Energy-cured (EC) polymer coatings are used extensively to manufacture many product materials such as plastics, inks and adhesives in industries such as automotive, food packaging and printing. Curing is the transformation of monomers and oligomers to a solid, linked polymer network that can perform some desired function in a product or process. In order to form the functional polymer in the manufacturing process, energy is required in the form of UV light, visible light or Electron beam radiation. A large percentage of manufacturing costs are related to creating and using this energy so manufacturers continually search for ways to improve the energy efficiency of these polymerization processes in their operations. This I-Corps team proposes to provide a novel solution to photochemical polymerization. The targeted photopolymers are envisaged to have applications in the development of new high performance, highly aromatic coatings.
The EC polymer commercial ecosystem is a large and dynamic space. There are key stakeholders that must be understood in order to identify viable applications for our technology. These include materials (polymer) developers/manufacturers, equipment makers (e.g. lamps and curing systems) and commercial end users (e.g. industrial printers). This team recently attended the UVLED Conference (Troy, NY), sponsored by Radtech, The Association for UV&EB Technology, to find out where these companies fit in the value chain and learn about some of the technical challenges they face. Several of the participants identified energy efficiency, sustainability and environmental concerns as benefits they valued and expressed a willingness to talk at greater length in formal customer discovery interviews. During the I-Corps program, the team intends to speak to a significant number of relevant segment participants in order to understand what needs they have and whether they believe the benefits of the proposed technology could potentially provide tangible value in the form of specific solutions to technical challenges they face. A significant driver to the investigation is a newly issued patent for the proposed technology since it could enable development of innovative products or solutions to potentially create competitive advantage in the marketplace through cost (e.g. energy) savings, sustainability, and environmental improvements.
