Market Trends: Global Consumption of Radiation-Cured Products
Product assembly adhesives for electronic, medical, and other applications accounted for 13% of the adhesive pounds.
The global consumption of radiation-cured coatings, inks and adhesives was 868 million lbs in 2012, worth $4,495 million, according to a recent study from Kusumgar, Nerlfi & Growney. The largest outlet was coatings, with 78% of the volume and 58% of the value. Wood and overprints were the leading coating end uses, taking nearly three-quarters of the volume and 60% of the value. A variety of plastic applications such as vinyl flooring, consumer electronic housings, automotive headlamp lenses and housings, CDs, etc., comprised 18% of the coating volume and 24% of the value. Optical fibers and cables were the fourth-largest end use. These four end uses represent 95% of the coating pounds and 93% of the value.
The ink industry consumed 18% of the radcure product volume and 35% of the value in 2012. If inks were combined with overprint coatings into one graphic arts category, that segment would represent 41% of the volume and 48% of the value. The offset process took nearly one-half of the ink volume and 43% of the dollars. The fastest-growing radcure ink process is inkjet, which is forecast to more than double in volume by 2017. Inkjet was only 3% of the volume in 2012 but 11% of the value.