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Colin Ribton

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Back to Who We Are Alan Taylor Colin Ribton Dr Channa Nageswaran Dr Carol Johnston CEng MWeldI
 

Colin Ribton has worked with Electron Beam technology at TWI since 1985.

He is a Chartered Physicist, a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, having graduated from the University of Nottingham with a joint honours degree in Pure and Applied Physics before he gained a PhD from Brunel University on the ‘Development of an Electron Beam Gun Design Optimisation Methodology.’

Colin is a member of the organising committee of the Electron Beam Technologies biannual conference, has been published widely on electron beam gun design and is the inventor or co-inventor for several granted patents, including an array probe device for measuring electron beam intensity and an RF excited plasma gun.

Colin’s work at TWI has included computer modelling of electron optics and high voltage components, designing high voltage power supplies, real-time control system architecture, the design and optimisation of radiation shielding, magnetic systems, designing digital and analogue electronics, and the development of processes to manufacture major components in power generation, nuclear, aerospace and medical applications.

In addition, Colin has led TWI’s activities for European and UK government funded collaborative projects to research higher productivity additive manufacture (3D printing) using electron beams for the aerospace industry.

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Reports, Publications and Patents

  1. Ribton C N "Improved Control of High Voltage Discharges During Electron Beam Welding Using Switch-Mode Power Supplies," TWI Members Report 487/1994, July 1994
  2. Blunt F J, Ribton C N, “Design of Electromagnets for Arc Oscillation in Surfacing Applications, for MIG and TIG Processes,” Industrial Members Report 541/1996
  3. Ribton C N "The Development of Electron Beam Real-Time Seam Tracking Equipment using Backscattered Electrons," May 1996, TWI Members Report 550/1996
  4. Ribton C N "Inverter Developments With Improved Response to Flashovers During Electron Beam Welding," TWI Members Report 553/1996, May 1996
  5. Ribton C N, Layzell T B "Development of Equipment for Electron Beam Characterisation," June 1996, TWI Members Report 557/1996
  6. Ribton C N, Nello O, "Development of Novel Compact Power Supplies using Tesla Coils for EBW and Other High Voltage Applications," December 2000, TWI Members Report 717/2000
  7. Ribton C N, “Improved Material Processing Achieved using High Brightness Electron Beam Power Deposition,” Industrial Members Report 858/2006, and abridged in TWI Bulletin Sep/Oct 2007
  8. Ribton C N, Atkinson T, “High-Brightness Electron Beams for Micro Processing,” Industrial Members Report 870/2007
  9. Ribton C N, del Pozo S, and Smith D R, 2015, “Characterisation of a Novel Electron Beam Gun Design with a Radio Frequency Excited Plasma Cathode,” Industrial Members Report 1056/2015
  1. Ribton CN "Control Equipment for Real Time Seam Tracking in Electron Beam Welding," September 1988, TWI Internal Report
  2. Sanderson A, Ribton C N "Seam Tracking in Electron Beam Welding - A New Detector," TWI Bulletin, 29, March/April 1989
  3. Ribton C N "Real Time Seam Tracking for EBW, Software and Hardware Developments for Powers in Excess of 20kW," October 1991, TWI Internal Report
  4. Eureka EU86 Project "Second Generation of High Power Equipment for Out-of-Vacuum Materials Processing - Phase II," June 1992, Report for DTI
  5. Layzell T B, Ribton C N "Seam Tracking and Surface Imaging by Backscattered Electrons," 5th International Conference of Welding and Melting by Electron and Laser Beams, La Baule, June 1993
  6. Ribton C N "Process Control for Improved EB Weld Quality," Jan/Feb 1993, TWI Bulletin, 34
  7. Ribton C N "Intelligent Power Supplies for Electron Beam Welding at 300kV and 150kW," IEE Colloquium on 'Power supplies for demanding applications', IEE, April 1999
  8. Ribton CN and Punshon C S, “Reduced Pressure Electron Beam Welding in the Power Generation Industry,” Proceedings of International Forum on Welding Technology in Energy Engineering, Shanghai 2005
  9. Ribton C N, “Applications of Surfi-Sculpt – An Electron Beam Direct Writing Technique for Surface Modification,” NASM 2007
  10. Ribton C N, “High Value Manufacturing Using Power Beams,” Plenary Session Invited Speaker,   International Conference On Power Beam Processing Technologies (ICPBPT2010)
