by Sean Milmo
European Correspondent
milmocw@rodmanmedia.com
Although UV technologies were first in- troduced around 20-30 years ago, it is till considered not to be a mature sector with plenty of innovations needed to overcome barriers to greater efficiencies.
Over the last few years growth in demand
in Europe for UV – as well as electronic beam
(EB) – has been around double that of the
coatings market as a whole, according to industry analysts. Now the gap could be widening
further as UV/EB moves into higher value and
higher margin areas.
Among the main driving forces have been the
lower energy costs of radiation curing, fast curing
speeds which raises productivity and the desire
for surfaces with a high gloss and color intensity.
However, more improvements and breakthroughs have to be achieved if the UV coatings
sector is to keep up the momentum.
“The big technological challenges are how
to find ways of achieving the same performance
while lowering costs in UV coatings,” explained
Stefan Van Den Branden, technology director at
Belgium-based resins producer Allnex Group,
formerly Cytec Industries Inc.
“Then there are more specific performance
demands like hard coats with improved scratch
and abrasion resistance and surfaces with a soft
touch,” he continued. “A lot of innovation is
also being driven by regulatory constraints, like
restrictions on materials of concern because of
their possible toxicity. These are imposed not
just by the EU and governments but companies
like retail chains. IKEA, the furniture chain, is
setting its own standards, for instance tin-free
resins, which go beyond what legislation is
prescribing.”
Over the last few
years growth
in demand in
Europe for UV
and EB coatings
has been double
that of the
coatings market
as a whole,
according to
industry anaylysts.
UV/EB Technologies Thrive in EU
