Furniture Finishing with Radiation Curable Coatings - The "Eastern European Style"

By Peter G. Garratt, Reichhold Chemie GmbH - RadTech Europe 1989

Although the furniture industry in Eastern Europe has not yet reached full maturity, neither technically nor capacity-wise, the ultra-violet curing technology has become firmly implanted in furniture finishing processes in the Soviet Union and various other COMECON countries.

The paper presents an insight into the extent to which the technology has penetrated the various markets, describes the coatings systems employed together with the types of finishing lines currently installed, and looks at the factors affecting the future growth of UV-radiation technology in the potentially large market areas in Eastern Europe.