Thermo-UV dual curing hardcoat for IMD

Release time:

2023-08-21

IMD (In-Mold Decoration), IMD is a popular surface decoration technology in the world, mainly applied to the surface decoration of home appliances and functional panels, commonly used in cell phone window lenses and housings, consumer electronics shells, washing machine control panels, refrigerator control panels, air conditioning control panels, automotive dashboards, rice cooker control panels. The panels, logos and other external parts in various fields.

IMD contains IML.IMF.IMR:

IML：In Molding Label；

IMF：In Molding Film（forming）；

IMR：In Molding Roller（Reprint ）。

The biggest difference between the three is that there is no film on the surface of IMR process, while IMF and IML still have film on the surface. Today I focus on the IMR process.

IMR (In-MouldDecoration by Roller) in-mould decoration technology is the decorative and functional patterns printed on the foil film (film) through high-precision printing machine, through high-precision foil feeding device will be sent to the foil into a special mold for precise positioning, through the injection of plastic raw materials at high temperatures and high pressures, the pattern on the foil will be transcribed onto the surface of the plastic product. The IMR foil substrate is the carrier of the pattern during the production process, and there is no substrate on the surface of the product.

IMR film has light weight, good light transmittance, bright color and high brightness metallic texture. It can be widely used in large volume, high value-added products, such as cell phones, digital cameras, 3C peripheral products, MP3, mouse, DVD panels and cosmetic boxes. Cell phone manufacturers are especially fond of IMR.

The practicality of its products not only meets the busy action needs of modern people, but also increases the aesthetics of the object to meet the changing social needs of the new era, enhance the use of color tones in various aspects to meet the new sense of human vision. Moreover, the IMR process meets the manufacturing needs of the 3C industry: fast production speed, stable yield, and low cost, which is in line with the needs of the 3C industry, which is characterized by high demand changes and a short life cycle.

IMR Process Benefits

1. All-in-one molding, process simplification, reduce production/inventory costs and man-hours, shorten the product manufacturing cycle, improve production efficiency;

2. multi-color, leather, 'hairline' imitation metal carbon fiber logic light laser and other texture effects, backlit mirror (magic mirror effect) and other special effects of the use of 3D complex shapes and diversified effects to enhance the added value of the product to meet the visual effect.

3. All kinds of reliability tests are the highest level in the industry to ensure the stability and durability of the products;

4. Highly automated production to ensure stable production with high yield rate;

5. automatic printing and environmentally friendly inks are used to meet environmental requirements.

IMR Process Disadvantages

1. MOQ requirements;

2. Surface is not wear-resistant.

Common domestic IMR process because the surface is not hardened coating, resulting in product hardness, wear resistance compared to IMF, IML are weak, foreign IMR process will usually be in the film between the release layer and the ink layer to increase the UV coating, to play a hardening effect, but currently the country is in the initial stage, the technology, the material are mastered in the foreign enterprises, restricting the development of the product.

Conventional UV hardening coating is divided into two kinds, long chain and short chain, short chain UV high hardness but brittle, long chain UV not only high hardness, toughness is also good, but after pre-baking the surface of the sticky, there is no way to mold, is there a product can be achieved after thermosetting stereotypes have elasticity, UV curing hardness to further improve? Is there a product that can realize elasticity after heat-setting and further increase the hardness after UV curing?

According to the market demand, Winlight Optical has launched thermoformable UV plus hard coating, also known as thermal UV double curing, the so-called thermoformable hard coating, i.e. heat curing followed by UV curing. The coating is first briefly heat-dried to form a surface with a certain initial hardness and printability, and then UV-cured after subsequent thermoforming processes (stretching, blistering, high-pressure molding, bending, etc.) to achieve the final performance of the hardcoat.

Product characteristics have excellent tensile properties, can be applied to stretching, vacuum molding, bending and other processing, no cracking, peeling and other undesirable phenomena; higher hardness, better abrasion resistance, excellent weathering performance; according to customer needs to increase the effect of anti-fouling

Thermal UV double curing hardening solution can be coated on top of large sheets or films, coating is more convenient and less wasteful, easy to achieve industrial concentration, reduce the downstream spraying hardening process, reduce the burden on the environment. Process optimization at the same time, but also to create higher added value, increase product competitiveness.