Subject:
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Re: Variations in dark blue color.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.color
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Date:
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Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:45:41 GMT
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Viewed:
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8728 times
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In lugnet.color, John Patterson wrote:
> It is true that where LEGO used to receive color-molded pellets for
> > molding, and now the ABS is clear/uncolored and colors are injected during
> > molding.
>
> Scott, a question, why is it more difficult to control the color with clear
> plastic than it was to control the color in the older method of using colored
> plastic? Is it not the same problem to insure that the colored pellets are the
> same color? They probably made countless runs of the same color pellets without
> changing color. Its hard to believe that they had quality control in the 60s,
> 70s, 80s, 90s, but can't contol it now. Is it possible that Lego has reduced
> each brick run and they have the problem when making a second brick run?
> Your post on the making of the bricks and injection molding was most helpful and
> useful. It was like watching the Discovery Channel's How Its Made. Thank you.
> One personal question. I have a model of the White House that was on display in
> Lego's corporate office in Denmark. It is glued together. At some point in its
> history it was outside. It is all white bricks and there is yellowing. What I
> don't understand in that the yellow bricks are not consistent. They are 1x8,
> one next to another and one maybe yellow and the other is pure white. About
> every fifth brick is yellowed in random patterns all over the piece. Any reason
> that you can think of? This has puzzeled me for some time now.
> Thanks
> John P
John,
Adding color dye to clear ABS is like taking a bowl of flour, and adding food
coloring to it. You will find that as you mix the flour, some of the flour will
wind up being tinted a little darker than other areas. It depends on your
mixing technique, and all the relative aspects (i.e. how fast your mixing, the
way you are mixing, what you are mixing with, etc).
Now, if it were possible to buy a bag of flour with the flour colored the way
you wanted it, you could have a better guarantee of the consistiency, as the
company (i.e. vendor) producing the flour that you purchased would be doing
their own quality checks.
Now, if you needed a lot of different colored flour, would you be better off
buying several different bags of flour each with a specific color, knowing you
wouldn't be using the entire bag each time, or would you be better off buying a
huge amount of flour, then only taking what you needed from the large portion
(which is probably cheaper per use due to size and economies of scale), and
mixing your own colors?
I figure this is pretty close to how things are happening now. Using your own
color, you are now taking color consistency QC into your own hands, and not
using the vendors QC in addition to your own.
Transitions from the "norm" of 30 years, to newer methods are never seamless.
There's always going to be bumps. Any consultant that guarantees "seamless
transition" doesn't fully know the process.
As for the yellowing--on top of other posts in the thread about yellowing,
another thing to consider is the display was probably static, and you should
consider the position of the sun in relation to how much sun bricks are getting.
I'd dare say that bricks exposed to sunlight for a longer period of time are
bound to yellow faster.
Scott
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Variations in dark blue color.
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| (...) Thanks for the explanitation. I still would think that if the supplier of the pellets starts off with a clear plastic and then adds color, it would be the same for Flextronics starting with a clear plastic and adding color to make the pellets. (...) (16 years ago, 15-Feb-08, to lugnet.color)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Variations in dark blue color.
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| It is true that where LEGO used to receive color-molded pellets for (...) Scott, a question, why is it more difficult to control the color with clear plastic than it was to control the color in the older method of using colored plastic? Is it not (...) (16 years ago, 13-Feb-08, to lugnet.color)
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