What is the market prospect of UVLED curing?read count [455] release time：2019-12-31 21:11:00
In the curing industry, in addition to the well-known uvled curing In addition, there is traditional curing. Since there is emerging uvled curing, it shows that it has many advantages and is worth learning from the traditional one. Then what everyone is most concerned about may be its application fields.
According to TechNavio research, the UV LED market has maintained very rapid growth in the past seven or eight years, growing from US$20 million in 2008 to US$90 million in 2014, with a compound annual growth rate of 28.5%. In 2016, due to the active introduction of UV LED products into various applications such as light curing, sterilization and purification markets, the output value is estimated to be US$166 million, of which the output value of LED used in the light curing market will reach US$81 million. By 2020, the global UV LED technology market will have a compound annual growth rate of 39%.
In 2015, the UV curing market accounted for 48.14% of the UV LED technology market. The printing industry's increased demand for UV LED curing equipment and the substantial improvement in flux density used for UV LED chips have caused UV curing to occupy a large part of the UV LED technology market. At the same time, the printing industry has developed into a major user of LED curing equipment. UV LED technology has achieved great success in the inkjet field, promoting the application of UV LED technology in the entire printing industry.
UV LED technology for the Asian market
TechNavio predicts that the UV LED technology market in the Asia-Pacific region will grow rapidly in the future, and the compound annual growth rate of UV LED technology in the Asia-Pacific region will reach 39.31%. Mainly because this area has UV curing There is a huge demand for equipment and technology. China and India are emerging markets, and as governments promote energy-saving light sources and support controls on the industrial, medical and scientific sectors, these policies encourage UV LED manufacturers to increase UV LED production. LED light curing applications are currently mainly focused on woodware, inks and UV glue These three major areas will see significant growth in the next few years.
UV LED technology in the European market
European UV LED technology will grow from US$36.28 million in 2015 to US$190.2 million in 2020. Environmental regulations on hazardous substances and the ban on mercury lamps in Europe have made the European market an important contributor to global UV LED market revenue. Since UV LED is environmentally friendly and consumes less power, it has a large number of applications in the European medical, adhesive, and printing and curing markets. These applications have also become an important factor in the growth of the European market.
UV LED technology in North American market
UV LED technology accounts for 26.8% of the North American market share. TechNavio predicts that the North American UV LED technology market will grow from US$34.33 million in 2015 to US$179.06 million in 2020. The graphic arts industry in North America is increasingly using UV curing equipment and technology due to rapid market growth. Other UV LED light curing applications involve the healthcare industry, communication equipment industry, automotive industry, building materials industry, etc.
UV LED resin
Since UV LED is a single-band UV light source, the initiator absorption spectrum needs to match the LED emission spectrum. Currently, there are not many initiators developed for LED light sources on the market, and there are even fewer that can be mass-produced. Therefore, the problem of initiator matching has always been a difficulty in LED light curing. Currently available photoinitiators include TPO, TPO-L, ITX, DETX, BAPO, etc. These initiators do not have very strong absorption peaks in the bands of 365nm, 385nm, 395nm, and 405nm, so the initiating efficiency is not high. At the same time, compared with traditional mercury lamps, its power is lower and its irradiation energy is not high, especially for ink-based colored systems. If the printing speed is too fast, it may easily lead to incomplete curing of the ink.
In view of the two issues of initiator matching and equipment power, the photocurable resin used for LED curing must have very high reactivity to avoid problems such as poor curing. There are currently very few UV LED curing resins available on the market, which are mainly subject to two major issues: reactivity and stability.
Balance of cure speed, resistance to surface oxygen inhibition and storage stability
Cure speed, resistance to surface oxygen inhibition and storage stability, are UV light curing Three very important aspects of technology are relatively easy to implement individually, but it is very difficult to take into account all three. Through a large amount of experimental work, the scientific researchers of Runao Chemical used innovative methods to change the resin structure, and used auxiliary means to specially develop three UV LED curing resins with different application systems, which perfectly achieved the balance of curing speed, resistance to surface oxygen inhibition and storage stability, thereby well solving practical application problems.
Wood and plastic coating direction
FSP8370 is a four-functional special modified polyester acrylate, specially developed for LED wood and plastic coatings. This resin has low-energy curing speed, high conversion rate, high hardness, and excellent wear resistance and boiling resistance. During the experiment, a 395nm point light source with a light intensity of only 200mw/cm? was used to irradiate it for 10 seconds to make it feel dry. FSP8370 not only has outstanding reactivity, but also has excellent storage stability. In the formula with initiator, when placed in a 60°C oven for 2 weeks, there is basically no change in viscosity and excellent thermal stability.
UV glue direction
FSP8376 is a bifunctional special modified polyurethane acrylate, specially developed for use in UV LED adhesive systems. The resin has fast curing speed, low shrinkage, excellent cohesion and water resistance, high bonding strength to plastic substrates, an elongation of 130%, and excellent resilience.
Ink direction
FSP8374 is a bifunctional special modified polyester acrylate, specially developed for use in UV LED ink systems. This resin has fast curing speed, good flexibility, excellent pigment wettability, good flexibility, good adhesion to plastics, metals, and glass, and is suitable for a variety of printing substrates. Good printability also makes it suitable for offset printing and silk screen printing processes.
