also, their safe use requires extensive shielding, which can make up half the installation cost. And shielding cannot be removed and sold.
Enter Nuklear Malaysia, which irradiates the products of small businesses like Chang Choy’s for a small fee.
“The automotive industry has long been recognised as one of the key contributing factors towards the realisation of Malaysia’s aspiration to become an industrialised nation by 2020,” said Zulkafli Ghazali, Director of Radiation Processing Technology at Nuklear Malaysia. “This requires domestic capacity in cable manufacturing.” Through this support, the agency is doing its part to support the Government’s SME Masterplan to accelerate the growth of SMEs and increase their contribution to the economy from 32% of GDP to 41% by 2020.
Wonderful Ebeam Cable ships its products to Nuklear Malaysia’s irradiation facility in the centre of the country, some 300 kilometres to the north, three times a week. After a few days, the cables are returned, ready for the car companies.
Nuklear Malaysia is working with several SMEs in different areas of radiation processing – using ionizing radiation such as gamma radiation and electron beam to change the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of materials to increase their usefulness and value or to reduce their impact on the environment. It is most widely used in the modification of plastic and rubber materials, the sterilization of medical devices and consumer items, the preservation of food and the reduction of environmental pollution. Nuklear Malaysia’s scientists have benefitted from a number of IAEA Technical Cooperation and Collaborative Research Projects, through which they were able to perfect the technologies used in radiation processing by working with experts from around the world. “The IAEA helps turn global expertise into local expertise,” Ghazali said.
The IAEA helps Member States strengthen capacities in adopting radiation-based techniques that support cleaner and safer industrial processes. Nuklear Malaysia has participated in several such projects and has been recognized, since 2006, as an IAEA Collaborating Centre for radiation processing of natural polymers and nano-materials.
This could come particularly handy in a few years’ time, he added. “If the country decides to build a nuclear power plant, we would need a lot more of cross-linked cables and other products manufactured using radiation processing technology.”
First published in International Atomic Energy Agency
