COLOUR | PIGMENTS
Above: Lanxess exhibited its diverse polymer
additives and colorants for plastics at K 2025
Shepherd Colour’s RTZ Orange technology, available as Orange 10P340 and Orange 10C341 for coatings. Based on rutile tin zinc (RTZ) chemis- try, these pigments extend the same performance balance into the orange-red region of the colour space. RTZ pigments are known for their excellent opacity, lightfastness, and resistance to environ- mental degradation, making them well-suited for demanding outdoor applications. This range of pigments provide a chromatic orange with strong redness, offering formulators a tool for adjusting “a*” values in colour matches. At the same time, they maintain the core benefits of complex inorganic pigments, including exceptional weather- ability, heat stability, and chemical resistance, according to Shepherd Colour.
Safety in EVs The safety requirements of e-mobility have opened a full new range of demands for orange marking. The particular shades that need to be achieved require also excellent heat stability, lightfastness and weather resistance. Properties such as colour strength and brilliance are also required. For this application, Lanxess offers two complementary products: Macrolex Orange HT, a soluble organic dye, and Bayplast Orange TP LXS 51137, a pigment solution. The halogen-free Macrolex Orange HT allows plastics to be permanently coloured in the RAL 2003 orange shade, ensuring that the colouring and its critical safety marking are durable and highly visible, to support accident prevention and compliance with industry standards. One of its most important attributes is its compatibility with most engineering plastics requiring heat stability at high processing temperatures, a feature that is not shared by most conventional dyes. According to Lanxess, colour strength and cost-efficiency belong to the solution delivered to manufacturers. Also designed for high-voltage and other engineering plastic components, such as housing
20 COMPOUNDING WORLD | September 2026
of outdoor power tools, the Bayplast Orange TP LX 51137 (Pigment Orange 68) stands out for its weather resistance and durability, which makes it particularly suitable for long-lasting outdoor and safety relevant applications. This pigment solution is preferred in applications with high UV exposure and where resistance to extreme environmental conditions is required over many years, to reinforce accident prevention. Milliken also provides a solution for orange safety marking. Its Resist XTR is a high chromatic orange, designed to meet the extreme colourant performance required in highly demanding applications, such as high-voltage battery connec- tors in electric vehicles. The formulation can be adapted to meet the RAL 2003 shade with different base materials: PA 6, 66 and 46, PBT, PPA and PSU. According to Milliken, the product reaches a thermal stability of up to 300°C or more, has improved lightfastness and weather resistance under UV exposure and maintains key electrical properties of the polymer. It also has an excellent ratio between performance and compatibility with other additives and fillers, such as glass fibres, glass spheres, flame retardants and heat stabilizers. For the EV market, Sun Chemical has developed
a comprehensive range of colouring solutions for engineering compounds such as PA, PBT and PPS. These pigments are designed for heat and chemi- cal resistance, and according to the manufacturer exhibit both light and weather fastness, as well as low migration.
Bio-based developments One of the leaders in nature-based colour solutions is Sparxell, a University of Cambridge spin-out. This colour platform is 100% plant-based. The patented technology derives cellulose from wood pulp, extracts cellulose crystals and assembles them into structures, able to reflect specific wavelengths of light. According to the developing team, this is the same process that creates the colours on butterfly wings. The pigments are designed to be biodegradable at the end of life. The company has recently raised €4.2m in
pre-Series A funding, to scale its plant-based colour technology for packaging and industrial uses. The objective is to scale the operation from pilot programs to commercial-scale manufacturing. Within its portfolio of BioColorants, Avient highlights colour concentrates under the brand OnColor, providing a broad portfolio of colour options for bioplastics while satisfying industry requirements and legislation. According to Avient, these colour concentrates are specially designed to
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IMAGE: LANXESS
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