Feb 07, 2020: Clariant Masterbatches has developed a novel chrome color that opens new opportunities for the designers and manufacturers of high-end products, bottles and packaging.
Targeted particularly at polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers, the color is somewhat translucent, so it is ideal for the applications where it is necessary or enviable for the contents in the bottle to be visible.
Yet it has the power to conquer slightly off-colour resins, including post-consumer recycled (PCR) PET. In fact, the effect was first demonstrated on the bottles made of recycled PET resin.
The team at Clariant ColorWorks™ design and the technology centers developed the new color masterbatches in response to growing interest, predominantly in the technology sector, for truly metallic looks.
Designers recently began focusing on the silver and chrome with a liquid feel, explains Judith van Vliet, ColorWorks Senior Designer and a recognized colour expert. “You see it a lot in the glass and that kind of transparency is also very trendy.
Clariant’s new chrome masterbatch develops the look that is the closest I’ve seen to a true metallized effect. It does a good job of bringing those bright qualities to plastics for use in bottles containing prestige products.”
The secret to achieving the brilliant chrome effect lies in the pigment particle-size distribution and the way it is integrated into the masterbatch. Reflectivity is the dramatically increased compared to more conventional silver or chrome colors.
The chrome effect has other profits as well, including the way it reacts to the laser radiation. Unlike other colors, which turn grey or black under the laser radiation and leave a physical, palpable mark on the surface, the chrome pigment simply disappears leaving only the natural transparent polymer behind.
The new Clariant liquid-look chrome masterbatch is the first product in order to arise from NewAesthetix, a new ColorWorks initiative aimed at the developing unique color and effect options that deliver aesthetic qualities not normally expected in the plastic materials.
https://www.clariant.com/en/Corporate/News/2020/02/Clariant-introduces-brilliant-new-metallic-aesthetic-targets-premium-packaging
