Kerry Pianoforte, Editor01.18.22
Included in this round table discussion on pigments are Darren Bianchi , CEO, Brilliant Group; Kevin Sonby, vice president Sales – Coatings, Plastics Specialties, Cathay Industries USA; Frank Lavieri, EVP sales and marketing, DCL; Christine A. Gehres, director of Business Development, Heubach LTD; Michael Ertl , Global head BU Inorganic Pigments, Lanxess Corp.; Mark Ryan, marketing manager, The Shepherd Color Company; and Michael T. Venturini, marketing director, Coatings, Sun Chemical.
CW: How did the pigments market perform in 2021?
Bianchi: A rebound post 2020 impact of COVID; followed by exceptional growth rates.
Sonby: Overall the Iron Oxide pigment market performed well. Our primary markets, coatings, plastics and construction, continues to be strong as a result of the hot housing market. We had expected some cooling in demand after 2020, but were pleasantly surprised that demand continued through 2021 and appears to be holding up for 2022.
Lavieri: 2021 was a very strong year for DCL with demand outstripping supply. The year was characterized by raw material shortages, shipping congestion and a host of other problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding this DCL achieved many goals during the year including hosting a very well attended virtual pigment webinar series, the successful completion of the first stage of implementation of a new ERP system, the launch of new literature, exhibition at three trade shows and the acquisition of the largest high performance pigment manufacturing plant in North America supplying quinacridones and perylenes to automotive and other high quality applications.
Gehres: Heubach saw increased demand compared to 2020, and recovery to 2019 levels. Some peaks in demand especially in the inorganic pigments sector as well as for Phthalocyanines, Quinacridones and Indanthrone Pigments were attributable to shortages of certain raw materials. At the same time, growth of certain markets such as OEM may be hindered by supply chain issues.
Ertl: In general, the demand for iron oxide pigments in the coatings industry has increased globally compared to previous year. The order level is even higher than in the pre-Corona year 2019 and we expect the market for pigmentary iron oxides to continue its growth course in the coming years.
Ryan: There was double digit growth that has continued the trend started in 2020 after the initial downturn.
Venturini: The pigments market saw many challenges in 2021, including supply chain stoppages, which continues to be top of mind for the industry. However, one of the most promising developments has been the dedication to developing sustainable alternatives, both in products and operational processes.
The pigments market is continuously expanding its sustainability goals and requirements, and Sun Chemical is no different. When developing new pigment products, we look closely at the sustainability demands of the coatings markets to ensure our solutions deliver high recyclability, compostability and bio-renewability. Heading into 2022, sustainability continues to be a key driver for the industry, and will be an exciting trend to watch throughout the year.
CW: How does the pandemic continue to impact the market for pigments (supply chain issues, price increases, availability)?
Bianchi: All of the above, we’re doing our best to stay ahead so our customers can experience business as usual, as much as possible.
Sonby: The biggest challenges we are facing are logistics. The chaotic nature of today’s ocean freight environment along with a tight domestic freight market continue to challenge us on a daily basis. It should be noted that these challenges are just as real for exports as they are for imports.
Gehres: Lack of key raw materials and specialty chemicals continues to impact the manufacturers’ ability to plan and continues to drive prices upward. “in more than 30 years in the industry, I have never seen anything like it”. Production needs to stay very flexible in terms of incoming raw materials. In 2021, production plans needed to be changed often and on short notice. Heubach managed to use our full production capacity but often the most urgent needs necessitated changes in the order of production. An additional challenge is that there is no reliable information available when to expect raw materials, and to some extent finished goods. This uncertainty and unreliability greatly lessen our ability to inform our customers. The lack of containers, transportation once containers reach the US shore adds weeks to lead times that already had to be adjusted for the lack of raw materials and much delayed manufacturing.
Ertl: The high-volume pigments industry has been severely affected by the massive disruption to logistics chains. Bottlenecks and skyrocketing prices in freight traffic have severely delayed deliveries. In combination with significantly increased raw material prices, price adjustments were necessary for all iron oxide producers. In the second half of the year, this was compounded by the energy crisis in Europe and China. For the coming year, we hope that the situation will ease again.
