David Savastano and Kerry Pianoforte05.02.18
The field of flexible and printed electronics is clearly evolving, and it is interesting to hear the perspective of people who have long been involved in the field. From time to time, Printed Electronics Now interviews some of the leaders in the field and presents their viewpoints.
This week, we spoke with Dr. Mike J. Idacavage, VP business development with Colorado Photopolymer Solutions. Dr. Idacavage’ s work in UV curing started at Eastman Kodak with the establishment of a UV curing lab in 1985, and he has continued in the energy curing industry since that time.
Dr. Idacavage is a longtime leader in the field of UV and EB curing. He is a lifetime member of the Board of Directors of RadTech North America and served as president of RadTech North America from 2009-2010. In his current role, he serves as a technical advisor on a wide range of UV projects with a focus on 3D printing. Dr. Idacavage is also an adjunct associate professor at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, NY teaching courses in UV and EB curing technology and UV Curable 3D Printing.
Printed Electronics Now: How did the energy curing industry fare during the past year?
Dr. Idacavage: In general, the energy curing industry did quite well in the past year. As can be expected, this does depend on the market segment and also where on the supply chain one is positioned at. The energy curing industry encompasses a wide variety of both participants and end applications, so some are doing better than others. Overall, the industry trends were positive as while some segments such as wood and OPVs were nearly flat, others such as inkjet showed strong growth.
Printed Electronics Now: Are you seeing growth in the graphics arts and flexible electronics sides of the industry?
Dr. Idacavage: I am seeing a strong interest in energy curing from the flexible electronics industry as both start-up and established companies look to expand the availability of new electronic devices and also shrink the physical size of existing devices such as mobile phones. UV curing becomes an important tool when looking to shrink a device due to its ability to rapidly cure at or near room temperature. In the graphic arts area, most of the excitement is in digital printing or inkjet printing. I have seen continued growth in the typical applications such as flexo but this is more along the lines of incremental growth.
Printed Electronics Now: Raw materials are a major concern this year. How is the UV industry being impacted by raw material cost and availability?
Dr. Idacavage: This is a good question as the UV curable industry has been impacted at several different points in the supply chain. Perhaps the largest concern that I see are the regulatory barriers being placed on getting new raw materials approved for sale. It appears that most new UV curable materials are either being rejected at the PMN application stage or having SNURs or consent orders applied. Acrylates are the most widely used class of reactive materials used in energy curable coatings. Acrylates as a class are being considered a chemical of concern. To remove these concerns will take very expensive testing, which will likely limit the types of new materials being introduced to the market. In addition, the raw material suppliers have been squeezed by the formulators, convertors and end users to be more cost competitive when compared to traditional raw materials. Of course, this is not new as the industry has been seeing this pressure from the early days. In the same manner, the formulators and converters are also seeing this pressure as companies are looking to move from traditional coatings to energy cured coatings.
Printed Electronics Now: Is radcure making inroads into any new markets, such as 3D printing?
Dr. Idacavage: In the past year I have seen a strong push in expanding the applications or markets for energy curable coatings and inks. It seems like many of the low hanging fruit applications have become established and now the innovation is pushing into new areas. One example is in the area of 3D printing. Overall, 3D printing is generating significant levels of excitement in the manufacturing world. The use of UV curable materials allows the end user to obtain high levels of resolution and significant levels of material strength at a reasonable cost versus other types of 3D printing technology.
What I am finding to be very interesting is the combination of traditional 2D coatings and inks with 3D printing to give a coating or ink that is somewhat in between. This marriage allows the development of textured or raised coatings and inks or allows improvements in creating traditional printing supplies such as printing plates.
A very good indication of the level of innovation that currently exists in energy curing can be seen in the number of submissions to RadTech NA’s RadLaunch program. This is a new program that awards grants, mentoring and networking to selected start-up companies or existing companies new to energy curing. The 14 submissions all showed creative and unique new applications for energy curing. I believe RadTech NA has recently announced the list of applicants along with some information on each project. The winners will be presented in detail at the RadTech 2018 UV+EB show in Chicago from May 6-9.
Printed Electronics Now: What is the focus of R&D for feature applications and markets?
Dr. Idacavage: I see R&D’s efforts in several areas. One is a push for formulators to make use of the extensive catalog of existing approved materials to develop formulations that push the performance of the cured coatings and inks. There is a lot of development work going on to explore hybrid systems that combine the best properties of different energy curable materials. The list of possible materials is not limited to the traditional acrylates and methacrylates but also includes other chemistry such as Thiols and Thiol-enes to achieve higher productivity and/or performance. In an exciting development, there seems to be an increase in small companies or start-ups new to energy curing who are excited in taking UV curable technology into new areas that are not obvious to those who have been focused in the traditional applications and markets for energy curable systems.
