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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Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:48:20 GMT
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Viewed:
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8994 times
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SNIP
Granted, liquid color has it’s place...I just
Very interesting article.
I think the molded plastics business is in the same state of affairs that the
paint industry was in the 50’s and 60’s in that they now need to respond quickly
to the market preferences for colours as stated in the article. The solution in
the paint industry was to ubiquitous colour machine and the mixing of colours at
the point of purchase. I actually worked for many years with a company that
pioneered the use of the color machine. This whole revolution changed the way
that color was used in the home--I mean now we have literally millions of
different hues and shades available to the consumer.
But it is a difficult process--as each colorant works differently in each media.
The strength of the pigment has to be very strictly controlled. It has to
contain pigment specific dispersants and other additives. The base of the paint
has to be tested for each pigment and also the combinations of them. etc. etc.
However, the flexibility is terrific. One only has to stock a few bases, a few
colorants, and one has the ability to create an almost unlimited variety. If and
when the technical issues can be overcome in the molded plastics business, it
will open up a whole host of “Designer Colors”. Martha Stewart LEGO colors,
Ralph Lauren LEGO colors, lol. Authentic Williamsburg colored bricks. lol
The long term advantages of coloring on the spot are overwhelming for many
products, imho.
It was a very difficult transition in the paint industry, but what it did do was
to allow small manufacturers to compete with the large ones, small stores to
compete with large ones, since the product line was greatly shortened and the
amount of dead inventory was essentially reduced to nothing. Small runs of many
different colors could be produced--even a run of as small as a quart.
The use of liquid pigments (which are solid pigements dispersed in a liquid of
some type) is that it can be measured volumetrically in a contiunuous process.
But really do not know much about how is done in injection molding.
Tommy ARmstrong
The BrickEngraver
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Variations in dark blue color.
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| (...) Scott: You pretty much nailed all the points I was thinking about making here. I've worked for a specialty thermoplastics compounder for 7 years now both as a product development/formulation engineer and as a computer aided engineering (...) (16 years ago, 14-Feb-08, to lugnet.color, FTX)
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