LED UV curing - low energy consumption and innovative finishing materials

The concern to reduce energy consumption is long-standing, but it has become more pronounced as costs have risen sharply. Recently, gas and electricity prices have risen so much that many companies have had to curtail their activities. However, ideas are continually being sought to reduce consumption and adjustments are being made to enable business to continue. In this context, efforts to formulate materials that considerably reduce energy consumption are worth mentioning.

The Italian ICA Group, manufacturer of finishing materials for wood and furniture, represented in Romania by Lomilux, has developed a UV LED-curable product line - Iridea UV LED Curing. Unlike traditional mercury UV lamps, LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) use much less energy to cure paints. And this is just one advantage.

Advantages of using UV LEDs

ÎUltraviolet (UV) curing (drying) uses high-intensity UV radiation to polymerize finishing materials. Curing is instantaneous, greatly reducing working time. Broad spectrum mercury lamps are used as the radiation source. These lamps, although effective in catalysing varnishes, consume a large amount of energy, take time to come into operation, raise the temperature on the item being finished, produce ozone which has to be disposed of, and, after exhaustion, their disposal is very expensive and environmentally hazardous.

UV LEDs emit UVA radiation (315-280 nm), they are able to catalyze materials and unlike traditional lamps, they do not have their disadvantages. Below are some of the advantages of using UV LEDs:

• They take no time to come up to speed and are ready to use as soon as they turn on. This means a significant reduction in energy consumption. Lamps don't have to be on all the time, they are only used when needed.
• The temperature developed at part level is significantly lower. This eliminates cooling of the parts, which is another energy saving. It also considerably reduces defects that occur on parts due to high temperatures - resin stains coming out of resinous wood at high temperatures, problems with exotic wood or MDF boards.
• No ozone is produced during curing, so there is no need for fans to remove it.
• They are smaller in size and lighter in weight, so they are easier to use and require less space on finishing lines.
• Mercury lamps do not pose disposal problems when they are exhausted.
• They have much longer lifetimes than mercury lamps (10,000-20,000 hours compared to 1000-3000).
• Reduced preparation time.

All these benefits translate into cost reductions and savings.

IRIDEA UV LED Curing range from ICA Group

IRIDEA UV LED Curing Range is one of the latest innovations from ICA Group's R&D laboratory. They were developed in response to the needs of the furniture manufacturing industry. These finishing materials support manufacturers who need both high production efficiency and reduced energy costs.

UV paints are 100% acrylic and can be solvent or water based. They are specially formulated to polymerize under the radiation produced by UV LEDs. This type of curing is particularly recommended for the polymerization of products with a high pigment content and for all processes where it is essential to maintain a low substrate temperature during the application phase. They are very suitable for application on resinous wood, pin in particular. This species contains a resin that expands at high temperatures and comes to the surface, spoiling the appearance and reducing adhesion. It can also be safely applied to plastics that are sensitive to high temperatures.

Like any system and UV LED curing has advantages and disadvantages. We talked about the advantages above, so it's only fair to say a few words about the disadvantages as well. The surface reactivity of UV LED curing materials is lower than with conventional lamps. The cost is higher, sometimes a cooling system is needed, and the formulation of the products imposes certain limits, reducing the range.

In order to eliminate these problems, ICA Group has gone one step further and developed together with Elmag-Superfici (SCM Group) a system called LED UP that combines the advantages of classic UV lamps with those of UV LEDs.
UP LED lamps combine different monochromatic sources of UV radiation with different wavelengths to achieve a broad spectrum of multicolor emission. The result is an improved system with a number of advantages:

• Low temperature at which the polymerization reaction takes place
• No ozone is generated
• Reducing energy consumption
• Great freedom of product formulation. Clear and pigmented, gloss and matt products can be cured in this way.
• Cost comparable to traditional UV products.
• Low yellowing.

High energy consumption can become a big problem and reducing it is vital. I remember as long as 10 years ago, the director of a major furniture factory was telling me that he had decided to go back to conventional drying of finishing materials, and had decided to do without a new, very modern UV drying line because the energy costs had become too high. And those were not today's prices. If you're thinking of investing in a UV curing line, consider UV LEDs or their combination with the classic UV variant. Finishing materials for them already exist.