Coloring your life: where science meets art: From color concept to colored object with Ciba Specialty Chemicals

Taking color to new destinations (illustration: orange car)

New and unique shades can be achieved with new chemistries: Ciba recently launched a new-generation, high-performance orange diketo-pyrrolo-pyrrole (DPP) pigment, Ciba® IRGAZIN® DPP Cosmoray^TM Orange, which extends the attainable color space and enhances appearance and shade brightness. IRGAZIN® DPP Cosmoray^TM Orange widens design scope, enabling the creation of novel shades and styles, not only in the orange color space but also in the red, where, in combination with other pigments, it can be used to create a yellow shift. This versatile, pure orange pigment can serve as a basis for a broad range of distinctive shades varying from bright golden orange, to deep, sparkling red.

IRGAZIN® DPP Cosmoray^TM Orange incorporates all the benefits of diketo-pyrrolo-pyrrole (DPP) chemistry, invented by Ciba, including outstanding durability and very high saturation. High transparency makes it ideal for combination with effect or other high-performance pigments, allowing wide scope for individual styles and designs; high color strength makes it an outstanding shading component. It is suitable for water-based as well as solvent-based systems and does not affect flow properties or migration resistance.

Enhancing appeal and creating new stylings (illustration: XYMARA effect explorer, colored building)

The demand for individuality and exclusivity through new colors and designs has led to the development of pigments with different color effects, such as sparkle, pearlescence, liquid metal and combinations of these. This trend is reflected in the automotive industry as well as in numerous other consumer goods. As the end user increasingly demands fashion and function combined, the styling and colors of cars, for example, are becoming more and more sophisticated. Likewise, utility items such as vacuum cleaners, telephones and kitchenware, as well as luxury packaging, wall paper and printed laminates, are becoming ever more decorative and colorful.

Ciba offers a comprehensive package that comprises not only Ciba® XYMARA™ effect pigments and application know-how, but also expertise at every stage in the value chain of numerous industries, including automotive, paper and graphics, electronics and consumer goods. The comprehensive XYMARA™ range of effect pigments includes mirror-effect, metallic, pearlescent, sparkle, satin and more, which can be combined with other effects or with transparent or opaque colored pigments, as required.

To provide information and support on effects, trends, etc., Ciba has launched a special website, www.xymara.com, which sets a new industry standard for the presentation of high-quality colors and effects on the web. The website, which among other features allows 3-D visualization of objects at different angles, has been set up to help designers, marketing experts and colorists develop unique visual effects for a wide variety of applications.

The website is designed to facilitate the creation of full visual effects and expand scope at every stage of the value chain by providing users with inspiration, ideas and expertise.

Updated daily, www.xymara.com features news, views and stories as well as examples of value-adding effects and colors. It also provides information on upcoming events relevant to the world of colors and effects in industrial design and reports on the most important shows worldwide.

The “Effect Explorer” allows unprecedented three-dimensional visualization of colors and effects in different forms, at different angles and against different backgrounds. It supplies details of the effects, their origins and how they have been created; it tells the story behind the style and gives recommendations for suitable applications. Users can also obtain information on the broad range of Ciba® XYMARA^TM effect pigments and discover how these can be combined with traditional pigments to produce an enormous variety of unique designs.

Ciba's complete set of offers for trending and styling is captured in the Color Trend Vision, a design and technology package developed to provide designers, converters, and paint, ink and masterbatch producers with global and regional color trend forecasts and information, design tools, technology, consulting services and products for coatings, inks and plastics applications.

This new concept covers all aspects of color from initial concept to finished object. It links the different stages of the value chain and assists all involved in the color process in achieving their objectives.

The tool kit includes an interactive presentation, available on CD-ROM, which comprises new trend colors researched and prepared by a global team of professional design consultants together with technical specialists from Ciba Specialty Chemicals. The presentation includes trend facts, statistics on the popularity of different colors, and information on color research and products. It also gives the background to each color, shows the color on an object and highlights technical aspects.

Part of Color Trend Vision, the Color Evolution Guide is a 200-page source of information on upcoming color trends based on research in key regions of the world. It provides further details of the 31 selected colors, based on their current and future trend position. The book describes the origin, the affinities and the emotional associations of the trend colors, as reflected in photos taken in all parts of the world. Real spray-outs of each shade are provided after each description.

Adding a new dimension to design (illustrations: Nordic and Black Pearl)

In today’s competitive business world, a striking image and distinctive product branding are key success factors. Exclusive, individual effects add sparkle to a company’s personality and distinguishing features to its products, helping to ensure that they stand out in the market. The latest addition to the XYMARA™ range is a series of novel glass-based effect pigments suitable for a wide variety of applications, including packaging, household goods and leisure items. Ciba® XYMARA Nordic™ stylings reflect the natural shades and effects of frost, gold, heather, ocean, pine and sunset. The versatile products provide novel styling options and allow the creation of unique new shades and designs, lending brilliance, sparkle and glitter, and increasing transparency or emphasizing opacity, as required.

Another recent addition to Ciba’s range of effects is XYMARA^TM Satin Black Pearl. With its distinctive, soft, satin sheen, this product enables the creation of stylish new effects on a wide variety of different items. It provides depth, strength and definition and can also be used to emphasize other colors. Its unusual satin effects can help designers, printers and converters create new styling options and achieve original effects, and brand owners and retailers to differentiate and stand out in the market.

XYMARA^TM Satin Black Pearl can be used either on its own or as a shading component to create visual impact and meet design needs in a number of applications, including flexible packaging, cosmetics packaging, paper and film labels, in-mold decorations for bicycle helmets and telephone fascias, and decorative laminates for items such as furniture. It is suitable for a broad range of ink systems and for flexographic, gravure, screen and offset printing processes.

Assisting color communication throughout the value chain (illustration: eye with world,)

Color consistency plays an important role in image and branding. Global companies require a uniform image throughout the world, and their suppliers need to ensure consistency wherever the colorants are produced and applied. Furthermore, colors often have to be matched on different substrates, such as car interiors and exteriors. Colorant manufacturers are therefore becoming progressively more involved in the entire value chain right from color concept to realization.

The demands of color consistency make it essential to provide close and continuous service and support. Ciba® Color Services supports companies globally throughout the color value chain, working with the suppliers of their choice, to achieve their goals with a growing range of solutions and tools designed for accurate results and simplicity of use.

Ciba® Color Services comprises a number of offerings. Ciba® COLIBRI™ color-formulation systems are designed for easy, efficient recipe formulation of opaque, translucent and transparent colors. The COLIBRI™ range also includes quality control software and an innovative network platform linking the color supply chain. This enables users to manage their complete color program from standards development and digital compliance criteria to individual supplier review.

Ciba provides extensive associated services in addition to the color-matching software, including expertise on pigment preparation and color measurement as well as software support for all color needs and color consultancy from design to realization.