UV curing by light emitting diodes
(LEDs) is by far the fastest growing of
the UV segments – at a rate of around
30 percent a year in equipment sales. It
is also one of the most innovative sectors
mainly because there is scope for so many
improvements in the hardware, resins
and photoinitators needed for its efficient
application.
In line with the general trend in the
coatings sector to greater sustainability,
UV coatings users are also wanting re-
newable materials to be included in them.
As with other UV innovations, their cost
and performance has to be comparable
to existing materials because most end-
users are not willing to pay more just be-
cause they are renewables.
Geographically, the fastest areas of
growth in UV/EB have been in Eastern
Europe, where its expansion may have
been even quicker if the capital costs
of radiation curing equipment has
been lower.
Across Europe the main fields of
application are printing inks and industrial coatings, according to figures from
Radtech Europe, Brussels, the UV and EB
industry’s trade association. Each accounts for around 45 percent of energy
curing applications in the region.
In industrial coatings, the main segments are wood coatings, mainly furniture and flooring, plastics, metals and
electronics.
Radiation curing is increasingly being
used on casings for smart phones and
laptops because of its effects of brilliance
and shine. But it also now being applied
to give matte finishes to a variety of products after the development of alternatives
to the conventional matting materials of
silica and wax particles.
UV/EB is also now making significant
advances in leading manufacturing sectors such as automobiles which should
gradually provide scope for more innovations in curing.
“With automobile manufacturers
there was a chance around 10 years ago
that they might adopt UV for application
of clear coats but it did not happen,” said
Van Den Branden.
“Instead the move to UV in automo-
biles has been taking place incrementally,”
UV/EB has also slowly been gain-
ing ground in coil coatings, which could
provide a new route into the automobile
market. The energy consumption of radi-
ation curing can be as much as 90 percent
lower than the traditional heat curing in
the coil coating process.
“In big sectors like coil coatings it is
going to take a lot to persuade producers
to make a major move into UV coatings,”
said Van Den Branden. “ It will require
new processing steps which will necessi-
tate a lot of investment in new machinery.
You do not get changes like that happen-
ing overnight. It happens gradually.”
Powder coatings been a sector
which at one time looked promising
for UV. But now it is struggling to
make further inroads.
“The high operational costs and lim-
ited application robustness makes UV
“Despite huge development costs,
only a very few UV-curing lines survived,”
he continued. “We have to conclude that
it has not found a breakthrough in the
powder coatings sector.”
UV-LED looks likely, however, to be
a success story. By 2023, UV-LED’s
share of the market for radiation cur-
ing lamps has been expected to rise
from 13 percent to 35 percent, accord-
ing to Radtech Europe.
In a recent report on the UV-LED
market worldwide, Yole Developpement,
a market research company in Lyons,
France, forecast that UV-LED sales will
increase almost six times in 2014-2019
to $520 million, double the growth rate
in 2008-2014.
“Less than 10 companies were developing and managing UV-LED devices (in 2008),” said Pars Mukish,
Yole’s UV-LED specialist. Now more
50 companies have entered the market, the majority of them in 2012-
2014, with most being attracted by the
high growth in demand and the high
margins due to falls in prices for LEDs
due to overcapacity in the production
of the diodes.
More chemical companies are becoming involved in the development and production of the resins and photoinitiators
required to raise UV-LED’s performance.
“One of the big advantages of UV
LED is its low energy costs and the fact
that the lamps can be turned off and restarted instantly,” said Van Den Branden.
But currently UV LED still has limita-tions. The LED lamps have to be held
close to the coatings to be cured so that
they can be used only on flat surfaces.
Also the power of LED lamps is still limited, although improving.”
As with the UV/EB sector as a whole
in the past, a lot of development work on
UV-LED seems to be necessary. Provided
some key parts of the technology can be
improved, it appears poised to be at the
forefront of radiation curing’s growth in
Europe over the next several years. CW
“In line with the
general trend in the
coatings sector to
greater sustainability,
UV coatings users
are also wanting
renewable materials
to be included in
them. As with other
UV innovations cost
and performance has
to be comparable to
existing materials. ”
