Plastics innovations - new colours, effects and textures

01 October 2008

SABIC Innovative Plastics has launched its Expression 2009 palette, giving moulders more freedom to achieve product differentiation and to create instant brand recognition. The six new textures add depth and interest without the need for paint. And when combined with a colour or special effect from SABIC’s range of Visualfx resins, these textures can give a novel look and feel to new product developments, while reducing system costs.

According to Yvette Bogaert, manager of the SABIC’s European Colour Innovation Centre, the Expression 2009 programme offers colours and effects that reflect emerging trends, based on the company’s discussions and interactions with designers and colour experts. She hopes that Expression colours and textures will inspire customers to think more creatively about their applications.

The company maintains Colour Innovation Centres in the Netherlands, the USA, and China, and these are available to help customers create stunning and distinctive effects for their product developments. The centres provide a wide range of design and technical expertise to guide customers through colour selection, the colour teams offering one-to-one liaison with the customer to explore design possibilities, and conduct on-the-spot colour matches.

The Visualfx resins range, includes Lexan, Cycoloy, Geloy, Xylex, Xenoy, Valox, Noryl, and Cycolac. These provide more than 50,000 colour variants, as well as special effects such as diamond, marbling, sparkles, frost, smoke, and opalescence - some of which are claimed to be unique in the global plastics industry. There is a library of 20,000 standard resin colours and custom matching to a sample can be undertaken in seven days or less.