Conventional textile polymer coatings have been often applied as homogeneous solutions or heterogeneous aqueous dispersions using energy intensive thermal drying techniques to solidify the coating. This is either physical drying by removing the coating solvent or chemical curing of the coating components. Nevertheless, both processes require higher temperatures provided by convection dryers and consequently they are cost-intensive and time consuming. On the other hand, radiation induced polymerization of textile coatings represents an ecological and economical altemative using LEDs as energy saving radiation source. LEDs have been available from the UV up to the near infrared (NIR) region. NIR-LED arrays may possess some benefits compared to UV LEDs; that is a larger curing depth profile, the possibility to embed UV absorbers as well as yellow pigments, and initiation of thermal events by deactivation of the excited state that additionally functions as an absorber in the coating formulation.
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