This week, we spoke with Dr. Mike J. Idacavage, VP business development with Colorado Photopolymer Solutions. Dr. Idacavage’ s work in UV curing started at Eastman Kodak with the establishment of a UV curing lab in 1985, and he has continued in the energy curing industry since that time.
Dr. Idacavage is a longtime leader in the field of UV and EB curing. He is a lifetime member of the Board of Directors of RadTech North America and served as president of RadTech North America from 2009-2010. In his current role, he serves as a technical advisor on a wide range of UV projects with a focus on 3D printing. Dr. Idacavage is also an adjunct associate professor at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, NY teaching courses in UV and EB curing technology and UV Curable 3D Printing.
Printed Electronics Now: How did the energy curing industry fare during the past year?
Dr. Idacavage: In general, the energy curing industry did quite well in the past year. As can be expected, this does depend on the market segment and also where on the supply chain one is positioned at. The energy curing industry encompasses a wide variety of both participants and end applications, so some are doing better than others. Overall, the industry trends were positive as while some segments such as wood and OPVs were nearly flat, others such as inkjet showed strong growth.
Printed Electronics Now: Are you seeing growth in the graphics arts and flexible electronics sides of the industry?
Dr. Idacavage: I am seeing a strong interest in energy curing from the flexible electronics industry as both start-up and established companies look to expand the availability of new electronic devices and also shrink the physical size of existing devices such as mobile phones. UV curing becomes an important tool when looking to shrink a device due to its ability to rapidly cure at or near room temperature. In the graphic arts area, most of the excitement is in digital printing or inkjet printing. I have seen continued growth in the typical applications such as flexo but this is more along the lines of incremental growth.
Printed Electronics Now: Raw materials are a major concern this year. How is the UV industry being impacted by raw material cost and availability?
Dr. Idacavage: This is a good question as the UV curable industry has been impacted at several different points in the supply chain. Perhaps the largest concern that I see are the regulatory barriers being placed on getting new raw materials approved for sale. It appears that most new UV curable materials are either being rejected at the PMN application stage or having SNURs or consent orders applied. Acrylates are the most widely used class of reactive materials used in energy curable coatings. Acrylates as a class are being considered a chemical of concern. To remove these concerns will take very expensive testing, which will likely limit the types of new materials being introduced to the market. In addition, the raw material suppliers have been squeezed by the formulators, convertors and end users to be more cost competitive when compared to traditional raw materials. Of course, this is not new as the industry has been seeing this pressure from the early days. In the same manner, the formulators and converters are also seeing this pressure as companies are looking to move from traditional coatings to energy cured coatings.
Printed Electronics Now: Is radcure making inroads into any new markets, such as 3D printing?
Dr. Idacavage: In the past year I have seen a strong push in expanding the applications or markets for energy curable coatings and inks. It seems like many of the low hanging fruit applications have become established and now the innovation is pushing into new areas. One example is in the area of 3D printing. Overall, 3D printing is generating significant levels of excitement in the manufacturing world. The use of UV curable materials allows the end user to obtain high levels of resolution and significant levels of material strength at a reasonable cost versus other types of 3D printing technology.
What I am finding to be very interesting is the combination of traditional 2D coatings and inks with 3D printing to give a coating or ink that is somewhat in between. This marriage allows the development of textured or raised coatings and inks or allows improvements in creating traditional printing supplies such as printing plates.
A very good indication of the level of innovation that currently exists in energy curing can be seen in the number of submissions to RadTech NA’s RadLaunch program. This is a new program that awards grants, mentoring and networking to selected start-up companies or existing companies new to energy curing. The 14 submissions all showed creative and unique new applications for energy curing. I believe RadTech NA has recently announced the list of applicants along with some information on each project. The winners will be presented in detail at the RadTech 2018 UV+EB show in Chicago from May 6-9.
Printed Electronics Now: What is the focus of R&D for feature applications and markets?
Dr. Idacavage: I see R&D’s efforts in several areas. One is a push for formulators to make use of the extensive catalog of existing approved materials to develop formulations that push the performance of the cured coatings and inks. There is a lot of development work going on to explore hybrid systems that combine the best properties of different energy curable materials. The list of possible materials is not limited to the traditional acrylates and methacrylates but also includes other chemistry such as Thiols and Thiol-enes to achieve higher productivity and/or performance. In an exciting development, there seems to be an increase in small companies or start-ups new to energy curing who are excited in taking UV curable technology into new areas that are not obvious to those who have been focused in the traditional applications and markets for energy curable systems.
