Metallic Pigments Market

Maria Giannobile, marketing manager, pigments and colorants, BASF Corporation, explained that the global pigments market remains tightly aligned with key global economic indicators. This presents a persisting challenge, as the global market including metallic effects is prone to economic contraction. Giannobile also explained that raw material and conversion costs for pigments remain a concern for BASF.

“BASF continues to search for innovative ways to improve manufacturing processes, better utilize our assets and global infrastructure, and minimize the impact of raw material price increases while continuing to deliver high value products to the industry,“ she said.

Major Trends

A major trend in the metallic market for 2013 has certainly been the development of more environmentally friendly systems and sustainability.

“Our customers are certainly interested in developing metallic finishes using more environmentally-friendly aqueous systems,” said Hollman. “Sun Chemical has a wide range of VOC-free aluminum dispersions and encapsulated aluminum effects that provide an unlimited array of metallic finishes for waterborne. We will continue to focus our research and devel-

Eckart Metalure Liquid Black, the first PVD product based on chromium oxide.

opment efforts on expanding our product offerings and tech-
nologies geared towards sustainability.”
BASF also explained they have felt the effects of environmen-
tal regulations.

“As environmental regulations go into effect, this will ex-
ude greater influence and importance as a key driver towards
a common definition of what sustainability will play within the
industry and the choices customers will make in the market-
place. Further, we see that the growing use of effect pigments
into coatings formulation that can deliver more impactful visual
aesthetics,” said Giannobile
Along with trends of environmentally friendly and sustain-
able finishes, the demand for industrial and automotive coatings
is increasing.

BASF noted that traditional markets such as automotive and the industrial segment will continue to be primary consumers of special effect pigments.

“Used in a wide range of end market applications from automobiles, house exteriors to electronics and many more, special effect pigments address the demands for brand and product differentiation as the range of aesthetic color values continues to expand,” said Giannobile.

According to Sun Chemical, industrial and automotive coating applications show the strongest demand for metallic pigments. Emerging areas are architectural paint, building materials, electronic materials and securities.

Eckart also noticed that the overall automotive sector with exterior, interior, parts, and wheel rims and refinish business is still the most dominant field for metallic effect pigments.

“Due to the current color trend towards black and white regarding smart phones and tablets we can see a strong decrease in the 3C business for metallic effect pigments,” said Krames. “Emerging areas will be functional coatings solutions for the consumer like energy saving of protective coatings and func-tionalized solutions for our customers.”

New Technologies and Products

BASF explained that for the future, the company would continue to focus on high performance and effect pigment solutions.

“We will continue to focus on sustainable coating solutions that provide environmental functional benefits based on sound chemical technologies as well as high performance and aesthetic value that customers expect from BASF,” said Giannobile.

BASF’s newest products launched are Firemist Crystal Touch, a tactile effect pigment with bright sparkle appearance; Glacier Crystal White and Glacier Silk White, white pearlescent effect pigments based on synthetic mica flakes coated with titanium dioxide; and Lumina Royal Aqua, Lumina Royal Indigo, Lumina Royal Copper, highly chromaticity effect pigments.

Eckart has produced many functional products as well as a variety of products with improved optical effects.

“Our Hydro Series for water-based coatings solutions will
quite soon be expanded by the new family member hydromic,
besides our flagship product hydrolan,” said Krames. “With this
most recent hydromic innovation, we will present an interesting
alternative, which offers lower total costs, making it especially
attractive for those customers who are currently using self-pas-
sivation systems.”
Eckart also developed a new metallic pigment, PCS 900 that
fulfills the powder parkets demand for extremely fine pigments.

The latest addition to the Sun Chemical product portfolio
consists of premium aluminum, bronze and zinc pigments in
multiple product forms (powders, pastes, pellets or customized
dispersions) is Benda-Lutz Metallic Effects
Schlenk offers an array of new products including AluMotion,
SilverCoil, Decomet MirrorCoil, Powdat the next generation,
Decomet 5000, Decomet 2057/10, Metaprint LithoGloss UV,
Metaprint FlexoGloss UV, Decomet Slurry, Multiprint Bronze
and Offset 64xx Series. CW