UV Curing, an Eye-catching Finish for Packaging Boxes
A single technology ¨C Ultra Violet Curing - is used to improve the quality of finished products while boosting productivity through substantial savings in energy, time and labor. In the UV curing process, ultraviolet light interacts with specially formulated chemistries to cure coatings faster and more economically than traditional methods.
UGI has long experience for the application UV curing systems for the packaging & printing sector worldwide. We apply UV curing systems, in a variety of sizes with wide ranging power levels, to suit all packaging applications. We have specifically designed UV systems with multiple flexible options targeted at the printing sector and packaging industrial applications.
UV curing was developed more than 30 years ago especially for the printing, packaging, electronic and wood products industries. Today, the UV curing industry is well positioned to shape coatings, ink and polymer technologies as we enter the 21st century. Initially a commercial success in the wood products and furniture industries, UV curing is used today in a diverse number of industries including packaging sector. These technologies are getting more and more common. Finished product manufacturers find that UV curing offers at least three outstanding benefits: environmental advantages, unique physical properties and production efficiencies.
Environmental Advantages
UV cured inks, coatings and adhesives have always contained very low levels of VOCs ¨C in the majority of cases zero VOC. These low-VOC-containing products become increasingly important, offering manufacturers a way to meet or exceed current and pending environmental regulations to limit emissions and control air quality.
Unique Physical Properties
UV curing is recognized as an "enhancement technology", one that allows manufacturers to make their products more attractive and durable. Finished products exhibit exceptional stain, abrasion and solvent resistance coupled with superior toughness. Moreover, UV curing allows the printing and ink industries to achieve the highest glossy attainable by any coating method.
Production Efficiencies
UV curing offers manufacturers new production opportunities for a variety of specialty products, including optical fibers, photoimaging of printing plates and fast-curing wood fillers. In addition, new and specialized UV lamp systems allow for three-dimension curing which opens markets for such new applications as bathroom vanities, molded plastic parts and furniture case goods. Most important, the UV curing process reduces drying times, improves production efficiency and provides pollution abatement. In addition, UV systems are typically easy to install on existing lines and, because items coming off the line are fully dry, UV technology can often lead to reductions in required factory space.
What is UV Curing?
Ultraviolet curing (commonly known as UV curing) is a photochemical process in which high-intensity ultraviolet light is used to instantly cure or "dry" inks, coatings or adhesives. Offering many advantages over traditional drying methods. UV curing has been shown to increase production speed, reduce reject rates, improve scratch and solvent resistance, and facilitate superior bonding.
Who uses UV Curing?
Since it was originally introduced in the 1960's, UV curing has been widely adopted in many industries including automotive, telecommunications, electronics, graphic arts, converting and metal, glass and plastic decorating. UV curing is a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry, and now constitutes approximately 4% of the industrial coatings market. UV curing has grown more than 10% per year, displacing conventional water and solvent-based thermal drying processes due to its increased productivity, improvement of product quality and performance, and environmentally friendly characteristics.
Using light instead of heat, the UV curing process is based on a photochemical reaction. Liquid monomers and oligomers are mixed with a small percent of photoinitiators, and then exposed to UV energy. In a few seconds, the products - inks, coatings or adhesives instantly harden. UV curable inks and coatings were first used as a better alternative to solvent-based products. Conventional heat- and air-drying works by solvent evaporation. This process shrinks the initial application of coatings by more than 50% and creates environmental pollutants. In UV curing, there is no solvent to evaporate, no environmental pollutants, no loss of coating thickness, and no loss of volume. This results in higher productivity in less time, with a reduction in waste, energy use and pollutant emissions.
In recent years, UV curing technology has evolved to the extent that it can now be applied to three dimensional parts.
We bring advanced UV technology to a huge variety of applications such as 3-D modelling, 2-D print curing, electronic track printing, etch resist processes, conformal coatings, packaging boxes curing, cell phone curing, hardware printing, packaging, UV tampo printing, white goods and many others.
