Pigments That Stand the Test of Time

As regulatory pressures increase and sustainability gains more and more attention, some of the older complex inorganic color pigment chemistries really show their usefulness. A range of aesthetically pleasing and naturally soothing brown to yellow pigments have been workhorses in coatings and plastics applications – because of their regulatory friendly position, performance, and inertness – for years.

These three Shepherd Color pigments, BR19FDA, YL20P296, and BR10P858, are based on an iron, aluminum, and titanium oxide and provide unique properties. Their inertness comes from their high temperature calcination that makes them so unreactive and non-migrating that BR19FDA is FDA compliant with use in cookware coatings and packaging. This pigment gives powder, ceramic and silicone based coatings for cookware a warm home kitchen shade of golden brown. The inertness also gives them excellent weathering properties for building materials covered with high-performance coatings.

In addition, their excellent dispersion properties gives formulators the browns that are controllable during the pigment dispersion step, with a simple color development property. By making a brown with one pigment instead of a standard white, black, red (or more) pigment blend, the chances of odd weathering results are reduced because of the different pigments used in the color match weathering at different rates.

Yellow 20P296 provides a standard pigment for coloring engineering polymers who processing temperatures rule out organic or iron oxide pigmentation. Brown 10P858 has a pleasing chestnut brown color that can be used to mimic natural colors for engineering polymers for car interiors or plastic lumber coloring.

These complex inorganic color pigments provide unique properties: higher heat resistance than zinc ferrites, higher tint strength than PBr24 chrome antimony titanates, and are not SARA 313 regulated. They also make a great basis for color matching artificial turf, but without the zinc regulatory issues involved with zinc ferrite-based pigmentation.

Download the PDF here to learn more about these three Shepherd Color pigments, BR19FDA, YL20P296, and BR10P858.

Need technical data on these pigments? Find it here: BR19FDA, YL20P296, BR10P858