Manufacturers of metal machinery, pipes and valves have long forgotten the days of Henry Ford; who produced cars in any color as long as they were “black”. Today, manufacturers of all types are expected to produce products in a wide range of colors to meet the particular needs of their customers.
The explosion of color availability was made possible by the development of tinting systems. These systems add exact amounts of liquid colorants to bases designed to produce a wide range of colors.
- Tinting systems are widely used in architectural paints because of their versatility.
- Any quantity of a color – quart, gallon or five – can be tinted in the paint store.
Prior to the introduction of tinting, color was achieved by adding dry pigments in the paint factory to produce what is known as “factory-mixed” or “ready-mixed” colors.
- Pigments for factory mixed colors
These factory mixed colors are often preferred by industrial applicators for several reasons:
- They frequently have better coverage than tints, particularly saturated yellows and reds.
- The addition of dry pigments can add to the overall durability of the coating. For example: resistance to fading and corrosion.
- Factory mixed colors reduce the possibility of color inconsistency between containers.
There are paint manufacturers, like Carbit Paint in Chicago, that specialize in supplying factory mixed colors on a made-to-order basis. These manufactures produce alkyds, acrylics and urethanes in small batch quantities, as little as 25 gallons, to meet the need for color variety without losing the benefits of factory mixed colors.