Teknor Color To Introduce Broad Range Of Colors For Building Products At NPE 2006

Fourteen Light-Stabilized Colorants Come in Multiple Forms and Are Matched for Multiple Resins for a Wide Range of Interior and Exterior Uses

Pawtucket, RI — Teknor Color Company has recreated the hues of earth, wood, and stone in new concentrate and dry-color formulations for polymers used in building applications, the company has announced. Each color can be customized to meet the specific requirements of products such as roofing membranes, decks, and baseboard liners, including stabilizer formulations. Among many options available is a new form of concentrate for use with polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Teknor Color will introduce the new colorants, tradenamed TEKpro (R) Construction Colors, this June at NPE 2006 (Booth 10150).

Three factors make the TEKpro Construction Color product range so comprehensive:

• Fourteen Hues Widely Specified For Construction Use, including Khaki, Slate Blue, Slate Gray, Cream, Snow White, Standard White, Sandstone, Wheat, Sand, Standard Gray, Evergreen, Pine, Cedar, and Teak. All of the TEKpro Construction Colors are new formulations based on light-stable pigments and containing stabilizers that provide UV-resistance, according to Kelly Coutu, business development manager.

• Colorants For Five Commonly Used Construction Polymers . Teknor Color can formulate each TEKpro Construction Color for use with high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), mineral-filled PP, rigid PVC, or flexible vinyl. These are polymer families widely used in applications such as cove basing and other wall-protection systems, shutters, doors, roofing membranes, flooring, decking, fences, and railings.

• Multiple Forms For Different Production Requirements. Colors for each of the five polymer families are available as: 1) standard pellet and bead concentrates, 2) powder and mini-bead concentrates with improved distribution and coloring efficiency, and 3) dry colors, which are powder formulations of pigment and additives without carrier resin (see table).

Colorant Forms Include Non-Standard Alternatives with Processing Benefits
While many concentrates are available in cube, strand, and bead forms with pellet sizes ranging up to 0.125 in. (3.3 mm), Teknor Color Company also offers mini-beads (typically 0.011 in. / 2.8 mm in diameter) under the trade name TEKpro (R) Color Spheres (TM) for use with all five polymer types. Because of their small size and rounded shape, Color Spheres blend more uniformly and provide more efficient distribution of color. In addition, they have higher pigment loadings, in effect delivering more colorant per pound.

With TEKpro Construction Colors, Teknor Color is introducing the first Color Sphere mini-beads for use with rigid and flexible vinyl. These beads are 0.111-in. (2.8 mm) in diameter. "Besides providing the advantages of mini-beads over the cube forms in which many PVC concentrates are supplied, PVC mini-beads are more cost-effective than powder concentrate dispersions," Coutu said. "While powder dispersions are an efficient and effective way to color dryblend PVC powder formulations, they require the extra step of cryogenic grinding in their manufacture. TEKpro PVC mini-beads provide the next-best economic solution."

TEKpro Construction Colors are available in boxes, fiber drums, and gaylords. Prices vary according to order size and type of UV stabilizer package.

SOURCE: Teknor Color Company