Ryan: The trends that caused the increase in pigment usage continue, and these issues will drive this demand for the foreseeable future. Shepherd Color’s strong portfolio of pigments for building products has lead to huge increase in demand.
Venturini: It varies geographically, but nearly all areas are being affected by supply chain issues, price increases, the container shortage and more.
Sun Chemical’s recent addition of BASF Colors & Effects is one step that has allowed us to integrate supply chains and services to better support our customers. Strategic sourcing up and down the supply chain from multiple regions, including the EU and US, are increasing and gaining in priority.
CW: Geographically, which regions offer the most opportunity for growth?
Bianchi: Currently experiencing dramatic growth in all geographic regions, especially U.S. and Europe.
Sonby: The global economy has had some COVID related speed bumps but, overall it has been fairly robust and healthy. Across the world people are dealing with the same supply-chain challenges. The only region we have not seen strong growth has been Asia, where border closures have disrupted trade in 2021.
Gehres: There are geographies and industries that “shut down” for parts of this year like Central America or automotive manufacturing in Europe. There is much unfilled demand, and manufacturers are attempting to catch up. Long term, we see good growth opportunities in North America and Asia Pacific.
Ryan: Growth is happening in all the markets around the word. Shepherd Color supports our customers around the globe.
Venturini: Opportunities for growth are available in all markets as supply disruptions of some pigments have created a dynamic and fluid market. Sun Chemical’s regional manufacturing, including more than seven U.S. pigment sites, backward integration, and global supply chain, has increased our strength as a strategic partner. For example, our Muskegon, Mich. plant is playing a central role in supplying a number of pigment indices affected by global interruptions in manufacturing.
CW: What are the major trends and challenges influencing the global pigments market today?
Bianchi: Supply chain disruption, dramatic freight increases, raw material increases and raw material availability.
Sonby: The raw material market continues to experience pressure because of consolidation and logistics.
Gehres: Lack of supply and disrupted supply chains are hopefully short-term challenges through 2022. The demand for more sustainable offerings (without compromising performance or a price premium) will still be there a few years from now. Very active market consolidation of suppliers and customers requires constant adjustments of sales coverage and purchasing efforts. For the time being, the concept of single or even double sourcing is no longer viable. This presents many new opportunities for suppliers with broad manufacturing capabilities. Challenges include rising costs of labor, regulatory demands & key support to our customers.
Ertl: The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework for combating climate change. Its implementation requires massive efforts on the part of industry. The pigment industry is certainly one of the energy-intensive industries. With this in mind, LANXESS as a whole has set itself the goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2040.
To better highlight this, we plan to be able to offer - as the first iron oxide manufacturer - Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for selected product ranges. These declarations, which are based on life cycle analysis, describe in detail the environmental performance of our pigments – from raw material extraction through production to the gate. In this way, we aim to create transparency and provide our customers with verifiable information on the environmental impact of our products.
Ryan: Innovation, sustainability, and supply. Supply is the most immediate because it affects orders and results now, but there is continued interest in sustainability. That can mean different things to different markets and customers. Embodied carbon, ethical sourcing, core business practices- all things that are ‘outside the box’ of pigment.
Venturini: The major challenges facing the global pigments market today are not a surprise to anyone. Supply chain issues and raw material price increases are demanding the most attention right now. However, sustainability is increasingly becoming part of the conversation. This includes bio-based raw materials, recyclability, carbon footprints and even compostability. It’s an area of steady developments and innovations.
CW: How are you responding to the demand for more sustainable solutions?
Bianchi: We’re continually developing new, non-formaldehyde chemistries and products for the energy curables market.
Sonby: Pigment availability has pushed concerns about sustainable solution off the front burner. If a sustainable product is available, customer are still moving forward for long-term sustainable systems. Cathay Industries, an EcoVadis certified company, continues to develop their environmentally sustainable products, including EnvironOxides®, while continuing their process improvements to make their manufacturing operations have as small an environmental footprint as possible.
