Everlight Chemical Introduces New Type of Water-based Photoinitiator

 

Future trend of the coating industry—time-saving, highly efficient, and low-VOC water-based photocurable coatings

 

Water-based coatings use water as the medium, which replaces the conventional functions of solvent dispersion or dilution, and thus lessens the VOC emissions. In addition, the convenience of switching production lines and cleaning greatly reduces manufacturing costs. While environmental and energy-saving awareness keeps rising and related regulations are made even stricter, water-based coatings have gradually become a market trend. Apart from using the conventional temperature/moisture curing method, the industry has developed light curing technology featured with the “5E” advantages:

 

• Efficiency（fast curing process）
• Enabling（flexible adjustment in viscosity and coating thickness）
• Energy-saving（curing at low temperature）
• Economic （saving cost）
• Eco-friendly（low VOC emissions）

 

With technological evolution and market demand, “water-based photocuring” technology has become the fastest-growing star in the coatings market thanks to its low curing temperature, fast and convenient processing, and so forth. As shown in a survey by the world's largest market research organization Global Industry Analysts, water-based photocurable coatings will soon hit an annual market growth rate of over 12%, widely applied in metals, automobiles, inks, packaging materials, wood coatings, and other fields.

 

 

Conventional solvent-type photoinitiators are prone to poor compatibility with water-based systems, resulting in uneven dispersion and other defects

 

As mentioned above, the development of water-based photocurable coatings attracts increasing attention due to market demand for fast curing technology with the advantages of low pollution, low energy consumption, and low VOC emissions. However, relevant products are still in the development stage and there are not many such product items already launched on the market. The industry generally still uses solvent-based photoinitiators which, due to poor compatibility with water-based formulation systems, often result in uneven dispersion, incomplete curing, and other defects in film formation. This, in turn, creates increasing production costs, poor stability in batch yields, and other problems affecting product appearance and performance.

 

 

Everlight Chemical brings out new-type photoinitiators for water-based photocuring industry

 

Everlight Chemical has launched a new type of water-based photoinitiator (New Photoinitiator, NPI) with superior combability with a water-based system, especially for application in water-based photocuring. As it disperses more easily in water-based systems than conventional solvent-based photoinitiators, less curing energy and dosage amounts are needed to achieve a better curing effect. It shortens the UV exposure time for coating film and reduces the chances of the coating film structure being damaged, thus accelerating production efficiency.

 

With the rise in environmental awareness, eco-friendly water-based coatings will inevitably become an industry trend. As an advocate of green chemistry, Everlight is devoting itself to the development and promotion of more eco-friendly coating-related products while enhancing their performance. The new type of water-based photoinitiator, the NPI, can effectively enhance the efficiency of the water-based photocuring process, improve the performance of water-based photocurable coatings, make their range of use even more extensive, and increase their value-added! If you are interested, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

 

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