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ViviTint colourants are based on Milliken Chemical’s proprietary polymer-bound colourant technology. These colourants can provide brilliance and transparency to synthetic and artificial leather. When combined with metallic and/or pearlescent pigments, ViviTint colourants give synthetic leather bright and vivid colours, resulting in unparalleled aesthetics. They offer a true transparent colour option whilst overcoming the deficiencies of crystal pigments and dyes, such as inadequate dispersibility, poor thermal stability or excessive migration.
Background
Traditionally, colour effects in synthetic leather goods have been achieved using either pigments – in the form of colour chips or colour paste, liquid dyestuff, or a combination of the two. Dyestuffs exhibit high tinting strength, wide colour space and good transparency. They generally have poor light fastness and, because of their low molecular weight, dyes migrate easily and can bleed onto transfer substrates such as release paper or other textile substrates with which they come in contact. The toxicity of many azo-metal complex dyes further limits their applicability.
Most synthetic and artificial leather produced today uses the “dry process” of manufacturing, with pigments as the main source of colour. While providing better light fastness and bleed properties, most pigments, especially organic pigments, have low tinting strength, poor transparency and duller shades, limiting the aesthetic quality of the synthetic leather articles produced. Pigments are typically insoluble and have to be ground into a powder prior to dispersal into a carrier medium. In addition, the masking power of pigments can diminish the effects of pearlescent and metallic colourants when used in combination with these special additives.
Milliken Chemical’s latest polymeric colourant technology now combines the advantages of pigments and dyes into one product – ViviTint colourants. Available in five primary colours, the products offer transparency, brilliance, low migration and heat stability, overcoming the typical disadvantages of dyes and pigments. ViviTint polymeric colourants now offer an alternative for colouring synthetic leather in the dry process and in post treatment operations, allowing manufacturers to produce fashionable and attractive products with aesthetics unachievable with conventional pigments and dyes.
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Further Information
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