Gehres: Heubach is dedicating resources to develop more pigments for waterborne applications, pigments and dispersions that offer strength advantages and have less need for surfactants in the application. We are continuously reducing our impact on the environment by looking at our energy consumption, effluent and wastewater generation and recovery. Heubach is working diligently on Human Resource planning, recruiting and training to ensure we have the most capable people on our team now and in the future.
Ryan: We inherently have looked at the core intent of sustainability by reducing the amount of energy used, addressing regulatory issues, and producing pigments that have functionality besides color. Of course, the inorganic nature of our pigments give them extremely high durability and long life-cycles. We will continue by working with partners to help them increase the sustainability of their products.
Venturini: Sustainability can refer to multiple areas. In the case of how SunChemical manages our business, we strive for measurable, continuous improvement – decreasing our carbon footprint, waste generation, energy consumption/green energy, water usage, etc. These and other quantifiable measures are tracked in our annual Sustainability Report. We have also partnered with EcoVadis, an independent third party, to rank our corporate social responsibility. This past year, Sun Chemical received a bronze EcoVadis rating.
On the product side, SunChemical’s innovative culture continues to bring new products to market. Some are as traditional as Paliotan® VIU range of products to replace lead-based pigments. Others address new trends, such as compostability, while other developments are exploring carbon negative solutions to coloration.
CW: What specific performance attributes are your customers looking for?
Bianchi: A) Products with reduced regulatory impact and environmental friendliness; and B) broader compatibility with more UV curable materials.
Sonby: Supply-chains were the main customer focus in 2021. While our customers are always looking for the quality, consistency, and value; the current supply environment has forced them to put the ability to supply as a higher priority.
Lavieri: Our customers are looking for pigments which offer better value-in-use, which can come from different product attributes depending on the application. For example stir-in dispersible pigments save time and money for a paint manufacture who needs to produce only a few dozen liters of paint. For an industrial coatings manufacturer better value can be obtained from more opaque and strong pigments. DCL offers the technical assistance and broadest range of products to help a formulator achieve lower cost formulas.
Gehres: Low- or no VOC solutions, global regulatory compliance, driving toward the most stringent requirements. In the pigment market, ease of dispersion remains a key requirement, as well as consistent quality over time.
Ryan: People turn to Shepherd Color pigments when they need the ultimate in durable color. With durability built into our inorganic chemistry, we are always looking for more chromatic colors. Beyond color, we have the added IR reflective functionality of our Arctic pigments. We are always looking at the art and science for ways to improve the appearance and functionality of our pigments.
Venturini: Sun Chemical uses a tailor-made approach to provide products and services focused on helping the customer deliver unique performance to help them succeed.
The market is looking for advances in environmental improvements, increased color strength, and higher chroma. Sun Chemical is innovating in all these areas.
CW: Are there any specific technologies that R&D is focusing on?
Bianchi: We’re continually developing new, non-formaldehyde chemistries and products for the energy curables market.
Sonby: Process improvement has been the key developmental focus in 2021, as we continue to strong growth globally. With that said, we continue to expand our sustainably produced pigments and to improve the heat stability on our products with limited heat stability.
Gehres: The lack of raw materials also affected R&D. R&D resources were dedicated to supporting sourcing and the development of new suppliers. Consequently, some projects planned for 2021 are behind schedule. We are still working on a scale-up phase of an inorganic orange/red product line that was registered as PO88 and PR299. These are potential pigments for full shade applications in chromatic red and orange shades, where up until now no inorganic materials are available. A further project is dedicated to a super-strong Spinel Black PBk28 with high jetness that we plan to trial in the plant in Q1-Q2/2022.
Ryan: Shepherd Color is known for pushing the edge of the durable color envelope. In 2022 we are looking to launch new products in the blue and magenta color space that continue this push.
Venturini: Our main focus when investing in research and development is the ability to support specific customers’ needs for eco-friendly coatings technologies. We’ll continue to invest in research in end markets and applications that can provide value to our customers, which is part of our core philosophy at Sun Chemical. This is true when it comes to high performance pigments, effects and functional pigments, where Sun Chemical drives trends and technologies with new and
exciting innovations.
CW: Briefly provide a description of the latest products launched by your company.
