UV LED

Energy efficient UV LED curing without inerting

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The proposed project is focused on supporting more than 60 000 SMEs that produce wood products in the EU, by reducing their energy consumption. EU industrial wood product manufacturers are coming under increased competition from imports and are looking to reduce their costs. About 11% of industrial wood products in the EU are coated with UV curable coatings, which contain zero VOCs and are fast curing. UV LED lamps, which emit near-UV radiation, are 60-80% more energy efficient than conventional UV lamps and have environmental, health and safety benefits, but UV LED cured coatings cure much slower than coatings cured with traditional UV lamps, even under an inert atmosphere. The technological objective of the UVLED project is to enable UV coatings to cure using UV LED lamps at the same rate as conventional UV curing, without the need for an inert atmosphere. Our approach is to prepare new, high efficiency near-UV photoinitiator packages, by developing novel silicon- and germanium-based photoinitiators and new chemical methods of overcoming oxygen inhibition. As a result of the UVLED project, we expect to improve our collective competitiveness and generate increased sales of coating and equipment products into the EU industrial wood products market of at least €106M over a 5 year period. In addition, we estimate that an end-user with just one UV curing unit would save about €13K in energy costs per year, compared to the use of conventional UV curing lamp systems. We therefore expect to improve the competitiveness of the European coated wood products industry. Our consortium includes 4 SMEs that represent different aspects of the supply chain from photoinitiator manufacturer to the wood applicator. Although this project focuses on UV LED industrial wood coatings, the materials developed have extensive application to inks, vinyl flooring and conformal coatings too. Therefore this technology has considerable potential value outside the defined scope of this project'

Introduzione (Teaser)

EU-funded scientists have developed novel approaches for curing coatings that do not require the existence of non-reactive gas atmosphere. Using more efficient ultraviolet (UV) lamps should enable wood product manufacturers to decrease power consumption and therefore costs.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for UV-curing applications have been commercially available since a long time. However, their unique output characteristics require newly formulated UV chemistries to take advantage of many benefits.

The EU-funded project 'Energy efficient UV LED curing without inerting' (http://www.fp7-uvled.eu/ (UV LED)) aimed to develop new formulation components to enable UV LED wood coating curing in air. This coating process may surpass conventional line speeds and eliminates the need for inert atmosphere.

The cure quality and quantity varies with formulation composition and lamp system. The project approach was to prepare new, high-efficiency near-UV photoinitiator packages. Photoinitiators are additives, which use energy from UV light to treat coatings. To this end, novel photoinitiators and new chemical methods for overcoming oxygen inhibition and producing tack-free surfaces were developed.

Scientists identified photoinitiator combinations suitable for use at LED wavelengths based on acyl phosphine oxides and thioxanthones. In combination with some organic compounds, they obtained coatings with reduced tackiness on their surface when cured with a UV LED array.

The coating formulation was successfully sprayed onto a medium-density fibreboard using an air-assisted spray gun. Sufficient cure levels were achieved and air did not have any impact on the cure. Scientists used different UV LED array combinations for determining their effect on the model formulation degree of curing, considering also the array intensity and positioning. Finally, a framework was designed to allow the diode arrays to be mounted on a production line for validation and demonstration trials.

UV LED is expected to benefit thousands of small- and medium-sized enterprises that produce wood products as they currently face tremendous competition from non-EU imports.