Replacing a discontinued pigment dispersion starts with a physical sample. Send a part in the color you run today, or what is left in the pail, and the shade gets read on a spectrophotometer and matched against it. No formula changes hands, and we do not ask for one.
The rest of this page covers what to send, how the match is confirmed in your own system, and what arrives with the first batch.
Why the grade name turns up nothing
Liquid colorant lines have consolidated. When a line moves into a larger group the product pages move with it, and the grade-level pages are usually the first thing to go. The domain plasticolors.com resolves to a domain-sale page today. Deep links into chromaflo.com redirect to a corporate homepage rather than to the product they used to serve.
The material may still exist somewhere inside a larger catalog. What has gone is the page that told you what it was, which leaves the color defined by a part in your stockroom and a line on an old purchase order.
That is enough to work from. It is the same input the lab uses every week for shops that are second-sourcing rather than replacing.
Have a grade name and nowhere to look it up?
Send it with a part or a sample. We will tell you what we hold on the grade, and match the shade against the material you send.
Request a SampleA formula does not transfer
Two suppliers selling the same shade name are rarely selling the same pigments. Pigment selection, loading, particle size and carrier all vary, and a formula written against one palette lists bases that another does not hold. Nothing in it can be dialed into a different bench.
Reverse matching goes the other way. The physical standard is the specification, the match is built to hit it, and the result is measured rather than argued about. That works whether the old supplier is gone, still selling, or simply on a lead time you cannot live with.
What to send
Four things make the first sample land close.
The color standard. A molded or cast part is ideal, and a piece cut from one works. Liquid colorant from the old pail works too, and it is worth setting a little aside before the last drum runs out. More than half of the standards we match are physical objects rather than numbers. If nothing is left, a PANTONE, RAL, Sherwin-Williams or Federal Standard 595 code is accepted, and so is a photograph.
The system it goes into. Cast polyurethane, plastisol, polyurethane foam, spray polyurethane, epoxy. Send some of the material itself when you can. We match into your own system rather than into a stand-in, which removes the largest source of surprise at the trial stage.
The process conditions the color has to survive. Fusion temperature and dwell for a plastisol. Exotherm and demold time for a cast part. Cure schedule for an epoxy. Pigments have real temperature limits, and selecting against the process at match time costs nothing.
The tolerance you have to hold, and how it gets judged. If your customer inspects against a chip under a specific illuminant, say so. A tolerance stated with its method is a specification. A tolerance stated on its own is a preference.
How the match is confirmed
The target is read on a sphere spectrophotometer, a starter formula is built from the bases held in stock, and a small trial is blended and drawn down beside the standard. The drawdown is measured, corrected, and re-run until it is inside tolerance. Hermon worksheets carry as many as 36 trials on a hard match.
The specification is ΔE 1.0 or better in CIELAB, D65 illuminant and 10 degree observer, and we have never issued a certificate that missed it.
Color reads differently in different materials, which is why the confirmation matters more than the number on a first drawdown. Part thickness, gloss, opacity and the substrate all move the measurement. A shade confirmed in your own compound is a shade you can specify.
Second-sourcing a color you already buy?
Same process, no discontinuation required. Send the material you run today and we match to it, so a shade can move suppliers without being re-specified.
Custom color matchingThe carrier is a decision to take again
A replacement is the point to choose the carrier for the system rather than inherit whatever the old grade used. The choice has consequences in the part, and they are set out in choosing the carrier for a polyurethane pigment dispersion.
In short: a polyether polyol carrier brings hydroxyl to the party and enters the isocyanate index above roughly 1.0 pph. A plasticizer carrier is non-reactive and stays out of the index, and it is native to a plastisol compound because the compound is already built on plasticizer. Spray polyurethane work runs on a low-viscosity diluent carrier, because the equipment sets the viscosity limit.
Our color runs on a phthalate-free terephthalate plasticizer. Terephthalate is the para isomer of the phthalate ring, with the two carboxyl groups opposite each other rather than adjacent. That geometry is what the restricted-substance lists are drawn around, and it is why a terephthalate ester is not a phthalate. If your last colorant predates the restricted-substance work your customers now ask about, the replacement is a chance to close that question.
What comes back with the batch
Every batch is measured against the approved standard and ships with a certificate of analysis carrying the ΔE, the method, and a Brookfield viscosity taken on an RVF viscometer with spindle 4 at 20 rpm and 20 degrees C. Matching, QC and certificate issue all happen at the same bench in the same building as the mixing in Hermon, Maine. No sample goes to an outside lab.
Most matches come back inside a week, effectively all inside two. Custom matching is free, samples ship at 0.5 kg, and there is no minimum order: one pail is a normal order. Colors ship in 5 kg, 12.5 kg and 20 kg pails, and in drums and totes.
Cross-references
Send a legacy grade name and we will tell you what we hold on it. Cross-references are available on request and are not published as a chart. A grade name on its own does not define a shade closely enough to promise a match against it, so the sample stays the thing that defines the job.
Frequently asked
Can you match a liquid colorant that has been discontinued?
Yes. Reverse matching from a physical sample is routine work here. Send a part in the color you run today, or what is left in the pail, and tell us the system it goes into. The shade is read on a spectrophotometer and matched against what you send.
Do you need the old supplier's formula?
No, and we do not ask for it. The match is made against the physical standard. A formula from another supplier lists their bases and their carrier, neither of which transfers to a different palette.
What if I have nothing left of the old colorant?
Send a finished part, a piece cut from one, or a PANTONE, RAL or Federal Standard 595 code. All of those are matched in production. About one standard in twenty arrives as a photograph or a color pulled off a web page, and those are matched too.
Will the replacement drop into my process unchanged?
The color is matched to your standard, and the carrier and addition rate are chosen for your system rather than copied from the old grade. Confirm both on a trial before you commit a production run. Tell us the addition method and the equipment and the dispersion is formulated to meter at your conditions.
How long does a replacement match take?
Most matches come back inside a week, effectively all inside two. Custom matching is free, samples ship at 0.5 kg, and there is no minimum order.
Do you have a cross-reference for legacy grade names?
Cross-references are available on request. Send the grade name and we will tell you what we hold on it. We do not publish a name-to-name chart, because a grade name on its own does not define a shade closely enough to promise a match. The sample does.
Send the part
Put a part, a piece of one, or the last of the old colorant in a box with the system it runs in and the shade tolerance you hold. We match into your material, confirm it on a drawdown, and ship a free sample.
See liquid color and pigment dispersions