ARTICLE

Organic Orange Pigments for Use in Plastics

Choosing Colorants with Speed and Execution

Cincinnati, OH - Scott Heitzman - November 04, 2005 -- When you look up "orange" in the dictionary, you find something to the effect of: "Any group of colors between red and yellow in hue, of medium lightness and moderate saturation." Although it leaves a lot of room, the dictionary version was much more technical than I expected. It would suffice for all but the most technical.

When referencing a designer, you may hear: "Orange is vibrant!" It has the warmth and intensity of a red softened with the cheeriness of a yellow. From a natural perspective, orange stimulates the feelings as in the case of a sunset or walking on fallen leaves. You think of orange when you hear the words "pumpkin", "flame", "citrus", "tangerine"...but when a color matcher hears "orange", he or she hears red and yellow and is that color matched yet! That is changing! You will need at least a few of the pigments listed to hit today's color points in plastics.

The orange pigments below are selected over one another and for that matter over red and yellow combinations on the basis of chroma, hue, light fastness, physical properties and value in use. The brief description and general information showing the differences may prove helpful.