Pearlescent pigments, due to their specific properties, are irreplaceable in the printing industry today. They are indispensable for the shaping of effects and the presentation of special designs. Because of the great important of pearl luster pigments in the range of effect pigments for printing applications, such as in the manufacture of packaging, textile materials, wallpaper and furniture as well as for high quality papers and carton boards is steadily increasing. One of many advantages of these pigments is that metal like effects can be generated without using metals
Printing onto textile fabrics
Textile printing inks containing pearl pigments can be used for superb color and patern effects on substrates ranging from small ornamental objects to a wide variety of textile material. They are suitable, in particular, for printing onto sports clothing, blouses, dresses, and home textiles such as bed linen, tablecloths, curtains, wall-coverings, soft furnishings and lampshades.
Wallpapers and furniture facings
Another popular and commercially important application for pearlscent pigments is in the high-quality treatment of papers and other substrates for use in the wallpaper and furniture facing industries. In furniture facings the aim is more to add subtle support to natural structures such as wood grain. The pigments of choice in this type of application would therefore be silver white pearl pigments. The preferred printing process is rotogravure, using water based dispersion ink systems. However, PVC-based inks are still used, e.g.in the wallpaper industry for creating high-blow and low-blow effects; these are processes in which heat is used to blow up structures pre-printed onto the substrate.
Fine papers and carton board
Within the printing of folding carton board for cosmetics, aim is taken on the creation of very strong pearl effects to emphasize om the noble character of the cosmetic product. To achieve this effect, the print must be heavy, with thicknesses that exceed those normally applied in gravure printing. Numerous printing techniques are used, ranging from knife-over-roil coating to screen-printing, and from airbrushing to bronzing. Further coating, overprinting, embossing and hot sealing are additional measures that may be applied to add weight to the nobility of product.
The term packaging is fairly broad and embraces materials, such as papers, carton board, plastic film, wood and metal. Pearlescent pigment can be used to print onto all of these materials, subject only to the limitation of the printing process.