Gamma Irradiation Treating food stuffs in such a manner that deterioration and spoilage is reduced considerably. Mixer evaluation To determine the relative mixing capability of certain mixing machines, short lived isotopes are introduced so results can be obtained and the isotope will have decayed away by the time the products reach the consumer. Interface marking Some petroleum pipelines may carry many different products. Radioactive tracers are used at the interface of different products. Now an operator is signaled by a detector when a new material is entering the system and a change over can be made with very little loss of the preceding batch.
Level gaging Suppose a company wants to monitor the level of cooking molasses in a large tank.
Sight tubes and windows are not suitable, the material is too viscous to drain, and internal floats gum up and stick, therefore, the best method to this solution is external monitoring. The detector signal depends on whether gamma rays from the source pass through the molasses or the air. As the source and detector rise from the bottom of the tank, at the same rate, an increase in counting rate would indicate the liquid level. A motor manufacturer wished to know the wear rate of his piston rings. A crude method would be to disassemble the motor and do definite measurements on the ring.