Specialty chemicals company LANXESS is looking to add a splash of color to outdoor applications with its organic and inorganic pigment preparations. With this in mind, the Functional Chemicals (FCC) business unit is supplementing its range of colorants with six new weather-resistant Levanyl and Levanox grades. In addition, the versatile colorant specialty supplier is optimizing its distribution channels in Europe. In the second quarter of 2011, FCC will expand the established logistics concept for soluble Macrolex dyes to its full range of colorants. “This will enable us to offer our highly specialized customers even more flexibility. In the future, European customers will be able to buy even small colorant quantities directly from LANXESS,” said Dominik Risse, head of Colorants Marketing at FCC.

New weather-resistant premium products

“In the course of 2011 we shall add lightfast grades for outdoor applications to our existing range of pigment preparations,” said Dr. Thomas Sommermann, head of Technical Service & Development Colorants at FCC. The newly developed pigment preparations based on high-performance organic and inorganic pigments are ideal for outdoor use owing to their lightfastness and weather resistance. They will be an effective supplement to the solvent-free aqueous, organic Levanyl pigment preparations.

The new developments pave the way for a significantly enhanced color space of LANXESS pigment preparations and more brilliant hues with excellent lightfastness.

Increase in capacity for important base pigment

In its colorant portfolio LANXESS also offers organic pigments and dyes for ink jet printing inks, office supplies, crop protection, cleaning agents, wood preservatives, plastics and a large number of other applications. The large-format ink jet segment, which includes the printing of banners and films of various sizes for outdoor advertising, for example, has been growing steadily for years and has already completely replaced analog printing processes in many areas. As one of the leading manufacturers of C.I. Pigment Yellow 150-based colorants, LANXESS launched Bayscript Yellow 4GF at the end of 2010, a product that is optimally tailored to meet the needs of the ink jet industry. This grade is characterized by, among other things, outstanding fastness properties, a very narrow particle size distribution and an extremely low salt content. “To be able to grow with our customers, we have extended our synthesis capacity at our Leverkusen site for products based on Pigment Yellow 150 by 40 percent as part of a debottlenecking drive,” said Risse. With these azo-metal complex pigments, the company is addressing the needs of ink jet printer OEMs, independent manufacturers of consumables for large-format ink jet printing and producers of laminate printing inks and automotive coatings.

Detailed information about the company’s colorant specialties can be found on the internet at www.colorants.lanxess.com.

The FCC business unit belongs to LANXESS’ Performance Chemicals segment, which achieved total sales in fiscal 2010 of EUR 1.98 billion.