Applications of UV Cure Coatings

Since the introduction of UV cure coatings, use of this coating technology has expanded into a number of industrial applications. More recently, products closer to consumers and other end-users began incorporating UV cure coatings due to their unique benefits of reduced and solvent-free formulations, fast curing times, low-temperature processing and, most recently, scratch resistance and chemical resistance.

The applications for UV cure coating technology are broad and diverse, and new uses emerge every year. UV cure coatings have ultra-low volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). They can be 100% solids or water-based.

• Adhesives
• Automotive finishes including repair and refinish
• Auto and truck wheels
• Concrete coatings
• Compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs)
• Composites
• Glass
• Furniture
• Industrial metal
• Hardwood and parquet flooring finishes (wood finishes)
• Laminate flooring finishes, including vinyl
• Paper
• Plastics such as polycarbonate
• Soft-touch coatings

Automotive Applications

Developing UV cure coating technologies for the automotive refinish market is a coatings research and development focus area for Bayer MaterialScience. Bayer sees a bright future for the ability of UV cure technology to improve productivity and quality in the repair of auto finishes.

The automotive refinish market is interested in technologies that can help it repair more vehicles in less time, and in using materials that are more environmentally friendly. UV cure coatings are answering the call.

For example, Bayer is contributing to the development of UV cure paint films, which cure in just minutes using a UV light source. Traditional two-component paints require a more lengthy high-temperature baking process to fully react and cure the paint.

More recently, Bayer demonstrated how UV cure coatings can be used to refinish the polycarbonate headlamp assemblies standard on most vehicles today. Polycarbonate automotive headlamps are lightweight and durable. However, over time, the protective coating applied to the surface can degrade and turn yellow. Instead of replacing the whole headlamp assembly, which is expensive, Bayer coating chemists demonstrated that it is possible to refinish the headlamps quickly and more economically using environmentally friendly, low-VOC, UV cure coatings.

UV cure products currently available to the automotive refinish market include:

• UV cure glazing fillers — used to fill small imperfections in damaged body areas
• UV primer-surfacers
• UV clearcoats — as the final protective finish over an automobile body part, these coatings have excellent gloss retention, durability, and excellent chemical and scratch resistance. UV clearcoats also have built-in UV protection to resist degradation of the body part's finish caused by exposure to the sun.