What is Radiation Curing?

Radiation cured coatings have replaced many conventional low solids, solvent borne coatings, and radiation curing, or "radcure" technology has become an established and important commercial process.

Radiation curing uses electron beam (EB), ultraviolet (UV) light, or visible light to polymerize a reactive and usually solvent-free coating material.

Although the final properties of radiation cured coatings are often superior to other systems, the reason for their popular growth has been primarily due to improvements in productivity and environmental emission considerations. However, radiation cured coatings are having a difficult time emerging from their early status as a niche product. This is mainly due to the high materials cost and capital investment required for radiation cured product lines. However, radiation cured coatings are often justified on a "total" cost basis when considering energy bills, reduced waste, labor cost, production time, factory space availability and transportation costs.

The primary applications for radiation cured polymers include inks, adhesives, and coatings where coatings are by far the largest segment. Some of the more important coating applications are found in every day products such as hardwood flooring, metal and wood furniture, electrical wire and cable, release papers, beverage cans, magazine covers, packaging, leather finishes and computer magnetic media.

Back to FAQ page.

Copyright 2009 by Hualong Machinery. HUALONG® and BB® is trademark of Hualong Machinery.
All rights reserved. Contact: hualong@nhhualong.com