Flat UV-Cured Powder Coating

ABSTRACT: UV-curable powder coating is an attractive technology which produces a high quality coating with far less environmental impact than conventional coating processes. Powder systems are solvent-free and thus they reduce air pollution emission and reduce waste by eliminating the disposable of leftover wet paint. UV-curable powder coating combines the benefits of conventional powder coating, with the advantages of the rapid, low temperature radiation curing. Therefore, the Air Force is interested in replacing standard solventborne aeospace coatings with new UV-curable powder coatings for use on DoD aircraft. However, UV cured coatings generally have a medium to high gloss finish, while the military requires a flat matte finish. TDA has recently developed a new nanostructured flattening additive that can be used in UV-curable powder coating formulations to reduce gloss. In Phase I TDA formulated these new flattening agents into a UV-curable powder resin. These flattening agents had good processability and application performance, and were able to reduce the 60degrees gloss from 80 to 5 with excellent film formation (no orange peel). In Phase II TDA will optimize the UV powder coating formulation, and carry out a full coating evaluation. The goal of the Phase II is to demonstrate that the new direct-to-metal UV-cure powder coating can meet the performance requirements for use on military aircraft and is ready for commercial production and sales. BENEFIT: Flattening agents could be employed in a wide variety of military coating applications. Beyond matte UV-cure powder coatings for aircraft this technology could also be applied to make CARC powder coatings. Additionally, commercial users may be interested in matte textures for furniture and other decorative materials.