Patent ID: 8460762

Claim:
A process for coating a substrate which comprises a) coating a liquid composition onto a surface of a substrate in a substantially oxygen-free atmosphere, under vacuum conditions in a vacuum chamber, which composition comprises one or more components, all of which components do not go into a gas or vapor phase under said vacuum conditions while in said vacuum chamber, said composition comprising an ethylenically unsaturated component, said ethylenically unsaturated component consisting essentially of an ethylenically unsaturated methacrylate monomer, or a combination of an ethylenically unsaturated methacrylate monomer and an ethylenically unsaturated methacrylate oligomer, which ethylenically unsaturated component is polymerizable or crosslinkable by the application of sufficient electron beam radiation, said composition being substantially absent of ethylenically unsaturated acrylate components, substantially absent of polymerization initiators, and substantially absent of solvents; b) exposing said liquid composition to sufficient electron beam radiation, in a substantially oxygen-free atmosphere, under vacuum conditions, to polymerize or crosslink the composition.