Radiation Curable Coatings
April 2015 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 37
of radiation curable chemistry to create new combinations of
properties will result in innovation in markets that would not be
traditional end users of this technology.
CW: What are some new technologies being developed related
to radiation curable coatings technology?
Idacavage: This is a great question that I think can be answered
in several different ways, depending on the point of view of the
person posing the question. If the aim of the question is to find
out what new advances can be found within radiation curable
technology, I would point out the very high level of interest in
UV-LED curing. In this practice, the traditional mercury-based
UV bulb is changed out with a UV-LED bulb. This offers some
distinct advantages of long life time, cooler operating conditions
and less of a gradual drop off in energy. To balance this out , there
are some disadvantages such as the limited availability of photoinitiators that can make use of the light from a UV-LED bulb. I
believe that both traditional mercury bulbs and UV-LED bulbs
will each play a role in the development of new applications.
If the question is geared to what new applications might be
on the horizon, then my answer would be based on the ability
of new chemistry, formulations and equipment to start to pro-
duce coatings that have two or more properties within the same
cured product. For example, a new formulation may combine a
hard, scratch resistant coating with some unique optical proper-
ties. By combining several needed attributes in the same system,
the new generation of radiation curable coatings will enable
new materials for a wide range of end applications.
CW: Please describe the RadTech Radiation Curing Program
at SUNY.
Idacavage: The State University of New York College of
Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) and RadTech
International North America (Rad Tech) has partnered to create
a program that bridges academic and professional development
in the area of radiation curable coatings. The Radiation Curing
Program (RCP) helps both students and industry professionals
take advantage of these emerging opportunities. There are two
types or levels of courses that can be taken in this program.
The first is online professional development short-courses that
can be completed in 4-6 hours. These include the Principles of
Energy Curing Technologies which is a basic overview of radiation curable technology and the Basics of UV Curable 3D
Printing which is an introduction to the very current topic of 3D
printing. I teach both of these courses and they are focused on
those who are new to this technology.
For those wanting more in-depth knowledge, RCP offers
three advanced online courses that provide foundational and
advanced treatment of current and emerging UV/EB curing
principles and applications. These courses offer three 500-lev-
el credits each. These courses are the Introduction to Polymer
Coatings, Radiation Curing of Polymer Technologies and
Radiation Curing Equipment, Instrumentation and Safety. The
advanced courses are taught by experts in the area and like myself are based in industry. The advanced courses may be taken
for graduate credit or as non-credit professional development.
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the article in Coatings World on radiation curable coatings. To me
this technology is as exciting today as it was when I first became active in radiation curable coatings in the mid 1980s.
Of course there has been amazing advances in the chemistry,
equipment and process since that time. To me, this is an indication that there still is an attractive future for both end users
and developers in radiation curing. CW
Dr. Mike J. Idacavage received his B.S. (Chemistry) from Drexel
University in 1975 and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University in
1979 (Organometallic Chemistry). His work in the area of radiation curing started at Eastman Chemicals with the establishment
of a photopolymer lab in 1985. In 2003, Idacavage received the
President’s Award for Outstanding Achievements to the Radiation
Curing Industry from Rad Tech North America. He has served as
president of Rad Tech North America for the 2009 to 2010 term.
Currently, he is the vice president of business development with a
focus on industrial coatings, 3D Printing resins and adhesives for
PL Industries, a division of Esstech Inc. He is also an adjunct associate professor at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, NY teaching courses
in UV and EB curing technology.
