RadTech Announces 2025 Automotive Innovation, RadLaunch Winners

RadTech recognizes five leaders driving innovation in automotive manufacturing, next-generation electronics, high-viscosity 3D printing, and biomedical engineering through UV and EB technologies.

This year’s Automotive Innovation and RadLaunch Award recipients include Ford Motor Company, Toyota Industries Corporation, Pixelligent, Supernova, and a Duke University Ph.D. candidate.

They will be honored for pioneering applications that enhance sustainability, precision, and performance at RadTech 2025, May 18-21, 2025 in Detroit, MI, USA.

• Ford Motor Company – Precision Painting Enabled by UV Tech for Automotive Coating Systems

RadTech recognizes Ford Motor Company for its cutting-edge research into the development of overspray free revolutionary paint applicator technology, enabled by UV. This award follows the granting to Ford of a U.S. patent, marking a major leap forward in sustainable, high-efficiency vehicle finishing. Ford’s patented system is a novel approach that combines ultrasonic atomization with advanced UV-curable coatings.

Ford’s use of UV-curable coatings, already well established in applications like polycarbonate headlamps, is now being extended to more complex vehicle surfaces. UV curing precision painting promises to offer results including 80% reduction in labor from masking processes; 35% material savings through targeted application; 40% overall cost efficiency in specialty finishes; and 3X improvement in design flexibility.

Ford is also testing UV-curable inks for detailed graphic applications, logos, and decorative elements, able to maintain adhesion, endure enamel thermal bake cycles, and integrate beneath automotive clearcoats.

While traditional full-body paint lines remain in place, Ford’s precision painting model explores opportunities to transform the production of specialty finishes, showing how UV technology can be a powerful enabler of sustainability, efficiency, and creative expression in modern automotive manufacturing.

• Toyota Industries Corporation – Groundbreaking UV-Curable Coating

Toyota Industries Corporation has developed the world’s first single-layer, UV-curable hard coating for plastic glazing in vehicles—a major step forward in automotive materials technology.

This new coating replaces the traditional three-layer system used on windshields and windows, dramatically simplifying the process while meeting international scratch and durability standards, cutting carbon emissions by 80% and costs by 40%, helping to develop lighter, more efficient vehicles.

Already in use on the Lexus hydrogen-powered off-road vehicle, the coating is being tested in real-world conditions.

RadTech’s RadLaunch is a unique idea accelerator, designed to spotlight innovative applications for UV and EB technology. The RadTech 2025 winners include:

• Pixelligent Materials – Powering the Future of Electronics and Optics

Pixelligent develops cutting-edge materials that make the next generation of electronics and optical devices clearer, brighter, and more efficient, used in everything from high-tech displays and lighting to extended reality (XR) devices and advanced sensors.

These materials work by improving how light travels through and interacts with different surfaces. Whether it’s a screen, lens, or sensor, the technology helps make devices more energy-efficient, more durable, and visually appealing.

With UV as an enabling technology, Pixelligent has developed a manufacturing breakthrough that provides precise control over tiny nanocrystals materials at the heart of their process, using fast modern manufacturing techniques including nanoimprint lithography, and inkjet printing.

• Maddiy Segal, Duke University – UV 3D Printing Breakthrough for Degradable Medical Implants

Duke University Ph.D. candidate Maddiy Segal has developed a groundbreaking solvent-free resin for UV-based 3D printing, paving the way for biodegradable medical implants and other next-generation biomedical devices.

Using digital light processing (DLP)—a type of 3D printing that solidifies liquid resin using UV light—Segal created a material that eliminates the need for harmful solvents while delivering stronger, more accurate parts. Traditional DLP resins often shrink and warp as solvents evaporate. Segal’s innovation solves that challenge while remaining safe for use in the body.

Her work could help reduce the need for repeat surgeries to remove temporary implants and may one day be used in bone adhesives, soft robotics, and more. The research, conducted in the lab of Professor Matthew Becker, highlights how UV-curable materials are enabling more sustainable and patient-friendly medical technologies.

• Supernova – Viscous Lithography Manufacturing (VLM) Technology

Supernova’s Viscous Lithography Manufacturing (VLM) advances photopolymer additive manufacturing by enabling the use of ultra-high-viscosity resins—up to 5,000,000 cP at room temperature—far beyond the limits of conventional stereolithography. VLM uses controlled layer deposition and precise UV patterning to cure resin systems with more than 80% oligomer content, producing parts with mechanical properties comparable to injection-molded engineering plastics.

VLM supports highly filled, oligomer-rich formulations—including ceramics and fibers—without sacrificing printability or part quality. The resulting parts offer improved toughness, chemical resistance, and reduced water uptake and emissions, making them well suited for demanding industrial applications.

This capability has the potential to reshape manufacturing across aerospace, automotive, and industrial tooling sectors—pushing UV-based 3D printing into markets once considered out of reach.