Development of new UV-curable paints for metal using high-throughput technologies

Besides the increase of productivity, the reduction of energy costs and the absence of solvent release, UV technology brings extra added value to metal for specific applications by obtaining a synergy of excellent coating properties like surface hardness, abrasion, chemical and corrosion resistance while still allowing the necessary adhesion and flexibility required for bending operations. Moreover it eliminates possible thermal ageing of steel and improves its durability. Based on a unique concept, a novel high-throughput workflow integrating liquids and solids mixing / bar coating / thermal and UV curing / coating testing has been used to develop new UV-curable coatings on metal. The automated workflow is fully integrated into the data management environment including innovative approaches for the generation of complex, multi-parametric coating recipes. By using its high-speed substrate transfer system, hundreds of coating experiments have been performed under conditions as close as possible to the industrial environment allowing a fast transfer of research candidates into pilot and production scale.