Immediate Release
Gary Cohen, Executive Director
301-229-3368; uveb@radtech.org

RadTech Presidential Emerging Technology Award Winners Announced

American Toyota, Columbia Forest Products, InPhase Holographic Storage, Lithotype, SCAQMD are Honored

Chevy Chase, MD—(May 16, 2006) RadTech honored five leading edge organizations in their use of ultraviolet (UV) and electron beam (EB) technologies, at the group’s recent biennial Conference.  “We like to say that UV/EB technologies are invisible, but everywhere, says David Harbourne,” President of Fusion UV and RadTech President.  “This year’s winners of the RadTech Presidential Emerging Application Award are an elite group covering a wide range of technologies including holographic media, printing, wood stains and coatings, and floor refinish coatings.” 

“These companies demonstrate the enabling nature of UV/EB technology and its ability to improve productivity while eliminating harmful emissions and saving energy,” says Peter Weissman of Cytec, and Chair of RadTech’s Emerging Technologies Committee.  “Each of these characteristics is helping to make a significant bottom line financial contribution to the companies who won the award.”  

Overview of Award Winners 
InPhase--High Performance Photopolymer Recording Media for Holographic Storage
The explosion of digital media has resulted in tremendous pressures on data storage technologies. The next generations of digital video, distribution of content over high-bandwidth networks, interactive multimedia, and game products all demand high storage densities, rapid data transfer rates, random access to data, and removability of the storage media. Holography enables storage densities that can surpass those of traditional magnetic and optical recording by allowing a million bits of data to be written and read out in single flashes of light, thus obtaining data transfer rates of billions of bits per second.  One of the critical challenges in the development of holographic storage systems has been the availability of suitable recording media. InPhase has invented high performance holographic recording materials based on a novel class of UV cured photopolymer systems.  The resulting polymer materials are compatible with the rapid cycle times required for volume manufacturing of the media.  

InPhase Technologies will be offering a family of holographic drives and media based on this new technology.  InPhase’s commercialization strategy has hinged upon the development of the recording media and is a compelling example of the enabling nature of UV/EB technology.  “The use of photocurable polymers has allowed InPhase Technologies to develop high performance holographic data storage media that have enabled demonstrations of record-setting storage densities,” says Lisa Dhar of InPhase.  “Incorporating photocurable polymers has allowed the rapid development of holographic technologies with the materials being the basis of the family of high capacity, high transfer rate storage products offered by InPhase.” 

Columbia Forest Products--UV Curable Wood Stains
Columbia Forest Products is the largest North American manufacturer of hardwood plywood and hardwood veneers.  Columbia Forest Products focus their product development on emerging technologies in an effort to constantly improve their product line.  They have recently established a formaldehyde free glue line which has no harmful emissions.  Since 1995 Columbia has been pre finishing hardwood plywood utilizing 100% solids UV sealers and topcoats.  These pre finished panels were well accepted by their customer base which includes the kitchen cabinet, store fixture and furniture industries.  In order to meet the demands of their customers for stained and pre finished panels they investigated the possibility of adding staining capabilities to their production line.  They chose to investigate UV curable stains since this would give them the best opportunity to produce an environmentally friendly product that would fit their limited space requirements. 

Columbia developed a process that allows them to stain and finish with 100% solids UV curable stains, sealers and topcoats on 4x8 sheets of hardwood plywood.  There is no solvent in the stain or subsequent sealers and topcoats which eliminates the need for volatile organic compounds (VOC) emission regulations. The application process for the UV stain system is fully automated and takes up a relatively small amount of space. There is virtually no waste since the coating is recirculated back through the roll coater machine.  This now allows their customers to eliminate a highly labor intensive staining process typically performed with low solids, high VOC products.  “This application demonstrates the dramatic impact of UV/EB technology can have on manufacturing process efficiency while making a substantial reduction in environmental pollutants,” says Peter Weissman of Cytec.   