UV curing is a process in which exposure to ultraviolet light causes a fluid or film to cure. During curing, the chemical compound sets up and hardens into its final form. Many industrial processes now enjoy the benefits of UV cured coatings, inks, adhesives and composites. The UV sources for these processes are critical for the successful implementation of the new UV chemistries.
Look what UV curing can do for you
UV curing offers manufacturers many benefits. Below you'll find additional information on some of the most significant ones.
Inks, coatings, and adhesives with dramatically improved physical properties
The reasons for considering UV usually include a number of improved physical properties such as improved gloss, better scratch and abrasion resistance, better chemical resistance, resistance to "crazing," hardness, elasticity, adhesion, or bond strength. While these technical features can be measured precisely, determining their actual economic value is usually based on superior product performance which may result in increased market share or increased sales.
Faster production speeds and capacity
Any process requiring less space, allowing higher production speeds, involving less direct labor, makes those facilities and resources available for higher production capacity. Less down time and higher throughput increase machine utilization, and have a direct effect on plant capacity. In general, UV curing offers increased productivity and better plant and equipment utilization.
Reduction of work-in-process
This factor has become one of the most powerful cost factors in reduction of manufacturing cycle time. Reducing work-in-process of UV saves significant capital and improves cash flow.
Dramatically reduced set-up & clean-up labor
Because UV chemistries won't cure without exposure to UV energy, they can often be left overnight without fear of the ink or coating "drying" in the machine. This is often an advantage for graphic arts printing presses, plastic decorating machines, marking/coding machines, etc.
Less floor space needed
Typically drying ovens require significantly more floor space than a UV curing process.
Some processes require long cure times which can increase the floor space needed. For example, adhesive and potting applications using two-part adhesives or RTV types of compounds must allow cure time, usually measured in days. If the number of parts is large, the consumption of floor space could be significant. Fiberglass composite parts also require significant cure times and because the parts are usually quite large (bathtubs and showers) the floor space needed for part curing can be significant. UV curing significantly reduces the cure time in these examples, thus reducing the floor space requirements.
Increase yield and reduce scrap
Because UV curing only takes seconds, detection of curing problems can happen immediately, thus reducing scrap. For example, a two-part adhesive might take days to fully cure and then quality control testing can be done. During this time production continues, possibly resulting in scrap parts.
In painting and coating applications, the reduced time it takes to UV cure eliminates the chance for dust and particles to contaminate the part surface during painting ¨C another common cause for scrapped parts. In some UV processes, quality control procedures call for inspection of the ink, coating or adhesive application prior to UV curing. If any problems are found, the ink, coating or adhesive can be easily removed, the problem solved, and the part put back on the production line.
Below is a list of the many UV processes which benefit from effective measurement and control of the UV sources.
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Advantages of UV Curing for plastic packaging boxes surface treatment
The first step in most polymeric finishing processes is pretreatment. For example, corrugated plastic board printing usually requires a corona or flame pretreatment step. With UV curing, we can potentially eliminate and generally reduce the initial step of pretreatment in the finishing process.
Additionally, no heat is needed to drive cure reactions to produce the final coating. For finishing operations that use solvent-based systems, drying or curing paint is usually the limiting factor to throughput and productivity. While other steps within the process can be accomplished in minutes or even seconds, curing often can take hours, and costs are significant in terms of time, as well as in the expense of floor space for large ovens, long conveyor runs, additional tooling, energy and other associated costs, such as work-in-process.
With advantages such as improved economics, a broad range of colors and effects, compatibility with a variety of substrates and an environmentally friendly approach, UV curable solids coatings are opening new markets for today's finishing professionals in packaging industry.
Several key benefits of the UV curing finish for packaging products include:
- Improved operating economy
- Improved finish quality
- Energy savings
- Environmental friendliness
- Easier regulatory compliance
- Economic Advantages
High end packaging boxes + UV Paint = New Business!
Call us today on + (86) 135 333 11702 or email us [email protected]...and we'll gladly guarantee that you will receive the best product with great satisfaction at a best price!
