Floor Coatings with UV-LED Curing: Performance and Properties

Gary Sigel, Ph.D., Armstrong Flooring

Abstract:Floor coating compositions were prepared from mono, di, trifunctional acrylates, and urethane acrylates (UA) and used to determine the effect of double bond equivalent weight (DBEW), mercapto based resin, high viscosity UA, and LED photoinitiators on final cured film properties when cured under an atmosphere of air vs. nitrogen. The least amount of yellowing was observed using a combination of TPO/ITX as UV LED photoinitiator package. Scuff, stain and abrasion properties sought in floor coatings were met using LED/UV 365 and 385nm lamps. The use of nitrogen inerting resulted in an improvement in surface properties such as stain resistance and scuff resistance. The use of a hybrid systems comprising of UV and LED will also be reviewed and compared to LED. Thermal and mechanical properties such as tensile elongation and storage modulus will be described in this paper.