Abstract
The chapter discusses ultraviolet (UV) coatings technology. The main purposes of a coating are to ensure the desired appearance (color or gloss), necessary protection against corrosion, stone chipping, scratches, abrasion, or chemical attacks like red wine, coffee, or mustard on furniture coatings, or acid rain, tree resins, or bird excrements on automotive coatings. The usage of UV coatings technology is different in the three major regions—NAFTA, Europe, and Far East. In Europe, the industrial wood coatings dominate, whereas the major applications in the United States are graphic arts (inks and overprint varnishes) and in Far East, the area of electronic and display applications (others). The graphics area of inks and overprint varnishes also has a considerable share in all regions and has, by far, the highest market share of UV coatings on a worldwide basis. UV curing has been established as an alternative curing mechanism to thermal hardening, contrary to the past, where it was only considered for the curing on temperature sensitive substrates like wood, paper, and plastics. This alternative curing technology uses the energy of photons of radiation sources in the short wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum, to form reactive species that trigger a fast chain growth curing reaction.
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