“Receiving the Presidential Award for Emerging Technology at the RADTECH 2006 show in Chicago validates our focus on UV coatings as well as our ongoing commitment to innovation,” says Brad Thompson, Columbia Forest Products President, President Plywood & Veneer.   “We continually focus on new technologies that will add value and differentiate us to our customer base.  The award for developing a process that allows for staining and finishing with 100% solids UV curable stains, sealer and topcoats on 4’ x 8’ sheets of hardwood plywood eliminates the need for VOC emission permitting at the plant level and allows us to offer a variety of prefinished materials to our customers, helping them reduce emissions in their facilities as well.  This focus on no VOCs ties into our leadership in LEED offerings and our new no added formaldehyde PureBond line of hardwood plywood.  In the past 18 months was have added two new UV lines into our Trumann, AR and Klamath Falls, OR facilities, bringing our total to 4 UV lines in the Plywood Division.  Our commitment to this technology is paramount to our future growth and success.” 

LithoType Company—Flexible Packaging
Since their founding in 1968, The Lithotype Company, a flexible packaging printer, has focused on producing the highest quality packaging and providing the highest level of customer service. 

Lithotype is a flexible packaging printer utilizing high speed state of the art printing technologies. In recent years, they have removed their solvent-based litho inks and replaced them with environmentally friendly electron beam (EB) cured inks. In addition to eliminating harmful VOC emissions from their process, they were able to reduce their operating costs by eliminating the use of natural gas.  “Adding E-Beam coating technology to our presses has impacted us in several areas,” says Joe Billett, VP Manufacturing, Lithotype. Our VOC emissions have been reduced by 40% by eliminating the use of after burners, which is substantial for offset web printing companies. This technology has also enabled us to increase our efficiency with the faster production speeds along with supplying our customers with the highest gloss and scuff protection possible within a coating application.”

American Toyota—Show Room Floor Refinish
J.R. Malouff, the General Manager of American Toyota had a problem. He had a tile floor in his accessories show room that he wanted a high gloss finish on but it also needed it durable and required minimal maintenance. He considered various conventional coating options, but did not want to take the area out of service for the required two to four days while the conventional coating cured. When J.R. heard about UV curing he knew he had found the answer to his problem.  The tile floor is first washed to remove dirt and any old coatings that were on the tile and then coated with the UV curable formulation. The curing apparatus is self propelled and has the light mounted on the front. The operator simply walks behind the curing apparatus on the already cured coating. The results are clear to see: a durable, high gloss UV coating applied to the tile efficiently, without the use of solvents, and with minimal disruption to the operations at American Toyota.  

South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD, Southern California)—Wood Bench Refinish
When first evaluating environmentally friendly--low volatile organic compound (VOC)—coatings to refinish their outdoor patio benches, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) of Southern California considered solely water based coatings.  The California sun and harsh environment posed a challenge for the waterborne technology, however, causing the coatings to fail after only a few months.  At that point, SCAQMD staff sought alternatives which could endure the outdoor exposure, and help the agency assess the feasibility of environmentally friendly architectural coatings.  Ultraviolet coatings turned out to be such an alternative, offering not only a clean process, but a superior protective finish at reasonable cost. 

 “Ultraviolet and Electron Beam technology can certainly play a significant role in helping us reach our clean air goals,” says Mr. Tisopulous of SCAQMD.  “While UV/EB technology has been quite successful in the manufacturing environment, we had not seen the same level of applicability in the architectural coatings area.  Now we are looking quite favorably to the prospect of using UV/EB architectural coatings, which can result in significant emission reductions and benefit the environment.  We are extremely interested because UV/EB resins will offer an additional compliance tool to manufacturers and end users of architectural coatings, enabling them to strike a balance between economic and environmental concerns.  The fast curing capabilities of UV/EB can be an added bonus to both contractors and users.”  “In the past, architectural applications were considered the next frontier for UV/EB technology. The success of UV materials in the SCAQMD patio bench project may very well prove that, for UV/EB architectural coatings, the future is here now,” says Rita Loof, RadTech Director of Regulatory Affairs.

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UV and EB are high value, rapid throughput processes offering the virtual elimination of emissions and lower energy consumption compared with traditional methods—providing manufacturers with a safe, fast and efficient pollution prevention technology.  As a result, the industry continues to grow at over twice the rate of traditional processes.  

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