Engelhard Expands Capabilities for New Effect and Functional Materials

Engelhard Corporation has formed an alliance with Prizmalite Industries Inc. to develop and market new effect and functional materials for a range of applications, including paints and coatings, plastics, printing inks, cosmetics and personal care products.
    
Engelhard will develop new special effects and applications that utilize Prizmalite’s ultrafine glass microsphere technology, which uses transparent microspheres unique in both their size reduction and tight particle size distribution. Application benefits include improved visibility at night, heightened color intensity and better product dispersibility.
    
Engelhard will also sell and market, on a worldwide basis, the glass microspheres and retro-reflective microspheres for a range of applications.
    
“Working with Prizmalite broadens our offerings for customers,” said Stephen Lux, group vice president and general manager of Engelhard’s appearance and performance technologies. “Combining Prizmalite’s unique materials with Engelhard technology will result in new effects that give designers innovative tools and added functionality in many application areas.”
    
Engelhard’s collaboration with Prizmalite builds on an alliance formed last year with Nippon Sheet Glass that centers on the use of metal-oxide-coating technologies to develop new special-effect pigments for coatings, plastics, inks and cosmetics. The first products to emerge from that alliance were the Engelhard Reflecks Dimensions pigments, which offer customers a wide array of effects ranging from luminous to glittering.