• Polymer Chemistry for the UV/EB Professional Short Course

• Low Energy Curable Coatings

• Novel UV Curable WB Chemistry for Wood Furniture Applications

• Field Applied UV Curable Floor Coatings

Abstracts

Polymer Chemistry for the UV/EB Professional Short Course
Sunday, May 23th
10:30a.m. - 5:00 p.m. as part of the UV/EB University
Presented by: Mike Idacavage, Principal Research Fellow, UV/EB Curable Resins & Additives

This full day course is designed to acquaint UV/EB chemists and other technical professionals with the fundamentals of polymer chemistry at an undergraduate level. It will involve an overview of step-growth and chain-growth polymerization processes with special emphasis on the latter. Specifically, it will cover the chemistry of free-radical and cationic polymerization processes including kinetic and thermodynamic aspects of the subject. The session will include a detailed discussion of the chemistry of the photoinitiation process and will highlight a variety of polymer characterization techniques for UV/EB polymers.  Throughout the short course, the application of polymer chemistry fundamentals to the science and technology of free radical, cationic, and/or thiol-ene UV/EB polymerization processes will be emphasized.  Demonstrations will highlight each section.

Traditional energy curable coatings are often cured with high powered lamps. These lamps create ideal curing conditions by generating high light intensity, broad spectral distribution and enough heat to limit the effects of oxygen inhibition during cure. However, those benefits are known to actually be drawbacks for certain applications with sensitive substrates. For instance, the high light intensity and heat generation can become problematic to substrates which are sensitive to light and heat. Other known deficiencies of high powered lamps include poor lamp/energy efficiency, too broad a spectral output and difficult adaption to portable devices. Such limitations have promoted the growth and development of two types of curing equipment. One uses low energy Ultra Violet irradiance (UVA section of UV light), and the other uses short wavelength light emitting diodes (LED). UVA and LED technologies feature lower light intensities, narrow spectral output, and decreased heat generation during cure. Under these low energy curable conditions, traditional energy curable coatings have been found to be lacking. In order to maximize curing and product performance under UVA and LED conditions, a better understanding of these technologies was required and new types of materials needed to be developed to maximize cure and achieve the requisite performance.
 

This study reviews the current UVA and LED technologies and introduces a new energy curable coating that maximizes cure and performance under UVA and LED curing conditions.

UV curable PUDs have been gaining acceptance in wood and plastics applications in the past few years. These materials find use in premium applications due to their outstanding performance in the areas of hardness, flexibility and chemical/solvent resistance. There is also a need for new materials with performance properties suitable for lower end applications. This paper will describe a new series of UV curable waterborne resins that have an excellent balance of good performance and reasonable cost, while also adding to the sustainability of the final formulation. These new resins broaden the selection of waterborne UV curable materials available to the formulator, allowing them to select the proper resin system for any application.

Coatings have been UV cured in industrial settings since the 1960s.   The graphics industry was one of the first to adopt this technology, with a high gloss coating on cards.  Today, there are numerous industrial applications that utilize UV curing as the method of drying or polymerizing their coatings or inks.  Many of these industries initially embraced UV curing technology as a way to increase both productivity and performance.

More recently, the advantages of energy savings and environmental compliance have also led industries to choose UV curing technology.    In the past five or so years, commercial UV curing has moved out of the factory and into the field, with numerous improvements in UV curing equipment pushing this transformation.   Floor coatings are one of the main applications for field applied UV cured coatings.  Today, field applied or on site floor coatings for wood, vinyl, tile, and concrete are all in some phase of commercialization.    

The benefits of UV cured field applied floor coatings are similar to factory applied floor coatings: increased productivity and performance.  In addition, the immediate cure aspect provides an added benefit of quality, since the finish will not be damaged once it is cured, and cost savings to the end user through immediate use.     This paper will review the performance of field applied UV cured floor coatings with that of conventionally cured floor coatings. The benefits and detriments of each curing technology will also be reviewed.