How dull and boring would life be without the world of colors! From tees to tunics, to toys and walls of your bedroom, to cakes and cookies and its packaging, color has become an integral aspect of our lives. Several applications in the industry just cannot do away with dyes and pigments which fulfill all their colorant requirements.
Challenging Times
However, the dyes and pigment industry is going through tough times with strict government restrictions imposed on their use in the food and packaging industry and other applications, slack periods in the printing industry, frequent slowdowns in the automobile industry and so on. These challenges have pushed the dyes and pigment industry to evolve and bring out safer and environmentally clean colors. The world is about to get a fresh bout of color, indeed!
Challenges in Food and Packaging Industry
The issue of safety in food packaging has become a cause for global concern today and this has brought the use of pigments in food and packaging under a closer scrutiny. There is greater awareness among the concerned people about the possible transfer of packaging color into food items under certain conditions. Some printing inks include aromatic constituents or components, which are saturated with mineral oil and these,raise possibilities of undesirable transfer of ink into food, indirectly. Greater consideration is therefore, being placed on variables like the package design, selection of ink components, usage of paperboard and recycled paper as well as the formulations of adhesive and coating material. Increasing FDA regulations in almost all countries of the world have pushed companies to adhere to global regulations and standards.Good quality organic pigments that are stable for viscosity and color, go with a broad array of resin systems and can be printed on a number of substrates are being increasingly in demand.
Environment Friendly Organic Pigments
It has always been said that challenges lead to positive results and the same has been the case with packaging inks. Studies have revealed that there is a lesser possibility of packaged ink transfer if aqueous inks are used in the application. This has led to the trend of using aqueous inks for fulfilling the packaging requirements. Alongside, an increased use of organic pigments is seen. A wide range of FDA approved pigment yellow; pigment green and other colorants are used on an increasing basis. In view of the change in market preferences, the organic pigments are getting a boost in their overall market share. Pigments that are compatible with eco-friendly water borne systems and deliver the same performance, as those of solvent borne systems are very much in favor today.
Summarizing
Notwithstanding the challenges faced by many of the dyes and pigment applications, hunt is on for better quality colorants that are environment friendly and safe to use for all. Concrete results are being obtained in this regard with the discovery of newer versions of safe-to-use colorants. Organic pigments have not only ensured the brightness and color in the world but also made it a safer place to live!