International supplier of sealed liquid colourants and additives to the plastics industry, Riverdale Global, has launched a new satellite facility in the UK.
Located in Warrington, the Riverdale Colour facility provides customers in the UK and Ireland with supplies and service for the company’s Sealed Colour™ total system, which uses sealed containers for delivering liquid colours, metering them into the into the moulding or extrusion process and replenishing supplies without the waste and mess of residual liquid.
The new, 8,000 sq.ft. facility in Warrington will function as a ‘satellite’ plant, drawing on stocks of single-pigment dispersions (SPDs) produced by Riverdale Global in the U.S. to prepare custom colours and additives for use with the full range of thermoplastic polymers.
An SPD is a dispersion of a single pigment that can be blended with other SPDs to develop colours to customer specification. Employing a computerised colour blending system whose software incorporates a database of thousands of formulations, the new facility will reportedly develop matched colours and ship them to customers following approval of sample plaques. An on-site quality-control laboratory will document all colour matches and provide pre- and post-production traceability.
“The Sealed Colour concept eliminates all of the complications of conventional liquid colour handling, including spillage, leakage, clean-up, tube replacement, pump maintenance, uncoloured product, unused colorant, environmental concerns, and disposal costs,” said John Goulbourn, the facility’s newly-appointed Operations Manager. “What remains are the substantial cost and productivity advantages of liquid colour over pellet masterbatch.”
Although liquid colour typically costs more per kilogram than pellet concentrate, it contains higher pigment loadings, is used at lower addition levels, takes up much less warehouse space, and makes possible shorter cycle and purging times, says Riverdale Global.
“Computerised colour blending from SPDs adds to the advantages of liquid colours over masterbatch by producing higher-quality colours, and the tight tolerances available with gravimetric metering augment the cost savings by reducing the margin of error in colorant loadings,” said Paul Maguire, president of Riverdale Global. “The combination of SPD-based colours and gravimetric dispensing enables customers to save 20 to 40 percent on colourant costs alone.”