Bianchi: A new, strong fluorescent ink base which can be used in both conventional and UV printing, but with a broader range of UV compatibility, and a 100% curable UV ink base.
Sonby: Both Yellow Iron Oxide and Black Iron Oxide have limited heat stability and will convert to a Red Iron Oxide at higher temperatures. We continue to push the temperature limits on these pigments higher in order for our customers to have better tools in building their coatings systems.
Lavieri: Our R&D resources were spent this year supporting the expansions of our Indanthrone Blue production in the Netherlands and our yellow pigment production in Canada. Indanthrone Blue pigments are a royal blue shade and used for high performance applications, especially automotive coatings. DCL has five products with differentiated performance for every application. We have relaunch these products in 2021 and are filling their robust demand from our new capacity.
Gehres: Heubach recently launched (HEUCOTINT ™ W) in the US: a waterborne, zero-VOC and APE free POS colorant system that can be used in all types of manual and automatic tinting machines.
Based on the new super-strong line of PBr24 pigments we introduced more customized grades into the market.
Ryan: Arctic Green 10C650 is a highly-advanced version of modified chromium oxide (PG17) with a darker masstone color and higher total solar reflectance for optimal ‘cool material’ properties in building products and other applications.
Dynamix 30C119 is an easily dispersed version of Bismuth Vanadate (PY184). Shepherd Color is the only place to get easily dispersed versions of BiV Yellow, NTP Yellow, and RTZ Orange for the quick inclusion of the highest performance possible in the yellow color-space.
Venturini: Sun Chemical’s new lead-free Paliotan® VIU portfolio is a full-service package designed to support the replacement of lead components in coatings formulations. The Paliotan VIU portfolio includes several shades, such as lemon yellow, mid-yellow and red, which combine improved color strength and opacity for more cost-efficient formulations in decorative applications. While the colorant grades in the portfolio have been specially developed for requirements in the Asian and Latin American regions, Sun Chemical can advise on how to reformulate and meet regional requirements.
Sun Chemical also recently launched its Lumina® Royal Sienna 9S290D and Lumina® Royal Exterior Sienna S2903D, two grades of the new copper-shade effect pigment based on synthetic mica with a very high saturation level. As automotive coatings manufacturers demand bolder, more chromatic shades, Lumina Royal Sienna offers designers a creative instrument to develop the next generation of color stylings.
CW: How did the pigments market perform in 2021?
Bianchi: A rebound post 2020 impact of COVID; followed by exceptional growth rates.
Sonby: Overall the Iron Oxide pigment market performed well. Our primary markets, coatings, plastics and construction, continues to be strong as a result of the hot housing market. We had expected some cooling in demand after 2020, but were pleasantly surprised that demand continued through 2021 and appears to be holding up for 2022.
Lavieri: 2021 was a very strong year for DCL with demand outstripping supply. The year was characterized by raw material shortages, shipping congestion and a host of other problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding this DCL achieved many goals during the year including hosting a very well attended virtual pigment webinar series, the successful completion of the first stage of implementation of a new ERP system, the launch of new literature, exhibition at three trade shows and the acquisition of the largest high performance pigment manufacturing plant in North America supplying quinacridones and perylenes to automotive and other high quality applications.
Gehres: Heubach saw increased demand compared to 2020, and recovery to 2019 levels. Some peaks in demand especially in the inorganic pigments sector as well as for Phthalocyanines, Quinacridones and Indanthrone Pigments were attributable to shortages of certain raw materials. At the same time, growth of certain markets such as OEM may be hindered by supply chain issues.
Ertl: In general, the demand for iron oxide pigments in the coatings industry has increased globally compared to previous year. The order level is even higher than in the pre-Corona year 2019 and we expect the market for pigmentary iron oxides to continue its growth course in the coming years.
Ryan: There was double digit growth that has continued the trend started in 2020 after the initial downturn.
Venturini: The pigments market saw many challenges in 2021, including supply chain stoppages, which continues to be top of mind for the industry. However, one of the most promising developments has been the dedication to developing sustainable alternatives, both in products and operational processes.
