Revista Paint & Pintura - Edição 228

CLIPPING 8 | PAINT&PINTURA | Dezembro 2017 SPECIALANDEFFECTPIGMENTS -DIFFERENTIATINGEFFECTS AND GLOSS PROPERTIES ON THE RISE Many are the innovations from manufacturers of special pig- ment and effect pigment products. The industry wants new developments with more gloss and color-change effects, as well as pearlescent and metallic pigments, all combined with quality, good hiding power, competitive pricing, and the value they add to the final product. Specialty and effect pigments are used by customers in the most varied of segments, and are also in high demand in the Brazilian market. This leads suppliers tostrive for newdevelopmentsall the time, so today, rather than finding a novel special pigment, you are more likely to find new effects, and improvements achieved by using technologies that impart high performance to existing pigments, such as pearlescent, aluminum powder, fluorescent, thermochromic, chameleon and photopic pigments, as well as reflective, colored and glass glitter micro beads, among other products, according to Braschemical technical manager Alice Pa- checo Canton. “One thing that has been improving by leaps and bounds is pigment quality, with pigments that have an enhanced optical effect and visual impact, such as those featuring either much larger or nano-sized particles, high gloss, and color-change effects, for example. End customers have also been developing newapplications anddispersions using combinations of synthetic mica, borosilicate glass, aluminum and pigments in one paint to create products with novel effects. Effect products that are also functional are themost sought after.” Alice adds that with the weak economy, differentiated products areinhighdemand.“Amongleadingconsumersofeffectpigments are customers in the automotive coatings, printing ink, cosmetic, textile, glassware, art paint, and powder coatings industries, plus thedecorativepaint industry now, whichhas been seeking toadd pearlescent effects to premium paints and textured coatings, usheringinanewlevelofsophisticationindecoration.Accordingly, trendingeffectsandcolorsfor2018arehighgloss,changingcolors, and products that glowunder light. While silver is always around, goldhasbeengainingtractionthankstofashiontrendsinpackaging materials and faux leather in various applications.” ColormixEspecialidadestechnicalsalesmanagerCarlosSimal,too, says he has seen an increase in demand for effect pigments in the lastfewmonths,especiallymetallicpigmentswithamoreglossyor chromeeffect,forbothsolventandwater-basedsystems,colored pearlescent pigments, and interference pigments in cleaner and deeper colors. “Our company holds a seat on the CECAL, or Study CommitteeonColor for LatinAmerica,which studies theneeds of theindustry,dealersandcontractorsinconnectionwiththecolors that are going tobe developedover the next several years. Based ontheinformationgatheredbythatcommittee,metallicand pearlescent effects, especially in bronze and copper shades, are going to bewidely used in the coming years.” Eckart’sSouthAmericatechnicalsalesmanagerCristineLopes Camargo,forherpart,pointsoutthattherehasbeenagrow- ingdemand for effectpigments inBrazil becausenotonlydo theyaddvaluetotheproductsinwhichtheyareapplied,they are alsofit for awider variety of applications now, being cur- rentlyusedinallkindsofinks,paintsandcoatingsforthemost variedofapplications,suchaspackagingmaterials,glassware, furniture, automotive coatings, coatings for plastics in gen- eral,powdercoatings,printinginks,etc.“Silvermetallic,with glossy and clear pigments, featuring fine particle size and increasingly greater uniformity, are still in high demand. But we see customers are also seekingdifferentiation andeffect pigments, such as glass pearl beads from our Luxan line, or even high color-depth pearlescent pigments like those from theSymicline.EckarthasrecentlylaunchedtheLuxanKseries of glitter or sparkle effect pigments, which have been very successfully used in several applications.” Onesegmentwherespecialtyandeffectpigmentsaregreatly represented is automotive coatings, as well as coatings that aremoreimpactingintermsofsettingtrendsincolor,forme- tallic pigments, according to Aldoro sales manager Antonio LabeccaFilho.“InBrazil,however,thetypicalconservativeat- titudetowardscolorandeffectsrunsstrong,andthere’slittle talk of change, hence the continued predominance of silver andmetallic gray shades - colors that, in other countries, are no longer aspopular as theyused tobe. TheSouthAmerican marketisnaturallyimpactedbytheBrazilianconsumerprofile andwinds upconforming to it. For themost part, customers are looking for clearer metallic pigments, especially non- leafingproducts featuringhighperformanceorfinerparticle sizes, mostly under 20microns.” LabeccaFilhoalsoremarksthatthepasttwoyearshavebeen quite challenging for the paint and coatings industry, with sales falling short of expectations giving rise to a depressed behavior in the sector. “We noticed that paint companies steppedintothisyearwithoutmuchofanoptimisticoutlook, but given the increase in turnover we have seen in the last threemonths, that atmosphere isalreadymoreoptimisticas theyeardrawstoaclose,withgoododdsforgrowthrelative to 2016, albeit at a moderate pace. On metallic pigments specifically,wecansaywhilewe’re lookingat apretty similar scenario, Aldoro has been hard at work and has successfully launched new products that are homemade options to replace imports, especially our Stanlux Silver line of high-