Product category:
Electronics Manufacturing Materials and Consumables
News Release from: BASF | Subject: EverWhite
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 19 October 2006
Plastics promise the white colour for
goods
The Design Factory is now offering 12 shades of white in gradations ranging from extremely white to slightly tinted.
Since the advent of the iPod from Apple, the colour white no longer stands only for the "good old white" used for refrigerators, and washing machines Be it for MP3 players, beamers, cellular phones or laptops, it is an undeniable fact that white has now entered the realm of consumer electronics
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 26 Mar 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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BASF's Design Factory is responding to this trend with new shades of white developed specifically for the manufacturers of electronic devices.
EverWhite is the name of the new colour cornucopia.
Whereas the familiar RAL colour chart only contains five shades of white, the Design Factory has expanded on the concept and is now offering 12 shades of white in gradations ranging from extremely white to slightly tinted.
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The new colour shades have a particularly significant advantage: they are highly colour stable and prevent the yellowing encountered with parts made of plastics dyed white.
Moreover, plastics dyed with EverWhite colour shades stand out for their high mechanical stability, a sought-after property exactly for colouring with white as this requires more colour pigments than darker colours do.
"The more pigment is added, the greater the impairment of the mechanical properties of the plastic such as its impact strength and flowability", explains Norbert Mosbach, Head of the Technical Dye Laboratory of BASF's Design Factory.
"We have now considerably improved this aspect with our EverWhite colour shades".
Today, the Design Factory can already offer more than 1700 different white colourations for a wide array of sectors.
When it comes to electronic devices, coatings in black and silver have dominated until now for housings made of PS, ABS and PC/ABS.
"Due to the trend towards white, there will be an increased use of highly colour-stable styrene plastic specialties that no longer have to be coated, thus saving on system costs".
"Precisely high-end producers are increasingly turning to the more colour-stable plastic specialties", says Dr Christian Bonten, Head of the Design Factory, as he explains the developments in the area of consumer electronics.
The Design Factory is an integral part of a new service package that is earmarked for product engineers and industrial designers and that has been on the market under the name PlasticsPlus design since May of this year.
BASF experts can provide a selection of colours and also give advice on choosing the optimal production process, on creating designs that are right for plastics as well as on making a preselection of the suitable material.
This service package also includes the issuing of colour certificates and the assurance of uniform colour standards worldwide.
BASF has bundled a product line of specialty plastics under the umbrella of PlasticsPlus, comprising high-performance styrene plastics, biodegradable materials and foams.
Whenever exacting requirements have to be met, the experts and products of PlasticsPlus offer a high level of diversity, reliability, partnership and innovative solutions.
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