I-Corps: Novel Monomers and Chemistries for Photopolymerization of Coatings and Adhesives

能量固化（EC）聚合物涂料广泛用于制造许多产品材料，如塑料、油墨和粘合剂，用于汽车、食品包装和印刷等行业。固化是将单体和低聚物转化为固体的，连接的聚合物网络，可以在产品或过程中执行某些期望的功能。为了在制造过程中形成功能性聚合物，需要以紫外光、可见光或电子束辐射的形式提供能量。制造成本的很大一部分与产生和使用这种能量有关，因此制造商不断寻找方法来提高这些聚合过程的能源效率。这个I-Corps团队提出了一种光化学聚合的新解决方案。目标光聚合物被设想用于开发新的高性能，高芳香涂料。欧共体商业生态系统是一个巨大而充满活力的空间。为了确定我们的技术的可行应用，必须了解关键的利益相关者。这些包括材料（聚合物）开发商/制造商，设备制造商（如灯具和固化系统）和商业最终用户（如工业打印机）。该团队最近参加了由UV&amp；EB技术协会Radtech赞助的UVLED会议（Troy， NY），以了解这些公司在价值链中的位置，并了解他们面临的一些技术挑战。一些参与者认为能源效率、可持续性和环境问题是他们所重视的好处，并表示愿意在正式的客户发现访谈中进行更详细的讨论。在I-Corps项目期间，该团队打算与大量相关部门参与者交谈，以了解他们的需求，以及他们是否相信拟议技术的好处可能以特定解决方案的形式为他们面临的技术挑战提供切实的价值。这项调查的一个重要驱动力是新颁发的拟议技术专利，因为它可以使创新产品或解决方案的开发成为可能，通过节约成本（例如能源）、可持续性和改善环境，在市场上创造竞争优势。

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.