Photosensitizers for photocurable polymer coating

Production of polymer coatings curable by ultraviolet radiation (UV) imposed on various types of surface is applicable in several types of industry such as printing, paints and varnishes, adhesives and sealants, furniture, automotive and electronics. Ionic photopolimerization is supposed to be widely used in all processes where the oxygen access to the reagents cannot be limited particularly for coating of paints and protective layers as well as in rapid prototyping techniques.

Different from classical mercury MPM lamp diffusing the wide range of radiation, UV LED lamps diffuse the narrow zone of radiation; the user has the possibility to choose particular valve length which is advantageous in the case when the radiation of strictly defined valve lenghts shall be used.  Despite the classical mercury UV lamps in terms of valve lenght can be considered as more flexible, they consumme more energy, thus optimization of operational costs may consists of application of more units of smaller LED  lamps. LED diods usage advantage is also the radiation focused on unique direction nor requiring shielding.

Other strong points of presented technology compared to actually used traditional mercury lamps are followings:

• much higher initiation efficiency; shortening of the photopolymerization induction period and increase of monomers photocure process speed
• increase the rate of photocurable polymer layer production lines
• optical - advantageous properties, so that they can be used as photopolymerization processes photosensitizers for many monomers (vinyl, epoxy, acrylates, methacrylates and others)
• compatibility with UV LED diodes, which secure process without ozone emission and heat release
• energy savings through an increase in the production rate
• environmental friendly due to the possibility of running processes using UV-LED panels