NIRVANA - Near Infra-Red photoinitiated curing of industrial wood coatings and varnishes

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Radiation Curing utilising Light Emitting Diodes (LED) offers substantial energy savings for industrial wood coating applications compared to conventional UV mercury arc lamps (~60% less) and traditional gas fired drying systems (~90% less). However, the growth of Radiation Curing applications has been limited due to: Poor depth penetration of UV in pigmented coatings; Poor surface coating properties (due to oxygen inhibition) and the absence of optimised coating formulations. NIRVANA will deliver 3 novel solutions to these challenges by:1. Developing an innovative near-infra red (NIR) photoinitiator within the 880-1000 nm transmission window where light is not typically absorbed or scattered.2. Developing novel hybrid organic-inorganic nano-materials to increase surface cross linking density and hardness and reduce oxygen inhibition.3. Creating formulations of 100% solids acrylate based resin wood coatings that can be cured using energy efficient NIR LED irradiation