metallic pigments,” said Bernadette Corujo, coatings marketing manager for Ciba, North America. “Vacuum metallized
pigments have been replacing hot stamp foils. Even in these
traditional segments, customers are looking for ways to differentiate their products to help drive consumer purchase decisions. For example in the automotive market, luxury cars are
using high performance metallic effect pigments for luxury
cars with high end wheel rims. The appliance market has
moved away from traditional white goods to an expanded color
space with increased usage of these upscale metallic pigments. Glitter effects have been incorporated into new looks
for plastics, coatings and inks applications.
“In addition to design features, functionalized pigments
are creating high end special functionality,” added Corujo.
“While not exclusive to metal effect pigments, emerging
areas of application include security, radio frequency identification, conductive, thermochromic and holographic inks
and coatings that respond to external stimulus.”
Environmentally friendly products are a key area of growth
for metallic pigment manufacturers. “Our customers are
requesting environmentally-friendly products with smaller
carbon footprints,” said Davies. “As a result, waterborne technology continues to grow along with applications like powder
coatings that reduce emissions and waste. Additionally, the
market continues to demand unique metallic effects combining
color, travel and functionality. Technology continues to push
towards achieving the liquid metal look combined with ease of
use and formulation flexibility.”
“In many fields customers are targeting higher productivity and ecological solutions,” said Loichtl. “Metallic pigments should meet these requirements by having higher
stabilities to enable a reduced number and thickness of layers. Furthermore, the pigments should be applicable for UV-curing and water-based systems. Aromatic-free solvents in
metallic pastes support the ecological aspect. Overall, the
competition is stronger caused by a decreased market.”
Schlenk has also invested in the trend of environmentally
friendly products. “Schlenk has successfully implemented a
corporate environmental management system according to
DIN ISO 14001:2005 to provide certified market-driven products globally,” said Michael Bauer, marketing director, Schlenk
Metallic Pigments. “In addition, we have constantly been furthering the improvement and optimization of any process
activities within the Schlenk group to match these trends.”
NEW PRODUCTS
Metallic pigment manufacturers have brought a number of
innovative products to market. Sun Chemical has launched a
new portfolio of metallic pigments called SunMetallics, as well
as eight new products in the SunMetallics line to meet customer needs for end use aluminum metallic effects.
SunMetallics is a line of non-leafing aluminum flake pigments for use in solventborne industrial and OEM coating
applications. The product portfolio includes cornflake and silver dollar pigments over a broad particle size range to allow for
formulation of coatings with excellent hiding power to brilliant
metallic effects and excellent color travel, according to Davies.
SunGEM is a new industrial effect pigment product line
recently launched that provides ten new shades of intense high
chroma color with excellent opacity and a combination of
pearlescent and metallic character. SunGEM demonstrates
unique magnetic properties that extend the world of effects
beyond color, travel and brilliance to the ability to control pigment alignment and provide truly unique design capabilities.
Silberline has recently launched a number of new metallic pigment products for the automotive, plastics, powder coatings and
graphic art and printing ink segments. “Silver Star and Silver
Star AQ for the automotive and coatings industry expressly
designed to meet customers demand for the highest quality aluminum pigments at economical prices,” said Edwards. “Powder
coatings has seen the launch of SilBerCoate PC-XS, a range of
superior performance aluminum pigments for high durability
powder coatings, and the plastics segment now have the bright-est effect available in the SparkleSilver Ultra family for injection
molding, extrusion and blow molding.”
BASF has launched Glacier Frost White which has a bluish
reflection color. “It is based on synthetic mica, which provides a
coating substrate free of impurities that are found in nature
such as iron oxide,” said Chevrier. “The result is a very clean,
white and pure pearlescent pigments that has applications in
personal care packaging as well as automotive and decorative
coatings. Glacier Frost White has been referred to as the
‘whitest white’ pearlescent pigment in today’s market.”
Ciba’s latest offering include Xymara Fireball, a multipurpose pigment that combines the lightfastness of a typical
quinacridone pigment with the luster of a mid-range metallic
or pearlescent pigment. “The value of this product is that it
allows formulators to generate an exciting new effect in a
streamlined formulation,” said Corujo. “In some cases, formulators can achieve a similar look with Fireball as they would by
combining a transparent high performance red with a weather resistant effect pigment. This all-in-one pigment provides a
more brilliant and clean hue than the traditional blend.”
Schlenk has launched a number of new products. Powdal
non-leafing powder coatings are improved silica coated powder coatings which display excellent resistance. The new
series of water-based non-leafing pigments, Aquamet HR silica coated pigments, offers excellent humidity resistance. The
ultra thick Decomet vacuum metallized pigments provide a
full range of light to dark chrome effects for solventborne and
waterborne systems.
Blitz UVAL from Benda-Lutz is a new series of aluminum pigments that was developed to meet the requirements of customers by creating stable UV-curable systems with special effects. “Until now, metallic shades
were only possible with two-component systems due to
the catalyzing effect of conventional metal pigments initiating polymerization and therefore causing poor shelf
life of one-component formulations,” said Thomas
Schaller, vice president sales and marketing, Schlenk
Both USA. “With Blitz Uval Benda-Lutz developed a new
type of stabilization to overcome these problems and to
allow producers to formulate stable one-component
metallic UV paints and inks, too.” CW
