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The “Tough Guy” in Light-Curing Resins

Release time:

2025-01-10 17:01

In the UV-curing industry, epoxy acrylates are the most widely used class of UV-curable resins. As a manufacturer of UV-curable resins, Boxing New Materials would like to take this opportunity today to talk with you about epoxy acrylates.

Epoxy acrylates are produced by esterifying epoxy resins with acrylic acid or methacrylic acid. According to their structural types, they can be classified into bisphenol A epoxy acrylates, modified epoxy acrylates, phenolic epoxy acrylates, and epoxidized oil acrylates. Among these, bisphenol A epoxy acrylates are the most commonly used and account for the largest volume of application.

Bisphenol A epoxy acrylate is produced by reacting bisphenol A epoxy resin with acrylic or methacrylic esters. Its molecular structure contains a benzene ring, which imparts high hardness, strength, and thermal stability to the resin. The hydroxyl groups on the side chains help enhance adhesion to substrates and improve wetting properties for pigments. Overall, bisphenol A epoxy acrylate has the following advantages: 1. Fast photo-curing speed; 2. High hardness, gloss, and fullness of the cured film; 3. Excellent chemical resistance. Moreover, its raw materials are readily available, inexpensive, and the synthesis process is straightforward. As a result, it is currently widely used in UV plastic coatings, UV paper coatings, UV wood finishes, and other systems that have low cost requirements and large-scale applications. As the saying goes, "No gold is perfectly pure, and no one is entirely flawless." The drawbacks of bisphenol A epoxy acrylate include poor flexibility and high brittleness of the cured film, as well as inferior yellowing resistance.

Due to the aforementioned drawbacks of bisphenol A epoxy acrylates, these epoxy acrylates are modified according to performance requirements. For instance, they can be modified using amines, fatty acids, phosphates, anhydrides, polyurethanes, or even silicones, yielding a series of modified epoxy acrylates. By synthesizing grafting or chain extension reactions with different modifying raw materials, epoxy acrylates with outstanding performance in specific areas can be obtained. For example, amine-modified epoxy acrylates can enhance curing speed, pigment wetting properties, and adhesion, making them highly valuable for UV inks; anhydride-modified epoxy acrylates can reduce curing shrinkage and improve the flexibility and yellowing resistance of the cured film, among other benefits.

Phenolic epoxy acrylate is produced by reacting phenolic epoxy resin with acrylic acid or methyl methacrylate. Compared to bisphenol A epoxy acrylate, it features a molecular structure containing more than two epoxy groups and has a higher benzene ring density and greater rigidity, resulting in higher reactivity, a denser crosslinking network in the cured film, and outstanding heat resistance and chemical resistance. Currently, it is mainly used in PCB solder mask inks.

Epoxidized oil acrylates mainly include epoxidized soybean oil acrylate and epoxidized castor oil acrylate. Their key characteristics are low cost and excellent flexibility, particularly outstanding wetting and dispersing properties for pigments. However, they have a slow photocuring rate, produce soft cured films, and exhibit poor mechanical and physical performance. Therefore, they are not used alone in photocurable formulations but are typically employed as auxiliary resins in combination with other resins that have higher reactivity.

As a manufacturer of light-curable resins, Boxing New Materials offers mature, commercially available products across all the epoxy acrylate types mentioned above, such as Bisphenol A epoxy acrylates B-100 and B-113; modified epoxy acrylates B-163 and B-151; phenolic epoxy acrylates B-191A and B-196S; and epoxy soybean oil acrylate B-106. We warmly welcome both new and existing customers to contact us for samples and testing!

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The “traffic leader” in the light-curing resin industry

UV-CIPP, or Ultraviolet Light-Cured In-Place Pipe Repair Technology