Pigments Offer a New Family of Colorants Based on Diffractive Effects
Conventional structures and methods of producing flakes or particles with diffractive gratings have rendered such material unsuitable for obtaining the optical features achievable by foil structures. While these diffractive gratings are very successful as patterns and linear embossments in foils and plastics, most diffractive flake pigments have had one or more drawbacks of glittery appearance, low visual effect, or large flake size, resulting in a rough coating surface. Previous technology suffered from lack of flake orientation, poor durability, flake curvature, and most importantly lacked an aesthetically pleasing appearance. However, the SpectraFlair pigments represent the first high-performance, commercial diffractive technology in the form of a versatile pigment flake for paint and ink.
The pigment is produced under tolerances similar to semiconductor chip manufacturing technology. In manufacturing, to maintain the diffractive effect, the layer thickness and three-dimensional relief of the pigment must be controlled to precise tolerances. Flake layers on the microstructure are controlled to within 3-5 atoms thickness.