Highlights from RADnews issue 64, Spring 2008

The Spring 2008 issue of RADnews is now available. In his regular Experts Corner column, Stephen Davidson examines how protic materials affect cationic curing.

Flint Group is expanding, with its proposed acqusition of Siegwerk's packaging ink business in Australia & New Zealand and a $2 million investment in a new manufacturing plant in Atlanta, Georgia. Other acquisition news include: Sherwin-Williams' plan to acquire the liquid coatings subsidiaries of Inchem Holdings in Singapore; Drytac Corp has acquired Advanced Finishing Solutions (AFS) (an OEM provider and distributor of aqueous UV-curable coating machines and liquid coatings); and the Hönle Group, a German UV-curing equipment manufacturer, has acquired all the shares in Panacol (a Swiss UV equipment supplier and specialist in industrial adhesives), along with a 70% stake in PrintConcept based in Stuttgart, Germany.

Other news of interest in this issue includes:

And in the Products and processes section:

Several companies have recently announced the release of new products. Leading with Akzo Nobel's announcement that it has launched seven acrylate products for screen inks and flexographic inks; and plastic over print varnishes. Perstorp claims that its oxymer polycarbonate diols aid outdoor stability for UV/EB cured coatings and the Kustom Group has launched new radiation curable ink vehicles, while DSM Desotech has introduced a new line of UV-curable corrosion resistant coatings for metal tubes and pipes. Adding a touch of colour, Bürkle has launched a new integrated panel printing and coating machine that will enable the customer to have furniture in the colours of their choice at an affordable price; and, Uvijet Ultratone inks from Fujifilm Serciol provide extra ink colours ideal for spot colour sign and display work.

Health, safety and environment

The Health, Safety and Environment section deals as usual with regulatory matters including REACH guidance, food-contact materials and issues relating to nanotechnology. In America, the VOC emissions regulation for aerosol coatings has come into effect that will require all regulated entities to comply by 1 January 2009 and the California Air Resources Board has published its revised Suggested Control Measure for architectural coatings. The EPA is proposing NESHAPs for nine metal fabrication and finishing area source categories. As regards material concerns, four methods to remove chromium (VI) from aqueous solution using by products and waste from industrial processes are described.

Expert's Corner

The application of cationic curing in radiation curing only accounts for about 10% of the market. Its great attribute is its lack of sensitivity towards oxygen, which has led to its major application in the cure of adhesives based on silicones. The great recent hope for cationic curing has been for its application to narrow web flexographic printing, such as label printing. To this end, Stephen Davidson looks at the mechanistic aspects of cationic curing and how protic materials may affect cationic curing.

Literature Search

The regular Literature Search feature provides a bumper eleven pages of abstracts, from a variety of sources on the themes of raw materials, formulations and processes. Titles of some of the abstracts give some idea of the scope of this section:

Progress in Patents

The Patents section as usual illustrates the versatility of radiation curing technology in moving the frontiers of technology forwards; again, some titles taken from the patents illustrate the scope of the technology:

RADnews also lists global events for the coatings industry.

If you are involved in radiation curing and are not already a subscriber, then you can download a sample issue [PDF] of RADnews, or request further information about this publication and details of how to subscribe to by contacting Richard Kennedy.