Use Fluorescent Pigment to Improve Your Projects

Advertising industry is where fluorescent pigments see their earliest and widest commercial application from indoor and outdoor signage to large roadside advertisement boards, and from all kinds of product packages to magazine covers and advertising inserts. With the advances of the commodity economy and science and technology, fluorescent pigments, thanks to their enhanced performances, are widely employed in more fields, such as safety signs, fire engines and ambulances, rescue equipment and facilities, construction sites, hazardous equipment, other industrial equipment and sites, traffic signs, traffic operation personnel clothing, and dresses for forestry workers and hunters. In automation and high-tech sectors, fluorescent pigments are also applied for optical identification, like barcoding, tracking and document sorting, and emergency mail handling. With the increasing application of fluorescent pigments in other color-related sectors, eye-catching fluorescent colors can be seen almost everywhere, such as various gears and toys for kids, contemporary art pieces, crafts, and fashion.

Under the circumstances of natural setting, dawn, dusk, foggy weather, and projection lighting, the lustre of fluorescent pigments is way superior to the lustre visibility of traditional pigments. This feature can help fluorescent pigments attract people’s attention sooner, and keep the attention there longer, making the pigment such a head-turner. These features of fluorescent pigments have sparked growing interest, which leads to increasingly diverse commercial applications. Till now, fluorescent pigments are extensively employed in the coloring of products such as plastics, solvents, paper products, color pastes, inks, paints, coatings, masterbatches, synthetic fibers,and textiles.

• Applications of Fluorescent Pigments in Coatings, Paints, Printing Inks, and Color Pastes

Fluorescent pigments can be used in various paints such as ones for traffic sign, advertising, toy, bicycle baking, and various inks. According to requirements on performances of different paintings, fluorescent pigments manufacturers around the world, in order to meet the market needs for performances and cost-effectiveness, have developed fluorescent pigments of different performances, which can be mainly classified into ones of low solvent resistance, eco-solvent resistance and strong solvent resistance, each usually comes with fine particles However, the application of fluorescent pigments varies greatly due to differences in resin coating and manufacturing techniques.

Fluorescent pigments of low solvent resistance are mainly applied in water-soluble products. They can be dispersed in water, but are low-end products with limited application scenarios. Fluorescent pigments of eco-solvent resistance are generally used in lower-grade inks and paints, and products of lower quality requirements and shorter storage duration. Fluorescent pigments of strong solvent resistance are employed in products of high quality. Fluorescent pigments encapsulated with microspheres possess excellent solvent resistance and colorfastness, particularly suitable for sites where products of strong solvent are stored for longer duration. Thanks to properties of non-transparency and good hiding power, this kind pigment performs better in weather fastness than common fluorescent pigments, and excels in aspects like coloring capability. In the painting industry, the choice of raw materials is getting increasingly environment-oriented. The majority of manufacturers in China used to use fluorescent pigments containing formaldehyde, while in present days, the use of formaldehyde isn’t prohibited only in exported products but also in some products sold in China.

Thanks to shining and dazzling features, fluorescent pigments are extensively employed in printing industry. Fluorescent pigments, prepared by the dissolvement of fluorescent dye matrices in co-condensed resin, have finer particles compared with common pigments, and good diffusivity, which facilitates penetration into fibers to enhance crockfastness and washfastness. But fine particles could be a concern in soap washing, because in encapsulated pigments, these particles are prone to bloating upon contact with water, particularly soap solutions. Once stirred or washed, the fine particles will come off from the film easily, leading to poor soaping fastness.

Fluorescent pigments, to some extent, differ from common pigments in that the latter is prepared from the grinding and pulping of a mixture of organic or inorganic pigments and a certain proportion of glycerin, emulsifiers, water, and other materials, while the former is fabricated by the dissolvement of fluorescent dye matrices in resins such as N-hydroxymethyl, toluenesulfonamide, and N-hydroxymethyl melamine co-polycondensation, which is followed by grinding and pulping processes. So the differences between common pigments and fluorescent pigments decide their colorfastness in printing. The main concern for fluorescent pigments in printing is their unsatisfactory soaping fastness.

• Applications of Fluorescent Pigments in Plastic Products

Plastic products are primarily manufactured using methods such as injection molding, extrusion, blow molding, and compression molding. The fundamental of applying fluorescent pigments in plastic products involves melting and dispersing (dissolving) thermoplastic fluorescent pigments into plastic products at high temperatures. The fluorescence of products is in association with that of fluorescent pigments themselves, the compatibility between fluorescent pigments and plastic products, operating temperature and duration, etc. Fluorescent pigments are primarily used for coloring PP, PE, ABS, PS, PVC, PMMA, and other plastic products.