PIGMENTS | BLACK AND WHITE
Above: Lanxess developed its Bayferrox 303T manganese ferrite black pigment for NIR sorting applications
particularly important in growing applications such as packaging for food transported over long distances, says Stefano Bartolucci, Head of Global Market Segment Plastics, Paper and Specialties, Inorganic Pigments, at Lanxess. “Black opaque packaging material protects perishable goods from UV radiation. This is important because light can change the properties of food; [UV light can] destroy vitamins, cause oxidation or lead to fading,” he says. Black pig- ments can be more than just practical, however. “Black gives consumers the impression that the product is serious, elegant, classy or respectable. It is often used in the packaging industry to create a high-quality impression.” Carbon black has long been the “workhorse”
colorant for black plastics, including packaging. With the increasing push for mechanical recycling, however, carbon black can pose a problem in material recovery facilities (MRFs) that use near infrared (NIR) sensors to detect material type. Carbon black absorbs IR wavelengths and cannot be detected with NIR sensors, which prevents plastics
from being sorted. In the past several years, pigment suppliers have introduced a range of “NIR visible” black pigments that reflect rather than absorb NIR, making them sortable in such recycling systems. Bartolucci explains that two types of black pigments—complex inorganic coloured pigments (CICPs) and manganese ferrites—reflect IR light and can be detected by MRFs using NIR sortation. Lanxess launched Bayferrox 303T, a manganese ferrite black pigment, in September 2021, to satisfy this need. Bartolucci reports that Bayferrox 303T has a very low magnetic value, which is important for plastics packaging. “Magnetisable pigments can trigger false alarms during quality control processes in the food industry, [because] metal detectors cannot distinguish between pigments and pieces of metal in an edible item. This is why metal contaminants must be avoided in both the masterbatch and the packaging,” he says. Bayferrox 303T offers colour strength that is 20% higher than comparable pigments, says Bartolucci, who adds that manga- nese ferrites are generally more cost-effective than CICPs. The company’s Bayferrox 645T is another NIR-reflective pigment that can achieve black and brown shades.
Magnetic attraction Formed in April 2022 when Prince International Corporation completed its acquisition of Ferro Corporation and combined the two companies with Chromaflo Technologies, Vibrantz Technologies also offers manganese ferrite pigments. “We have recently improved our Nubifer NB-803K FCP Manganese Ferrite (Pigment Black 33), mainly used
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IMAGE: LANXESS
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