Peerless has traditionally sought to offer protective coatings to the commonly used glazing and moulding plastics principally Polycarbonate and PMMA (Acrylic). Recently there has been a growing interest in looking to protect other plastics, predominantly for more cost effective glazing applications – namely PETg (polyethylene terphthalate glycol) and PET (polyethylene terphthalate). Interest in the polyester materials has arisen due to their greater clarity, lower Tg and the price differential between the more traditional glazing materials of polycarbonate and acrylic. There are several technical aspects that hinder the coating of the polyester materials (PETg and PET). With their low Tg it is difficult to use a thermal cure coating on these substrates. Peerless, with their UV curable range of coatings do not require any curing at elevated temperatures and so are suitable for coating these substrates without impinging upon the dimensional stability of the
plastics. Adhesion is the key requisite for any coating and is one of the technical difficulties in coating PETg and PET. The polyester materials have a low surface energy and as such the anchoring of the coating to the substrate at the molecular level proves to be difficult. Traditional methods of activating the surface to improve adhesion have proven to be, in some cases ineffective, or to have a detrimental effect on the impact properties of the materials to be coated. Peerless with its flexibility in the processing of plastic materials allied to its strong R&D effort in delivering customer driven solutions is able to deliver abrasion resistant and anti-reflective coatings for use on PETg and PET with no adverse effect to the base materials impact strength. Utilising in-line operational processing techniques combined with the latest chemistries Peerless is now developing a portfolio of coatings to be used on difficult to coat substrates. “It is our flexibility and ability to identify new chemistries which enables us to be successful in coating these substrates” said Dr Sean Farnan. It ensures that Peerless can offer an unrivalled service to meet the ever increasing demands of the customer and deliver successfully, high quality solutions.
Europe’s top facilitator of U.V. cured, clear and anti-reflective,
abrasion and chemical resistant coatings applied to plastic substrates.