  11. Ribton C N, "High Productivity ALM," 29/3/2012 International Electron Beam Welding Conference – Aachen, Germany
  12. Ribton C N, "Effective Design of Electron Beam Processing Systems by Trending," 1/6/2012 Electron Beam Technologies 2012, Varna, Bulgaria
  13. Ribton, C N and Balachandran, W, 2015, “Development of an Evolutionary Algorithm for Design of Electron Guns for Material Processing,” In Computational Intelligence (IJCCI), 2015 7th International Joint Conference on. pp. 138–148.
  14. Ribton C N, "Effective Design of Electron Beam Processing Systems by Trending," 5/6/2012 Electrotechnica and Electronica
  15. del Pozo S, Ribton C N and Smith D R, 2014b, “Spectroscopic Characterisation of a Novel RF Excited Plasma Cathode Electron Beam Gun Design,” Vacuum Electronics Conference, IEEE International 2014b, pp. 169-170
  16. del Pozo S, Ribton C N, and Smith D R, 2014a. “Characterisation of an RF Excited Argon Plasma Cathode Electron Beam Gun,” Vacuum Electron Sources Conference (IVESC), 2014 Tenth International 2014a, pp. 1-2
  17. del Pozo S, Ribton C N and Smith D R , 2014, “A Novel RF Excited Plasma Cathode Electron Beam Gun Design,” Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on, 61(6), pp. 1890-1894
  18. Kaur A, Ribton C N, Balachandaran W, “Characterisation of High Power Electron Beams using a Two-Slit Probe and Wavelet Transforms,” submitted to ISP IET conference on Intelligent Signal Processing, 2015, In press
  19. Kaur A, Ribton C N, Balachandaran W, “Electron Beam Characterisation Methods and Devices for Welding Equipment,” Journal of Materials Processing Technology, volume 221, pp. 225-232, (2015).
  20. Ribton C N and Balachandran W, 2016, “Genetic Algorithms for Automatic Optimisation of Electron Beam Processing Guns,” In NSIRC Annual Conference, Cambridge
  21. Ribton C N, del Pozo S, Smith D, Balachandran W, 2016, “Applying Evolutionary Design to Plasma Cathode Electron Guns for Material Processing,” In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference Beam Technology, Halle
  22. Kaur A, Ribton C N, Balachandaran W, “Development of a Novel Device and Analysis Method for Characterising Electron Beams for Welding Applications,” under preparation for submission to Conference on Electron Beam Technologies (EBT, 2016)
  23. Ribton C N, del Pozo S, Balachandran W, Smith D, 2016, “Design of Electron Guns using a Bespoke Genetic Algorithm,” Elektrotechnica and Elektronica E+E, 51(5-6)
  24. Ribton C N, del Pozo S, Smith D, Balachandran W, 2017, “Design of a Plasma Cathode Electron Gun using Evolutionary Optimisation,” In 4th International Electron Beam Welding Conference, Aachen
  25. Ribton C N, 2017, “Design of Electron Beam Guns using Evolutionary Algorithms and Finite Element Modelling,” In Opera EUGM 2017, Cobham
  26. del Pozo S, Ribton C N, 2018, “Investigation of Long-life Cathode EB Guns for Welding of Turbochargers,” Electrotechnica and Electronica, vol 53, 5-6
  27. Ribton C N et al, 2018, “Production Weld Quality Assurance through Monitoring of Beam Characteristics”, Electrotechnica and Electronica, vol 53, 5-6
  28. Ribton C N, Plumb P, 2022, “Laser Heated Cathodes for Electron Beam Welding Applications,” Electrotechnica and Electronica, vol 57, 5-8
  29. Ribton C N, 2022, “Demagnetisation of Thick Section Steels for Electron Beam Welding,” Electrotechnica and Electronica, vol 57, 5-8
  1. Sanderson A, Ribton C N "Controlling Charged Particle Beams," European Patent Specification 8601420, 21 January 1986
  2. Sanderson A, Ribton C N "Improvements Relating to Charged Particle Collection" European Patent Specification 8607222, 20 March 1988
  3. Sanderson A, Ribton C N "Orbital Electron Beam Welding," US Patent No. 4829550, 9/5/1989
  4. Ribton C N, Sanderson A "Digital Deflection," European Patent Application 91304017.6 10 September 1993
  5. Ribton C N, “Adaptive Radio Antennas,” Inventor C N Ribton UK patent GB2382927 (A), 2003
  6. Ribton C N, Sanderson A, “Plasma Source and Method for Generating Charged Particles Rays,” International patent EP2862196 (B1) 2013
  7. Ribton C N, International Patent Application 2015, “System and Method for Measuring Properties of a Charged Particle Beam,” WO 2015/118316 A1
  8. Evans P, Blackburn J, Ribton C N, Woloszyn A, 2017 US Patent US 9,555,522 B2 “Systems and Methods for Welding”
  9. Ribton C N, Jefimovs V, 2021, “Electron Beam Welding Method and Apparatus,” EP4387801A1, European Patent Office
  10. Ribton, C. 2024 ”An Electron Gun Cathode Mount,” US20240128042A1, US Patent Office

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