Method and apparatus for continuous hardening of light-curing resins

A method to continuously harden at least one molded shaped article, comprising a resin containing composition which is visible light curable, which comprises:

• providing, in an enclosed space, a multiplicity of groups of aligned sources of visible light;
• moving said article and said visible light source groups relative to each other in relative respective alignment;
• continuously exposing said article to the radiation of all of the visible light sources along its path of relative movement;
• independently controlling said groups of visible light sources to emit different luminous flux densities from different of said groups corresponding to the position of said article relative to said visible light source;
• continuously irradiating said article with said visible light to the extent of about 100 to 1,000,000 luxes sufficient to visible light cure and harden said resin;
• providing sensing means to detect the temperature proximate to said shaped article;
• independently controlling the temperature of the environment about said shaped article, responsive to said sensing, during said irradiation, whereby said environment temperature is controlled to a predetermined value independent of said radiation and independent of the curing of said resin;
• and thus producing a cured hardened resinous article.