COLOUR | PIGMENTS
Right: The shift to color-less bottles means caps may present a more powerful and colourful branding opportunity
off-flavour substances, such as the company’s Utmost Purity (UP) pigments — which include Irgazin Red K 3840 UP and LW and Heliogen Blue K 7097 UP — are beneficial. He also advises that package designers consider the protective aspects that colorants can provide. “Many food, pharma, and beverage packages use colour to protect the contents from light-in- duced degradation. Proper packaging can result in less greenhouse gas emissions due to improved shelf life and reduced spoilage,” Dumont says.
Driven by branding Branding, however, undoubtedly continues to be driven by colour. Mark Ryan, Marketing Manager at The Shepherd Color Company, sees strong interest in teal and aqua-blue shades for consumer goods, such as multi-use water bottles that require US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food contact notification (FCN). Shepherd Color’s Blue 424 and inorganic pigment Green 10F687 are FDA compliant for these shades, he says. Meanwhile, Ryan sees a continued move towards
darker colours in the building products market for items such as window frames. The company’s complex inorganic colour pigments (CICPs) have been used for decades in this application and have proven their place. “Darker colours need inherently better weathering pigments [such as CICPs],” Ryan says. “As an added benefit, the Arctic Infrared Reflective pigments help reduce solar induced heat build-up and thermal warping of materials, which is important for moving parts like windows.” In the emerging area of machine vision applica-
tions, such as sensors for autonomous vehicles, Epolin’s dyes produce colour and add functionality while allowing transmission of light through the plastic, according to Epolin Technical Marketing Director Don Tibbett. “Pigments will not work in
these applications as they are a solid particle that will either block the light or introduce haze to the product,” he says. The sustainability contribution made by pig- ments can be seen in the recycling sector. The development of “NIR visible” black pigments to replace carbon black is one example (carbon black absorbs infrared light and so can prevent effective sorting using near infrared sensors at material recovery facilities). Compounding World will cover this topic in more detail in the November issue.
PCR challenge Another example can be seen as a result of the increasing use of post-consumer recyclate (PCR) content, where pigments are being tasked with helping to overcome the inconsistency of colour that results from the variable feedstream. Inorganic pigments are “a perfect candidate” for this applica- tion, according to Daniel Llado, Market Segment Manager for Plastics at Vibrantz Technologies (formed in April 2022 when Prince International Corporation completed its acquisition of Ferro Corporation and combined the two companies with Chromaflo Technologies). Vibrantz says inorganic pigments offer opacity to cover the existing colours in PCR along with the durability to withstand reprocessing. The company says that ultramarines, in combination with whites, can counteract yellowness and improve colour con- sistency. Meanwhile, a new range of red iron oxide inorganic pigments from the company is said to have enhanced dispersability for use in applica- tions such as films and fibres. The 6000 Series range covers yellow to bluish red shades, accord- ing to Llado.
Sun Chemical’s Dumont adds that to counteract
Above: Branding is driven by colour, according to Shepherd Color, with teal and aqua blues popular in the consumer sector
16 COMPOUNDING WORLD | September 2022
the unpredictable nature of PCR content “formula- tors will require purer pigments with the least influence on the post-processing of the plastics scrap.” He suggests pigments with low warping characteristics, such as the company’s Eupolen
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: THE SHEPHERD COLOR COMPANY
IMAGE: SUN CHEMICAL
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82