The pigments market is continuously expanding its sustainability goals and requirements, and Sun Chemical is no different. When developing new pigment products, we look closely at the sustainability demands of the coatings markets to ensure our solutions deliver high recyclability, compostability and bio-renewability. Heading into 2022, sustainability continues to be a key driver for the industry, and will be an exciting trend to watch throughout the year.
CW: How does the pandemic continue to impact the market for pigments (supply chain issues, price increases, availability)?
Bianchi: All of the above, we’re doing our best to stay ahead so our customers can experience business as usual, as much as possible.
Sonby: The biggest challenges we are facing are logistics. The chaotic nature of today’s ocean freight environment along with a tight domestic freight market continue to challenge us on a daily basis. It should be noted that these challenges are just as real for exports as they are for imports.
Gehres: Lack of key raw materials and specialty chemicals continues to impact the manufacturers’ ability to plan and continues to drive prices upward. “in more than 30 years in the industry, I have never seen anything like it”. Production needs to stay very flexible in terms of incoming raw materials. In 2021, production plans needed to be changed often and on short notice. Heubach managed to use our full production capacity but often the most urgent needs necessitated changes in the order of production. An additional challenge is that there is no reliable information available when to expect raw materials, and to some extent finished goods. This uncertainty and unreliability greatly lessen our ability to inform our customers. The lack of containers, transportation once containers reach the US shore adds weeks to lead times that already had to be adjusted for the lack of raw materials and much delayed manufacturing.
Ertl: The high-volume pigments industry has been severely affected by the massive disruption to logistics chains. Bottlenecks and skyrocketing prices in freight traffic have severely delayed deliveries. In combination with significantly increased raw material prices, price adjustments were necessary for all iron oxide producers. In the second half of the year, this was compounded by the energy crisis in Europe and China. For the coming year, we hope that the situation will ease again.
Ryan: The trends that caused the increase in pigment usage continue, and these issues will drive this demand for the foreseeable future. Shepherd Color’s strong portfolio of pigments for building products has lead to huge increase in demand.
Venturini: It varies geographically, but nearly all areas are being affected by supply chain issues, price increases, the container shortage and more.
Sun Chemical’s recent addition of BASF Colors & Effects is one step that has allowed us to integrate supply chains and services to better support our customers. Strategic sourcing up and down the supply chain from multiple regions, including the EU and US, are increasing and gaining in priority.
CW: Geographically, which regions offer the most opportunity for growth?
Bianchi: Currently experiencing dramatic growth in all geographic regions, especially U.S. and Europe.
Sonby: The global economy has had some COVID related speed bumps but, overall it has been fairly robust and healthy. Across the world people are dealing with the same supply-chain challenges. The only region we have not seen strong growth has been Asia, where border closures have disrupted trade in 2021.
Gehres: There are geographies and industries that “shut down” for parts of this year like Central America or automotive manufacturing in Europe. There is much unfilled demand, and manufacturers are attempting to catch up. Long term, we see good growth opportunities in North America and Asia Pacific.
Ryan: Growth is happening in all the markets around the word. Shepherd Color supports our customers around the globe.
Venturini: Opportunities for growth are available in all markets as supply disruptions of some pigments have created a dynamic and fluid market. Sun Chemical’s regional manufacturing, including more than seven U.S. pigment sites, backward integration, and global supply chain, has increased our strength as a strategic partner. For example, our Muskegon, Mich. plant is playing a central role in supplying a number of pigment indices affected by global interruptions in manufacturing.
CW: What are the major trends and challenges influencing the global pigments market today?
Bianchi: Supply chain disruption, dramatic freight increases, raw material increases and raw material availability.
Sonby: The raw material market continues to experience pressure because of consolidation and logistics.
Gehres: Lack of supply and disrupted supply chains are hopefully short-term challenges through 2022. The demand for more sustainable offerings (without compromising performance or a price premium) will still be there a few years from now. Very active market consolidation of suppliers and customers requires constant adjustments of sales coverage and purchasing efforts. For the time being, the concept of single or even double sourcing is no longer viable. This presents many new opportunities for suppliers with broad manufacturing capabilities. Challenges include rising costs of labor, regulatory demands & key support to our customers.
