| TECHNOLOGY |
RevTech Inc., Edison, N.J., received the award in the small business category for its glass-decorating technology known as Envirogluv. RevTech started out as a division of Revlon Consumer Products but became an independent company in September 1999. Envirogluv does away with the heavy metals and VOCs that are usually found in labels on glass containers. Instead, glass is decorated with organic inks that are cured onto the glass using ultraviolet light. The glass is pretreated with a primer that contains a silane derivative that forms a siloxane bridge with the hydroxyl groups in the glass. The radiation-curable ink consists of several components: monomers or oligomers such as epoxides, acrylates, or acetates; pigments from the pyrrolopyrrol or isoindolinone families of chemicals; and a photoinitiator such as a triarylsulfonium salt. UV irradiation initiates polymerizations and cures the ink on the glass. Adjusting the acid groups within the polymer affects the ease of removing the decoration. In RevTech's One-Wash system, which has a higher acid content, the decoration is stripped from the glass with an alkali solution. According to Melvin E. Kamen, executive vice president and head of technology at RevTech, the company has developed its own palette of colors with organic, biodegradable inks. The inks do not contain the heavy metals found in inks used in traditional glass decorating. For example, RevTech's yellow does not contain hexavalent chromium, and the red is cadmium-free. "We are able to put color on color with this process, which you can't do with traditional inks," Kamen says. |
| UPDATE | 07.00 |
| COMPANY | RevTech Inc |
| LITERATURE REF. | This data is not available for free |
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