ARTICLE

Special Effects

Pearlescent Pigments for Plastics

Cincinnati, OH - Scott Heitzman - February 03, 2006 -- In today's world of hard hitting competition, your customers better have something more than just a good product. They need an edge! An angle! THEY NEED TO EVOKE EMOTION! GRAB ATTENTION, make a statement, brand a product and protect it. You and your customer had better display and promote options outside the standard color palette or you will both be left behind.

There are many effect pigments and colorants available for use in plastics. The focus of this article is to define the products, briefly discuss how they work and report their attributes and applications in polymers.

How they work!

Most of the following products use some basic principals to provide their functionality or effect. All require interaction with light. It is how the light is reflected, refracted, absorbed and/or transmitted as to how what color and effect is achieved. Index of refraction is especially important in special effect pigments.