Effective optics

Printed products today need special effects to attract the attention of the reader or the consumer. Metal pigments from BENDA-LUTZ make it possible for the creative designer - together with the printer - to meet this demand in a variety of ways. With BLITZ^® gold-bronze pigments you can produce prints which appear almost like real gold. BLITZ^® aluminium pigments are employed for silver-coloured prints and for polychromatic effects (so-called imitation colours).

A material for every process

The printing process determines the type of pigment. A variety of printing processes requires a variety of pigments. Offset printing, for example, requires very fine pigments in the range of less than a thousandth of a millimetre. In the coarse-meshed screen printing, pigments are employed which can be 10 or even 20 times coarser. Frequently, only these coarse pigments produce the desired "coarse-grained" sparkling effect. 

All our lamelliform metal pigments have one thing in common - they are as flat as the flat-rolled dough for "Viennese apfelstrudel". (Note: Viennese apfelstrudel -you should also try this delicious dessert!). The smooth, rolled surface brings reflection of the light and thus brilliance. Brightness and high brilliance, as desired and as treasured by printers and their customers.

Offset printing

High brilliance and defined particle size with a clear upper limit are characteristic of our base pigments for offset inks. For reasons of work hygiene, pastes based on printing ink oils (mineral oils) are usually used. Due to the great brightness, the 2091 range of pigments or the 1291/65 MO pastification are excellently suitable for polychromatic effects and, in blends with transparent colours, create clear and undistorted metallic colours. In the processing, careful incorporation of the pigment powder or paste is required. High shearing stresses would curl up and destroy the lamellar pigments - the high shine would be lost. Three-roller mills and fast-running stirrers with a high shearing effect are, therefore, to be avoided. Slow-running stirrers with large-area tools such as, for example, planetary mixers are preferred.

Rotogravure and flexographic printing

For both printing processes very similar printing inks are used on a solvent or water base. The in-corporation of the thin lamellar metal pigments should be done near the end of the production of the printing ink. That the mechanical stressing of the pigments should be as small as possible also applies here. Leafing or non-leafing? Leafing pigments orientate themselves at the surface of the print so that highly shining colours with reduced abrasion resistance result. With the addition of wax the abrasion resistance is certainly increased but a reduction of the brilliance is unavoidable due to the amorphous waxes. Non-leafing pigments are superbly suited for laminates and prints for which abrasion resistance is foremost. In the case of film compounds, therefore, non-leafing pigments are preferred to leafing pigment types. BLITZ® COMPAL can be processed cleanly and dust-free due to its pellet form. The resin medium which is used displays wide applicability and compatibility with almost all printing ink binding agents. BLITZ® COMPAL types are available with leafing and non-leafing properties. BLITZ® SPLENDAL in reverse film printing makes high gloss prints with a mirror effect possible, which cannot be achieved by conventional printing colours. As a non-leafing pigment, BLITZ® SPLENDAL is superbly suited for polychromatic effects such as, for example, imitation gold. The costly EVD manufacturing process for BLITZ® SPLENDAL produces a product for the highest quality printing inks. For absorbent printing materials a sealed surface or an undercoat printing to close the pores is required in order to realize the full advantage of this pigment’s properties.

	Screen and pad printing
	A very wide range of pigments is possible for these printing processes. The choice of pigments depends on the desired effect. With BLITZ® SPLENDAL, besides high gloss prints in silver, clear metallic imitation colours can be achieved.

	Bronzing
	This printing process was once of paramount significance in label and packaging printing. The coarse-grained pigments give a clear "sparkling effect". Bronzing has lost its significance but, as before, you can obtain the pigments for bronzing.

Powder · Pellets · Paste

BLITZ^® aluminium pigments are obtainable as powder, dedusted powder (DEPUVAL), paste and in the form of pellets (COMPAL). The characteristics of all types can be found in the Technical Information TI 1/02.

Goldbronze

This is obtainable in the colours Rich Gold, Rich Pale Gold, and Pale Gold. The desired colour tone is to be given when enquiring or ordering.

It should be noted that goldbronze has reduced tolerance to nitrocellulose and, therefore, gold coloured NC colours are to be processed immediately after mixing.

The following table gives an overview of which pigments are preferably employed depending on the printing process.