Colour is everywhere. Colour is in natural substances as well as man-made objects. In nature, the colour is vibrant but fleeting. Technology has provided ways to match the vibrant colour of nature but with longer lasting colour. Organic and inorganic pigments are used in many plastic, coatings, and ink applications to replicate the colour palette of nature.
Colour is everywhere – even right below our feet. Colour is used in road marking paints to infer driver directions, safety or merely to attract attention. Think of bike or bus lanes, handicap parking spaces, EV charging stations or the well-known yellow lines for lane identification. Since road marking paints are designed to convey messages, the colour of the paint is critical to help deliver the message. Traffic paint, although singularly named, are really a collection of coatings for exterior pavement applications like parking lots, tennis and basketball courts, sidewalks and of course roadways.
Road marking paints are typically either air dry or thermoset in technology. Both application requirements and regions can dictate which type of technology is required. Thermal cure or “Hot melt” being the more specific technology is typically used in higher temperature regions where other coating systems may dry or cure too quickly. This technology is more permanent resulting in a longer life. In addition, thermal cure is used in regions where there is no concern for the thicker paint to be scraped by snow plows.
Colourants for road marking applications must exhibit good opacity, bright shades, and easily dispersed to be suitable for either hot melt or thermoset chemistries. Hot melt coatings have an additional requirement of a higher heat stability – they need to be able to withstand ~200⁰ C for 1-2 hours. This requirement points towards the high-performance pigments (HPP) which can withstand this type of heat profile without colour change. In addition, HPP’s will also provide higher weather resistance for these types of coatings which can extend the life of the road marking. When selecting colourants for pavement coatings a few key decisions are required. The question flow diagram below can help the formulator select the pigmentation required to meeting the formulation and application needs.
Yellow
- Air Dry Cure
- PY74 – Vamink Yellow 127 or 130C
- PY83 – Vamink Yellow 134
- PY139 – Vamink Yellow 2935P
- PY65 – Vamink Yellow 119C or 118
- Hot Melt
- PY83 – Vamink Yellow 134
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