Plastics
industry

Metallic Effect Pigments (MEP) are used in a wide variety of plastics applications. The AVL products are globally known for their very performing metallic effects as well as functional performance in following fields:

Compounds

Metallic Effect Pigments (MEP) for Compounds

Compounding is a process of melt-blending copolymers and additives. These are automatically dosed through feeders and hoppers and extruded. The final products are pipes, toys, etc.

Compounds with PTFE are utilized in seals and as a sliding material (for example, in bearings). Their density, strength, and thermal conductivity are greatly increased when combined with copper or bronze powders as technical compounds.

Gold Bronze pigments

Silver Aluminium pigments

Masterbatches

Metallic Effect Pigments (MEP) for Masterbatches

Masterbatch is the intermediate step in the process of using metallic effect pigments to color plastics. Masterbatches consist of metallic pigment (=coloring agent) + carrier + additives.

The metallic pigments are incorporated in a relatively high dosage in the masterbatch and subsequently in a low dosage in the final plastics by injection moulding or extrusion. Besides polystyrene, other polymers, such as ABS, PVC, LDPE and PP are also used as carriers.

In general, AVL offers pastes with mineral oil for masterbatch. Our dust-free pastes are easy to disperse, odorless, and are highly compatible with plastics. The mineral oil is specially selected for its low-odour properties. Other solvents are available upon request.

Gold Bronze pigments

Silver Aluminium pigments

Relief Technique

Metallic Effect Pigments (MEP) for Relief Technique

With ‘relief technique’, ‘real’ metal surfaces are created for artistic or craft purposes by working metal granulate into plastic, by pouring or modelling it into the desired form, and then using mechanical processing (grinding, polishing, brushing, etc.) to reveal the metal surface.

AVL offers a range of aluminium, copper and bronze granulates for this application.

Gold Bronze pigments

Silver Aluminium pigments