What is the difference between light-curing coatings and solvent-based coatings?
Light-curing coating is an efficient, environmentally friendly, energy-saving and high-quality material, and the related technology has been rapidly developed in recent years due to its good characteristics.
The main components of light-curing coatings generally include: photoinitiators, active diluents, oligomers and various additives. Light-curing coatings undergo photochemical reactions under light irradiation, which is different from the role of thermochemically reactive substances. It is for this reason that the light-curing coating properties are also different.
The characteristics of light curing technology.
1. Light curing only needs to be carried out at room temperature, which can meet the construction of products not suitable for heating and drying method.
Conventional solvent-based coatings take hours or even days to dry out. Light-cured products are more productive, saving space for stacking semi-finished products and better meet the requirements of large-scale automated production. At the same time, the quality of light-cured products is also easier to ensure.
2. In addition to increased productivity and energy savings, light curing technology also enables higher levels of coating quality, such as mechanical properties and gloss.
Compared with solvent-based coatings, UV light curing energy used is only equivalent to 1/10~1/5 of the former, light curing coatings at room temperature and rapid cold curing characteristics are also unmatched by other coatings. Baking type coatings and powder coatings need to be heated after painting to promote solvent evaporation and chemical cross-linking reaction, compared to this, light-curing coatings greatly save energy.
3. Because of the “no” solvent system, users do not need to install expensive sewage facilities.
Conventional solvent-based coatings usually contain 30% to 70% inert solvents, which almost all evaporate into the atmosphere when the film dries, causing considerable environmental hazards.
In addition, light curing requires only the radiation energy used to excite the photoinitiator, unlike traditional thermal curing that requires heating the substrate, material, surrounding space and evaporation to remove the heat of water or organic solvents used for dilution, thus saving a lot of energy.
Applications of light curing technology.
Chemical, mechanical, electronic, light industry, communications, automotive and other fields. Light-curing coatings include bamboo, wood flooring, decorative panels, furniture and other UV wood coatings; automotive parts, instruments, CDs, decorative panels, credit cards and other UV plastic coatings; steel rust, color coated steel, printed iron cans, cans and other UV metal coatings; decorative paper, written surface coating.
Light-curing coatings reduce the pollution of the air, the danger to humans and the risk of fire. The production of light-curing coatings has grown rapidly in recent years, information shows that in 2011, China’s light-curing coatings production of 75,177t, an increase of 39% over 2010, an increase of 131% over 2007. As an environmentally friendly “green technology”, light-cured coatings and then the United States, Europe, Japan and so on as a priority technology, but also in line with the growing needs of the public in China.