TPT March 2024

ARTICLE

Allied UV

Energy use reduction and no VOCs with UV LED tube coatings technology By Michael Kelly, chief customer office, Allied UV

Companies today are aggressively exploring and implementing energy savings programs within their manufacturing facilities, mainly due to the continued rate increases besieging manufacturing entities. Current powder and water/solvent-based paint operations utilise expensive gas, infrared ovens and induction heating. The operating costs have skyrocketed over the past few years. In addition, some high volatile organic compounds (VOC) coatings require regenerative thermal oxidisers (RTO) to combust known VOCs/exhaust fumes, adding to more costly energy expenditures.

While the energy savings have been significant, now with LED lighting technology, there are significant additional costs savings that can be achieved. Let’s take a look at the three different UV curing light technologies available on the market: 1. Arc lamps – these have been around for several decades and are predominant in the graphic art and wood markets. 2. Microwave – these are also a couple of decades old, mainly used in industrial markets such as automotive, electronics, medical, metal, pipe and tube, metal decorating markets and optical fibres. 3. LED – have long been the mainstay of the graphic arts market, but recently has expanded into other markets.

Outlined below is a summary of each lighting technology:

Figure 1: Black sprinkler pipes, fireman oxygen tanks and wooden baseball bats are all UV coated

1. Arc lamp curing technology

UV coating solution Within a company’s paint manufacturing process, UV coatings technology cured with LED light can offer a dramatic reduction in energy costs. In addition, UV coatings technology offers an industry-recognised sustainability solution with no emissions of VOCs or hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). So, the best of both worlds – reduced energy costs and boosting sustainability in the coating operations. For many years, UV coatings technology has offered a great pathway to eliminating gas and electric-fired ovens; utilising arc and microwave UV light curing to immediately dry the UV coating. UV is everywhere, as illustrated below in Figure 2.

Figure 3: 650W – arc lamp

Arc lamp summary • Typical bulb life: 1,000 to 3,000 hours • Degradation of power output over time – lamps degrade more significantly at the ends of the bulbs • Spectral output stability issues (in particular with doped lamps) • Broad band UV emission 200 to 450nm • 10.5KW typical energy usage/hour per lamp – 650W system • Can use any replacement bulb – This is a significant issue causing quality issues and associated downtime • Heavy components. Required high voltage to operate lamp (~2000V) • Very large physical footprint • Costly and noisy air handling system – large ducting system • Medium maintenance (regular replacement of consumables) • Large energy consumer • Bulbs contain mercury • Take time to power-up

Figure 2: Examples of UV coated products

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MARCH 2024