By David Savastano • Editor

Energy-curable technologies have been one of the brighter business areas in the graphic arts and coatings markets and as a result, attendees and exhibitors of RadTech UV/EB Technology Conference & Expo 2010 are optimistic about the future for UV ad EB.

Mickey Fortune, event manager for RadTech North America, the conference’s organizer, said that the growth of end-users coming to the show is a positive sign.

“The show has been really good,” said Mr. Fortune. “Our end-user attendance is higher than it’s ever been, especially in some new specialty applications such as field applied applications, and we are also seeing a lot of printers and packagers.”

The Technical Conference spanned a wide range of topics. There were two end-user sessions, focusing on Industrial Applications and Printing & Packaging. The technical conference featured concurrent sessions on Japan, Electron Beam and Specialty Applications I, as well as sessions on Analytical & Measurement, Photoinitiators and Specialty Applications II. There were also two industry roundtable discussions, on TSCA Reform Workshop/Regulatory Issues for UV/EB and Academic Issues for UV.

Dr. Mike Idacavage, principal research fellow, Cytec Industries Inc., who serves as RadTech North America’s president, said that the show has exceeded his expectations.

“I’ve been impressed with the excitement of the attendees, both downstairs at the exhibit area and at the Technical Conference,” Dr. Idacavage said. “The general feeling is quite optimistic and people really looked forward to the specialty application sessions, particularly photovoltaics and field applied applications.”

Dr. Idacavage also was happy with RadTech’s new focus group sessions.

“The focus group on academia had a much greater attendance than we anticipated,” he said. “RadTech took a first step by calling this meeting to bring the world of academics and the industrial segment together.”

Suppliers said they were happy with the initial turnout for the show. James Horgan, vice president of technology for Sartomer USA, LLC, agreed that end-users are the key to the success of UV/EB curing.

“The goal of RadTech has always been to promote the end-users,” Mr. Horgan said. “The hope is that end-users who come here can see the potential for UV and EB in their applications, because we always need to expand the applications that can benefit from UV and EB.

“The people who are here are here with a purpose to expand their applications,” Mr. Horgan added. “I still think that the main drivers for UV and EB are regulatory and market pressures, and UV has some opportunities there.”

“The show started off a little slow, but it picked up,” said Joe Coffey, technical sales/service manager for Shamrock Technologies. “We have met with many of our major customers as well as medium-sized customers, and they are all reporting that their business is doing well.”

“There is concern over attendance being down somewhat, but our business is picking up, which is a good sign,” said Patrick Peach, business manager, solar energy products for Red Spot Paint & Varnish Co.

“I think the show is going extremely well,” said Joseph Leon, president of Double Bond Chemical Industries USA, Inc., a new subsidiary of Double Bond of Taiwan. “We’ve had a good reception from customers. We are established in Europe and Asia, and we see that the time is right to bring our products to the U.S.”

“We’ve had good traffic,” said Patrick J. Heraty Jr., market segment manager, graphic arts, coating additives for Evonik Goldschmidt Corporation, Coating Additives/Tego Division. “It was actually surprising. We are finding that attendees have specific questions and they are willing to sit down and talk.”