What UV bulbs for curing photopolymer

Hi, new to this forum, so if this has been asked before i apologise in advance.

Before her divorce my partner ran a extremely succesfull company, making stamps used in the craft industry. To cut a very long story short her partner was in charge of the technicial side of the buisness, and she was the face and creative force behind it, and now refuses to help.

We are based in the UK and currently use Polydiam machines to manufacture the stamps using Chemence Verbatim® photopolymer.

Due to the fact that the machines cannot cure and manufacture at the same time, we decided to build our own curing machine based on my partners limited knowledge.

Basically we have constructed a MDF box fitted with four 2ft UV flykiller bulbs ( based on the fact 300-365 nm: is suitable for the curing of polymers and printer inks and fly killers work at 350-370nm).The box is lined with foil and the bulbs are approx 6 inches above the trays containg the water into which the uncured sheets are placed, we have used salts in the solution to no avail. However this is failing to cure the stamps, and despite numerous calls to manufactures and bulb suppliers ( who have all been less than helpfull) we are stuck. And with some big trade shows fast approaching any help you could provide would be much appreciated.

Regards
Mark & Aly

AFAIK water is quite an efficient UV filter by itself (depending on the wavelength - check absorption spectrum at the wavelength you are using - see here for example [www.lsbu.ac.uk] ). I have no experience in the process you describe, but Id make sure that if water is absolutely needed in the trays, its depth is just the minimum necessary.

Here is a link showing some absorbance of liquid water bewteen 300 and 400nm (3000 and 4000A)
[www.lsbu.ac.uk]
There seems to be a peak at 340nm.

The crucial information here would be to know if the water is at all necessary and what wavelength the Chemence Verbatim photopolymer works in.

You may have a try with germicidal UV lamps to test the reaction at shorter wavelengths

Hi Aly,
I'd like to help! I work in making photopolymer stamps.
Give me a call as I should be able to help you.

07800 567901

Kind regards

Mark.

Hi, I've been in contact with the UK company Intertronics and they've been extremely helpful regarding UV cure systems. Perhaps they might be worth contacting.