UV process key to growth in Japan
High-end, high-value manufacturing in Japan is growing, fuelled by the adoption of UV curing. This is as a result of the increasing demand for a wide range of products including flat panel screen TVs, mobile phones, video games, navigation system displays and personal computer screens. These products have a film coating (known as functionalised film) which provides long-term optical clarity, prevents screen glare and yellowing of the image, and provides good resistance to scratching and abrasion from the general wear and tear experienced by this kind of product.
According to reports in Nikkei Sangyo News, the functionalised film market for all products in 2003 was $4.0 billion and is predicted to grow to almost $8.0 billion by 2005. These films were originally made by a process using chemical vapour deposition, which was slow and capital intensive. However, recent developments in coating technology have enabled thinner and more uniform coatings to be applied at high speeds. Together with the development of revolutionary UV materials that provide equivalent or superior properties to the earlier process, UV coating has increasingly become the process of choice. The UV coating is applied to the plastic film at less than 0.5 microns thick, with typical line speeds of 60-100 metres per minute, providing significant savings in terms of energy and time compared with the previous process. As the world's leading supplier of industrial UV systems, Fusion has seen demand grow for its UV lamps which are used in the film coating process.
Based on an article by David Harbourne, President of Fusion UV Systems, which appeared in Asia Pacific Coatings Journal.