When I joined Bayer AG in 1968 and took on responsibility for conventional and UV-curing unsaturated polyesters, the era of radiation curing had just begun and there was a lot to learn and do.
We had to create stable and, in some cases, highly filled systems that also worked in daylight. We needed to discover the influence of the substrate (e.g. different types of wood) and its color on the curing results. We had to identify suitable radiation sources (initially superactinic fluorescent lamps; later the first high-pressure mercury lamps). We had to reduce the flash-off time to a minimum.