iGM Resins launches Photomer SC91, a self-photoinitiating acrylate resin for migration-sensitive UV and DLP/SLA formulations

iGM Resins, a Netherlands-based UV-curing materials supplier, has launched Photomer SC91, a photoactive acrylate resin that integrates photoinitiating groups directly into its polymer backbone. The material is a Type II photoactive system requiring a synergistic amine or hydrogen donor, is used at 10-20% concentration in a formulation, and cures under both UV mercury-lamp and UV LED systems with little to no separately added photoinitiator. iGM Resins says no extractable photoinitiator was detectable under its test conditions and the resin's molecular weight exceeds 1,000 Da, properties the company positions as relevant to migration-sensitive applications such as indirect food-contact packaging. Photomer SC91 is the first entry in the company's planned Photomer SC self-curable resin series, alongside stated targets in printing inks, overprint varnishes, coatings, adhesives and electronics.

For UV-based 3D printing, DLP and SLA formulators can use Photomer SC91 as the sole photoactive component (10-20 wt%) alongside acrylate oligomers such as Photomer 6643 and reactive monomers such as Photomer 4012, replacing conventional external photoinitiator packages. Reducing or eliminating separately added photoinitiators addresses a persistent formulation constraint in resin chemistry: migration of low-molecular-weight photoinitiator residues out of cured parts, which has limited UV-cured polymers in food-contact and other regulated end uses. The release does not disclose the test method, detection limit or regulatory framework used to support the extractable-photoinitiator claim, so formulators evaluating SC91 for compliance-driven applications will need to run their own migration testing against the relevant standard.