Ertl: The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework for combating climate change. Its implementation requires massive efforts on the part of industry. The pigment industry is certainly one of the energy-intensive industries. With this in mind, LANXESS as a whole has set itself the goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2040.
To better highlight this, we plan to be able to offer - as the first iron oxide manufacturer - Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for selected product ranges. These declarations, which are based on life cycle analysis, describe in detail the environmental performance of our pigments – from raw material extraction through production to the gate. In this way, we aim to create transparency and provide our customers with verifiable information on the environmental impact of our products.
Ryan: Innovation, sustainability, and supply. Supply is the most immediate because it affects orders and results now, but there is continued interest in sustainability. That can mean different things to different markets and customers. Embodied carbon, ethical sourcing, core business practices- all things that are ‘outside the box’ of pigment.
Venturini: The major challenges facing the global pigments market today are not a surprise to anyone. Supply chain issues and raw material price increases are demanding the most attention right now. However, sustainability is increasingly becoming part of the conversation. This includes bio-based raw materials, recyclability, carbon footprints and even compostability. It’s an area of steady developments and innovations.
CW: How are you responding to the demand for more sustainable solutions?
Bianchi: We’re continually developing new, non-formaldehyde chemistries and products for the energy curables market.
Sonby: Pigment availability has pushed concerns about sustainable solution off the front burner. If a sustainable product is available, customer are still moving forward for long-term sustainable systems. Cathay Industries, an EcoVadis certified company, continues to develop their environmentally sustainable products, including EnvironOxides®, while continuing their process improvements to make their manufacturing operations have as small an environmental footprint as possible.
Gehres: Heubach is dedicating resources to develop more pigments for waterborne applications, pigments and dispersions that offer strength advantages and have less need for surfactants in the application. We are continuously reducing our impact on the environment by looking at our energy consumption, effluent and wastewater generation and recovery. Heubach is working diligently on Human Resource planning, recruiting and training to ensure we have the most capable people on our team now and in the future.
Ryan: We inherently have looked at the core intent of sustainability by reducing the amount of energy used, addressing regulatory issues, and producing pigments that have functionality besides color. Of course, the inorganic nature of our pigments give them extremely high durability and long life-cycles. We will continue by working with partners to help them increase the sustainability of their products.
Venturini: Sustainability can refer to multiple areas. In the case of how SunChemical manages our business, we strive for measurable, continuous improvement – decreasing our carbon footprint, waste generation, energy consumption/green energy, water usage, etc. These and other quantifiable measures are tracked in our annual Sustainability Report. We have also partnered with EcoVadis, an independent third party, to rank our corporate social responsibility. This past year, Sun Chemical received a bronze EcoVadis rating.
On the product side, SunChemical’s innovative culture continues to bring new products to market. Some are as traditional as Paliotan® VIU range of products to replace lead-based pigments. Others address new trends, such as compostability, while other developments are exploring carbon negative solutions to coloration.
CW: What specific performance attributes are your customers looking for?
Bianchi: A) Products with reduced regulatory impact and environmental friendliness; and B) broader compatibility with more UV curable materials.
Sonby: Supply-chains were the main customer focus in 2021. While our customers are always looking for the quality, consistency, and value; the current supply environment has forced them to put the ability to supply as a higher priority.
Lavieri: Our customers are looking for pigments which offer better value-in-use, which can come from different product attributes depending on the application. For example stir-in dispersible pigments save time and money for a paint manufacture who needs to produce only a few dozen liters of paint. For an industrial coatings manufacturer better value can be obtained from more opaque and strong pigments. DCL offers the technical assistance and broadest range of products to help a formulator achieve lower cost formulas.
Gehres: Low- or no VOC solutions, global regulatory compliance, driving toward the most stringent requirements. In the pigment market, ease of dispersion remains a key requirement, as well as consistent quality over time.
Ryan: People turn to Shepherd Color pigments when they need the ultimate in durable color. With durability built into our inorganic chemistry, we are always looking for more chromatic colors. Beyond color, we have the added IR reflective functionality of our Arctic pigments. We are always looking at the art and science for ways to improve the appearance and functionality of our pigments.
