What the Automotive Industry is saying about their needs for future Pigment Technology

Internationalisation of colour trends is occurring more and more in the global market place. We are seeing of the order of 800 new colours per year and growing, adding to an existing data bank of 40,000 colours of which 60% of these now contain effect pigments.


What does the future hold for pigment technology? Well I believe we will see effect pigments needing to include important functional properties (eg, infrared reflectivity) besides unique colour effects. We will see dynamic colours to meet the growing requirement for individualisation in the market place. There will be colour differentiation in marketing cars for women and active elderly people etc.

There is a wish list from designers:

Magnetic pigments for niche applications due to their unique behaviour.

LED pigments for light and bright colours which are very durable

Daytime adaptive colours meaning (lighter in the dark and darker during brighter daylight)

Phosphorescent effects with high durability

Continued development of efficient infrared reflective pigments

Strong sparkling effects in lower light conditions

Deep coloured Dye lookalike effects and coloured matt effects

A real challenge for the pigment industry is here and now to be grasped.