Understanding Shepherd Color¡¯s Highly Engineered Black Pigments

Black ¨C is it a color or lack of color  What we know at Shepherd Color is that we have a type of black pigment that is black and stays black in the harshest heat, ultraviolet (UV), and other extreme conditions. Specifically, the C.I. Pigment Black 28, copper chromite (III), that has been used for decades when other black pigments fail. Useful in glass and porcelain enamels because of its heat-stability, it is the premier black pigmentation for coil and extrusion coatings because of its dispersion stability. Also, a stable black for use in engineering plastics and food packaging.

Shepherd Color has a wide range of products based on this chemistry that differ physically by particle size and therefore by the balance of masstone color and tint strength. The larger particle sized Black 1 and Black 1G are great for masstone applications like high heat coatings. Examples of this are porcelain enamel for BBQ grills and cookware. Their particle size and heat stability make them the standard for use in glass enamels. The black dotted border around your windshield in your car is likely one of our black pigments. Architectural glass panels use our black to hide the interior machinery in buildings.

Besides great masstone colors, our grades with smaller particle size are optimized for tint applications. Shepherd's Black 430 gives you a cool, blue-shade tint, that is highly controllable and stable to shear conditions as found in applications like coil coatings. Black 430 is also compliant for food packaging.