How UV Cure Coatings Work

Many UV cure coatings are only one-component coating formulations. By contrast, many other coatings are two component formulations, also known as 2K coatings. This means they are packaged in two separate containers that must be carefully measured, combined and mixed before use. After application, 2K coatings will dry and cure slowly at room temperature, though drying usually is accelerated by using forced air baking or infrared (IR) lights.

After a UV cure coating is applied, the coating film remains wet until it is exposed to UV energy. When UV light is focused onto the coating surface, chemicals called photoinitiators in the coating activate a photochemical reaction, and a cross-linking process hardens (cures) the liquid film into a coating. This curing process takes just minutes.

Watch Our UV Cure Auto Body Repair Video

Click here to see a Bayer video comparing UV cure technology to convention technology in auto body repair. This video appears on the web site for RadTech, the Association for UV & EB Technology.

As the video demonstrates, the ease of handling a one-component coating system and the high productivity of curing times measured in just minutes make UV cure coatings an attractive technology for a growing number of manufacturers and their products.

Although most UV cure coating systems are one component formulations, the need for a coating that also can cure in shadow areas not easily reached by UV light is being met by new dual-cure coating systems from Bayer MaterialScience.