Chinaplas 2013: UV technology for industrial coatings

Together with VTD Vakuumtechnik Dresden GmbH, a company of the IST METZ Group, IST METZ GmbH presents solutions for the metallisation of plastics. With PVD (“physical vapour deposition”) coating, it is possible to give plastic parts a metallic appearance. Very thin metallic layers are applied on plastic. A UV primer that serves as an adhesive and a UV top coat for the finishing of the surface are used before and after the coating. At the moment, PVD is mainly used in the cosmetics and automotive industry. The IST METZ Group offers systems for the entire coating process, both the PVD coating units from VTD Vakuumtechnik Dresden GmbH and the UV units from IST METZ GmbH for the curing of the UV primer and top coat.

With UV technology, parts can be cured in fractions of a second. Hence immediate processing is possible. The coating units are compact and very energy-efficient because of the short curing times. With the MBS®-5 L, IST METZ presents a product that combines the specific requirements of the market with drying technology based on the latest technical developments in UV system manufacturing. The MBS®-5 L UV system is based on the air-cooled MBS®-5 UV unit that is already proven in narrow-web label printing. As a result, the MBS®-5 L represents a powerful air-cooled UV unit with a lamp length of 550 to 1,100 mm.

IST METZ also demonstrates the latest developments in LED UV technology. UV LEDs are used wherever their specific advantages such as cold light, nearly monochromatic light, modularity or simple machine integration are required. IST METZ shows examples for that at its booth, amongst them new products from its partner company Integration Technology Ltd. like the LEDZero Solidcure. The water-cooled system is used for the curing of industrial coatings with an output of up to 12 W/cm². Once switched on, it is ready straight away. It also transmits very little heat to the substrate and has an extremely long service life.