High performance and special effect pigments for ink.As printing ink manufacturers are challenged to offer newer color choices and higher performance options, increasingly they are turning to high performance and special effect pigments to meet this need. These pigments are being used for a variety of ink applications including packaging inks, which place a premium on color consistency and high quality looks, as well as ink jet See inkjet printer. inks and UV inks.Screen Printing Some of the latest developments in the area of high performance pigments for inks have been in packaging inks, specifically in the screen printing area. "In the high performance pigment area, we have focused recently on products for packaging inks and screen inks in particular," said Christopher Bridge, regional manager Americas, business line imaging and inks, Ciba Specialty Chemicals “Ciba” redirects here. For the pre-1971 company, see Novartis. Ciba Specialty Chemicals is a chemical company based in and near Basel, Switzerland. It was formed as the non-pharmaceuticals elements of Novartis were spun out in 1997, following the merger in the . Ciba has recently launched Ciba Cromophtal Magenta Magenta, town, Italy Magenta (mäjān`tä), town (1991 pop. 23,667), Lombardy, N Italy, near Milan. Manufactures include matches, textiles, and machinery. ST, which is the first real process magenta with outstanding fastness, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Mr. Bridge. "This recognizes the fact that more and more packaging inks are being printed as process color A color printed from four separate printing plates. Four-color process printing uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) inks to produce full color reproduction. Contrast with spot color. See CMYK. , and a high performance offer is needed for some end applications. We also have launched, for packaging inks, Ciba Cromophtal Yellow 2RT, a high performance isoindoline yellow. Our Cromophtal high performance types should be used following normal good dispersion practice." Clariant's latest high performance offering can be used for screen inks as well as other opaque ink systems. "Clariant has been and will continue to pioneer high performance organic pigments for a variety of industries," said David Dugan, marketing manager, BU ink pigments, Clariant. "One such development, initially intended for the industrial coatings market but also having utility for screen inks and other opaque ink systems, is our new thiazine thi·a·zine or thi·a·zin n. Any of a class of organic chemical compounds containing a ring composed of one sulfur atom, one nitrogen atom, and four carbon atoms, used in making dyes. indigo red a dyestuff, isomeric with indigo blue, obtained from crude indigo as a dark brown amorphous powder. See also: Indigo pigment, Novoperm Till Red 4g 70 VP2543. This pigment exhibits a clean opaque scarlet shade that has excellent heat and chemical resistance as well as excellent lightfastness." Other shades are being developed in this new chemistry and Clariant has plans to bring these products to the market in the future. Ink Jet Ink jet printing is highly demanding and puts many requirements on the inks it uses. Among those requirements are high fastness, good dispersion and good flow. Ciba offers a product for wide format ink jet that meets these needs. "Current work is to expand in particular our offers for wide format ink jet applications, where there is a demanding combination of requirements for very high fastness, excellent dispersion, with good flow and ink stability," said Mr. Bridge. "We have broadened our range of preparations to include a high performance yellow (developed) specially for wide format solvent-based ink jet called Ciba Microlith mi·cro·lith n. A minute calculus, usually multiple and resembling coarse sand. microlith a minute concretion or calculus. Yellow 4G-K. This product is recommended in other applications such as in PVC PVC: see polyvinyl chloride. PVC in full polyvinyl chloride Synthetic resin, an organic polymer made by treating vinyl chloride monomers with a peroxide. inks for wallcovering, flooring, etc. We are also working on the further broadening of our offers in the whole ink jet area. "The Microlith-K ink jet products are used in vinyl-based inks, which can be formulated to give good adhesion to many substrates, from plasticized and rigid PVC, metal foils, to polymer coated regenerated cellulose film," said Mr. Bridge. "The high performance pigments are generally formulated for wide application, though they are mainly targeted at liquid packaging inks, screen inks and metal decorating inks." "With Microlith-K it is important to follow our guidelines to obtain the best dispersion and flocculation flocculation /floc·cu·la·tion/ (flok?u-la´shun) a colloid phenomenon in which the disperse phase separates in discrete, usually visible, particles rather than congealing into a continuous mass, as in coagulation. stability, which of course is particularly important to ink jet inks," noted Mr. Bridge. Special Effect Some of these pigments offer special effect characteristics such as pearlescent pearl·es·cent adj. Having a pearly luster or gloss. pearl·es  cence n.Adj. 1. pigments that achieve a variety of optical effects. This is especially important for inks used in packaging. Engelhard's Lumina Lumina may refer to:
"The result is cleaner shades, more saturated colors and stronger flip-flop effects in coatings and inks," said Stephane Rochard, marketing manager, automotive and powder coatings, Engelhard Corporation. The colors include turquoise as well as gold, red, green, aqua-blue and red-blue. Engelhard's Mearlite industrial-grade pearlescent pigments impart a range of optical effects from a soft, satin luster to a sharp, metallic brilliance in coatings and inks. These effects are due to plate-like crystals of bismuth bismuth (bĭz`məth) [Ger. Weisse Masse=white mass], metallic chemical element; symbol Bi; at. no. 83; at. wt. 208.9804; m.p. 271.3°C;; b.p. about 1,560°C;; sp. gr. 9.75 at 20°C;; valence +3 or +5. oxychloride that have a silver-white transparent appearance. "When using these pigments with paint and inks, one should avoid mixing them with opaque pigments and colorants because special effect pigments are transparent," said Mr. Rochard. Specific particle-size distributions are recommended with inks, he added. UV Inks High performance pigment suppliers are also moving into the growing area of UV inks. Ciba is currently involved in work to optimize the use of pigment/photoinitiator combinations for UV inks. "As the leading supplier of photoinitiators and pigments, we are uniquely placed to be able to support the development of these types of ink," said Mr. Bridge. Another recent development in the high performance area is Clariant's Hostaperm violet P-RL, a carbazole Carbazole is an aromatic heterocyclic organic compound. It has a tricyclic structure, consisting of two six-membered benzene ring fused on either side of a five-membered nitrogen-containing ring. violet that exhibits superior viscosity characteristics in alcohol solvent ink systems as well as UV flexo. "Violet P-RL possesses almost Newtonian flow characteristics with virtually no thixotropic tendencies, even at high pigment loadings," said Mr. Dugan Mr. Dugan was a projected U.S. sitcom about a black congressman that was cancelled before it ever aired in 1979. Early in 1978, when producer Norman Lear felt his long-running comedy Maude . RELATED ARTICLE: High Performance and Special Effect Pigment Suppliers Here is a list of high performance and special effects special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. pigment suppliers who participated in this article. For more information contact the company directly. Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Inc. Tarrytown, NY tel: (800) 474-4731 fax: (914) 785-4209 web: www.cibasc.com Clariant Corporation Coventry, RI tel: (401) 823-2769 fax: (401) 823-2700 web: www.clariant.com Engelhard Corporation Iselin, NJ tel: (732) 205-5000 fax: (732) 321-0250 e-mail: info@engelhard.com web: www.engelhard.com |
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