Venturini: Sun Chemical uses a tailor-made approach to provide products and services focused on helping the customer deliver unique performance to help them succeed.
The market is looking for advances in environmental improvements, increased color strength, and higher chroma. Sun Chemical is innovating in all these areas.
CW: Are there any specific technologies that R&D is focusing on?
Bianchi: We’re continually developing new, non-formaldehyde chemistries and products for the energy curables market.
Sonby: Process improvement has been the key developmental focus in 2021, as we continue to strong growth globally. With that said, we continue to expand our sustainably produced pigments and to improve the heat stability on our products with limited heat stability.
Gehres: The lack of raw materials also affected R&D. R&D resources were dedicated to supporting sourcing and the development of new suppliers. Consequently, some projects planned for 2021 are behind schedule. We are still working on a scale-up phase of an inorganic orange/red product line that was registered as PO88 and PR299. These are potential pigments for full shade applications in chromatic red and orange shades, where up until now no inorganic materials are available. A further project is dedicated to a super-strong Spinel Black PBk28 with high jetness that we plan to trial in the plant in Q1-Q2/2022.
Ryan: Shepherd Color is known for pushing the edge of the durable color envelope. In 2022 we are looking to launch new products in the blue and magenta color space that continue this push.
Venturini: Our main focus when investing in research and development is the ability to support specific customers’ needs for eco-friendly coatings technologies. We’ll continue to invest in research in end markets and applications that can provide value to our customers, which is part of our core philosophy at Sun Chemical. This is true when it comes to high performance pigments, effects and functional pigments, where Sun Chemical drives trends and technologies with new and
exciting innovations.
CW: Briefly provide a description of the latest products launched by your company.
Bianchi: A new, strong fluorescent ink base which can be used in both conventional and UV printing, but with a broader range of UV compatibility, and a 100% curable UV ink base.
Sonby: Both Yellow Iron Oxide and Black Iron Oxide have limited heat stability and will convert to a Red Iron Oxide at higher temperatures. We continue to push the temperature limits on these pigments higher in order for our customers to have better tools in building their coatings systems.
Lavieri: Our R&D resources were spent this year supporting the expansions of our Indanthrone Blue production in the Netherlands and our yellow pigment production in Canada. Indanthrone Blue pigments are a royal blue shade and used for high performance applications, especially automotive coatings. DCL has five products with differentiated performance for every application. We have relaunch these products in 2021 and are filling their robust demand from our new capacity.
Gehres: Heubach recently launched (HEUCOTINT ™ W) in the US: a waterborne, zero-VOC and APE free POS colorant system that can be used in all types of manual and automatic tinting machines.
Based on the new super-strong line of PBr24 pigments we introduced more customized grades into the market.
Ryan: Arctic Green 10C650 is a highly-advanced version of modified chromium oxide (PG17) with a darker masstone color and higher total solar reflectance for optimal ‘cool material’ properties in building products and other applications.
Dynamix 30C119 is an easily dispersed version of Bismuth Vanadate (PY184). Shepherd Color is the only place to get easily dispersed versions of BiV Yellow, NTP Yellow, and RTZ Orange for the quick inclusion of the highest performance possible in the yellow color-space.
Venturini: Sun Chemical’s new lead-free Paliotan® VIU portfolio is a full-service package designed to support the replacement of lead components in coatings formulations. The Paliotan VIU portfolio includes several shades, such as lemon yellow, mid-yellow and red, which combine improved color strength and opacity for more cost-efficient formulations in decorative applications. While the colorant grades in the portfolio have been specially developed for requirements in the Asian and Latin American regions, Sun Chemical can advise on how to reformulate and meet regional requirements.
Sun Chemical also recently launched its Lumina® Royal Sienna 9S290D and Lumina® Royal Exterior Sienna S2903D, two grades of the new copper-shade effect pigment based on synthetic mica with a very high saturation level. As automotive coatings manufacturers demand bolder, more chromatic shades, Lumina Royal Sienna offers designers a creative instrument to develop the next generation of color stylings.
