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The first commercial applications for radiation curing were developed in the late 60's
and early 70's. Commercially available oligomers consisted of products which had
been developed for thermal (peroxide) free radical cure, primarily unsaturated
polyesters and vinyl esters (including epoxy acrylates). In the case of the EB line
pioneered by Ford, acrylics were also utilized to improve film forming properties and
performance. Diluents were limited to unsaturated monomers such as styrene and
methylmethacrylate.
The relatively slow cure speed of the unsaturated polyester/siyrene systems limited the
market growth to wood sealers (particle board) and topcoats. Epoxy acrylates have
inherently faster cure but very high viscosity. To obtain suitable application viscosity,
they need to be diluted which hurts the cure speed and properties. The diluents used
also presented problems due to odor, flammability, and volatility (VOC). It wasn't
until materials development began in earnest specifically for radiation curing
that new applications began to emerge for the technology and significant growth was
realized.