Application of UV LED in light curing
UV inkjet
At present, the market is paying great attention to UV LED curing technology, among which there are many innovations in the inkjet field, and the advantages of UV LED curing can just meet the needs of this field.
Advantages of UV LED inkjet: energy saving, high efficiency, high resolution, adaptable to a variety of substrates. Application areas: industrial or decorative printing, large format inkjet printing, label and packaging printing.
UV offset printing
Compared with ordinary UV printing, LED UV offset printing is more energy-saving and environmentally friendly during the entire printing production process, has a long lifespan, can reduce energy consumption by up to 70~80%, and has outstanding adaptability to printing materials.
PCB industry
Components (capacitors, inductors, various plug-ins, screws, chips, etc.) are fixed.
Moisture-proof potting and core circuit and chip protection, antioxidant coating protection.
Circuit board conformal (corner) coating.
Ground wire, flying wire, coil fixed.
Wave soldering through hole masks.
Wood industry
Compared with traditional painting methods, UV LED will not affect the moisture content of the substrate, and the construction process of UV LED rapid curing is fully realized from sealing base, primer, color correction, and topcoat, eliminating the long drying and curing time of traditional wood base and topcoat and the complicated process of low-solid multi-pass spraying construction. It can realize full-line mechanization and assembly line operation, which greatly promotes the improvement of factory production capacity.
UV adhesive
There are many advantages to using UV LED to cure glue, such as low heat emission, lower energy requirements, saving curing time and location, improved productivity, and easier automation. Therefore, it is widely used in the microelectronics industry and medical device fields to play a role in bonding, fixing, and protection.
UV nail polish
Using low-power LED light for curing, the heat is low during use, and the UV nail polish curing effect is good, keeping it bright and new for a long time.
UV coating
LED advantages: cold light source, less pollution, fast curing, low energy consumption, and superior film-forming performance.
Application areas: mobile phones, automotive coatings, optical lenses, plastic coatings, optical fiber coatings.
Service life
relative to tradition UV curing equipment , the service life of its mercury lamp is only 800-3000 hours, and the service life of the UV LED ultraviolet curing system reaches 20000-30000 hours. The LED method can light up instantly only when ultraviolet light is needed. When DUIY=1/5 (preparation time = 5 irradiation time = 1), the service life of the LED method is equivalent to 30-40 times that of the mercury lamp method. Reduces the time to replace light bulbs: improves production efficiency and is also very energy-saving. When the traditional mercury lamp curing equipment is working, the mercury lamp starts slowly and the opening and closing of the mercury lamp affects the life of the lamp. It must be lit all the time, which not only causes unnecessary power consumption but also shortens the working life of the mercury lamp.
No heat radiation
High-power LEDs emit no infrared light. The surface temperature of the irradiated product will rise below 5°C, while the traditional mercury lamp UV curing machine will generally increase the surface temperature of the irradiated product by 60-90°C, causing the positioning of the product to shift, causing product defects. The UV-LED curing method is suitable for heat-sensitive, high-precision bonding process requirements such as plastic substrates, lens bonding, electronic products, and optical fiber cables.
Environmentally friendly and pollution-free
The traditional mercury lamp curing machine uses a mercury lamp to emit light. There is mercury in the bulb. It is very troublesome to handle and transport the waste. Improper handling will cause serious pollution to the environment. The LED curing machine uses semiconductors to emit light and does not cause pollution to the environment. Therefore, using LED curing machines is more environmentally friendly.
Super illumination
Using high-power LED chips and special optical design, ultraviolet light can achieve high-precision and high-intensity irradiation； The UV light output reaches an irradiation intensity of 8600mW/m2. Using new optical technology and manufacturing processes, it achieves more optimized high-intensity output and uniformity than traditional mercury lamp irradiation methods, which is almost twice the luminosity of traditional mercury lamp irradiation methods, making the UV adhesive solidify faster, shortening production time, and greatly improving production efficiency.
When the traditional mercury lamp point light source curing machine increases the irradiation channels, the increase in channels will cause the output energy of a single irradiation channel to decrease. With LED-type irradiation, each irradiation head emits light independently, and the irradiation energy is not affected by the increase in channels and always remains at a maximum value.
Because of its super concentrated illumination, compared with mercury lamps, UV LED shortens the irradiation time of the operation and improves production efficiency.
Low energy consumption
The effective luminous efficiency of the UV LED method is more than 10 times higher than that of the mercury lamp method.
At the same time, whether the mercury lamp is used for effective irradiation or not, the mercury lamp needs to be continuously lit, and the power is always consumed. The UV LED method only consumes power when irradiating, and the power consumption during standby is almost zero. A simple calculation can be made to calculate the energy saved by each point light source curing machine:
270(watts)*8(hours)*365(days)= 800(kWh)
It can be seen that each unit can save thousands of yuan in electricity consumption per year. Not only that, by saving electricity, each unit can indirectly reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.4 tons per year, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of a car.
Easy to install and save space
The volume of the LED curing machine is only 1/5 of the size of the traditional curing machine, making the installation of the equipment simpler and reducing the area occupied by the production site.
