Electron Beam (EB) crosslinking is used to improve the heat shrinking performance of heat absorption tubes and films.
Electron beam crosslinking of polymer materials creates chemical bonds at the crosslink to maintain the strength of the material using intermolecular forces.
These electron beam crosslinked tubes or films can be deformed by external forces while heating and then will keep the new shape when cooled. Heating these materials again will cause them to contract to the crosslinked shape before deformation.
This heat shrinkage occurs even without crosslinking, but with crosslinked polymers there are stronger bonds for high shrinkage ratios.