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Color Shifting Paints
The ColorShiftTM
effect created by ChromaFlair® pigments is the result of a
phenomenon that occurs when light hits an ultra-thin, multi-layer interference
flake. This flake is opaque and reflects the light back to the eye, just like a
mirror. The shift in color is created by the variances in light interference
through layers of the flake. Flex Products Inc. calls this unique color
generation technology Color by Physics®.
The key to these paints are
synthesized flakes that are one micron thick—or about 1/50th the
thickness of a human hair. Each flake is made up of several layers, laid on
symmetrically. At the center is an opaque, mirrorlike aluminum core covered on
both sides by a layer of glasslike magnesium fluoride.
Finally, over each glass layer is an
ultra-thin, semi-transparent layer of chrome. Production tolerances are so tight
they’re measured in atoms. Light passes into each flake through the two outer
layers and reflects off the aluminum core, being refracted by the glasslike
layer. In fact, it’s the thickness of this layer that determines the color
range you’ll see in a given pigment. Because the flakes are symmetrical, it
doesn’t matter which side is facing outward. Plus, even on the microscopic
scale, they’re much smoother than conventional metallic flakes, so they
provide better reflectivity and more saturated colors.
Flex Products makes eight different
pigments, each representing a different color range (red/gold,
cyan/purple, silver/green, and so on).
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Perhaps even more amazing than the
elusively shifting colors, though, is that the materials used in the ChromaFlair
pigments that give these paint lines their magic are completely colorless. The
bright colors we see are solely from light refracting off the paint, a
phenomenon similar to seeing rainbows in soap bubbles or oil slicks
One of the nice things about this paint
is that, because the ChromaFlair pigment contains no organic materials, their
color effect won’t fade over time. Should spot repainting be necessary due to
bodywork, color matching is easy, since there’s no variation in the eight
basic types of flakes.
Various companies produce these paints: · BASF....Extreme Colors™, ·DuPont....ChromaLusion™, ·Kansai....Paradis Spectrashine™, · Nippon Paint....Maziora™, · NOF....IllusionColor™, · Sherwin Williams....MultiTones™, · Standox....Exclusive Line™, · PPG....Harlequin Color™, and · Valspar/House of Kolor....Kameleon Kolors™