Adhesion of UV-Cured Laminates of Poly(ethylene-2,6-naphthalate) (PEN) and Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) films

This paper describes the properties of an ultraviolet (UV) curable laminating adhesive system that can be used with PEN, PET and UV-stabilized PET films. The adhesive system that contains (2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl) diphenylphosphine oxide (TPO) as photoinitiator was optimally cured with a V-bulb fitted ultraviolet irradiator. The laminated structures built with this adhesive system and PEN, PET and UV-stabilized PET films showed a large manufacturing operating window, both in terms of adhesive layer thickness, initial peel strengths above 1500 N/m, V- and D-bulb UV sources and curing speeds from 5– 10 m/min. The 600-h dry heat aging tests indicated that the UV-stabilized PET films underwent less than approximately 1% decrease in light transmission and less than a 1% gain in color. The UV-stabilized PET film and its laminate showed particularly strong retention of optical properties under damp aging and QUV weathering, compared to PEN and non-UV-stabilized PET films. Finally, the peel strengths of the laminates were retained to greater than 1300 N/m for laminate structures of 50 μm film thickness, whereas structures made from thicker films retained approx. 40–60% (700–1100 N/m) of their initial peel strength.