At INDIAWOOD, IST METZ will showcase UV, LED UV and excimer technologies for curing, gelling and matting suitable coatings on wood and wood-based materials at booth J 423 B in the German Pavilion in Hall 4. The focus will be on FREEcure, a UV technology for photoinitiator-free and reduced-photoinitiator curing processes.
UV-curable coatings are well established in the surface finishing of wood and furniture products. UV light enables rapid curing of suitable coatings, allowing immediate further processing.
FREEcure for photoinitiator-free and reduced-photoinitiator processes
FREEcure uses a high proportion of short-wave UV radiation. With appropriately designed formulations, this spectral range supports direct photochemical initiation and crosslinking.
Depending on the application and process requirements, this can reduce the number of UV units required. For suitable applications, production speeds of 30 to 50 m/min per UV unit are possible.
A lower number of required UV units can reduce the electrical energy demand, maintenance requirements and footprint of the curing system. The actual savings potential depends on the application, formulation, coating thickness, production speed and system configuration.
FREEcure can be used with suitable 100% UV systems as well as water-based UV dispersions.
LED UV and excimer complement the portfolio
In addition to FREEcure, IST METZ will showcase LED UV systems for a range of curing applications. LED UV systems require no warm-up time and can be switched on and off as needed according to the production process.
Excimer technology expands the portfolio for the targeted modification of surface properties, for example for matting and surface functionalization.
