Candy colored inks

In many professional fields, particularly in industry, these “Candy” inks, which are called transparent dyes, are used in the composition of pigments for car paint, motorcycle paint and bike paint, giving them certain very specific properties.

These specialties are indeed not made up of pigments, as are most paints, in which these pigments are used to create opacity and color. Candy inks belong more to the family of dyes, that is to say they have a different tinting power, by the fact that they are transparent and not opaque. They are more qualified as dyes rather than pigments. They are also made with pigments in powder form.

However, transparent ink is mostly found in the form of liquid dye. In this form, which looks like black ink, we already find a very powerful coloring power compared to pigment pastes (also made from powdered pigments). By way of comparison, when a paint is 10 to 25% charged with a pigment paste to color it, a maximum of 5 to 6% of this concentrated transparent ink is used.

Candy inks for bike, motorcycle and car paint

The coloring power of these inks is that one or two drops are enough to color a varnish. However, we will never obtain the opacity that we obtain with traditional pigments, which have lower levels of coloring but much higher covering powers, that is to say opacifying and which are variable according to the pigment and the color. However, the coverage and opacity are the complete opposite of what can be sought with Candy inks. The transparency offered by these Candy inks is exceptional: no other product can give this bright and pure color that allows the light to pass through.

You can say that the transparency is almost 100%. If you point a microscope at a Candy paint or varnish, you won't find any microparticles that are pigments. Indeed, dyes have the unique property of dissolving and allowing light to pass through completely. The coloring of the light by the concentrated Candy inks is precisely what gives its unique and luminous colors, incomparable with the other shades, which can be obtained with opaque pigments.

The weak point of Candy dyes

When a pigment present in a dry coat of paint is exposed outdoors, the pigment, whether organic or inorganic, acts as a sort of barrier to the light and reflects it back.

The characteristics of Candy dyes and inks are transparency and this is their weak point : letting light pass through and cross them, in both directions as light enters and exits, makes them more exposed to light and weakened.

Even though most Candy inks are selected for their resistance to sunlight, it can reasonably be said that their resistance is slightly lower than that of traditional pigment colors.

Uses of Candy Inks

In the field of printing, which is also where they originated, Candy inks are used to tint transparent varnishes and to be applied on various and diverse backgrounds, sometimes even metallic supports gross. This allows for two-coat colors with a transparent tint. For their exceptional quality, they have been taken over and used in the field of bodywork customization, with success. These same dyes can be found in the creation of stained glass windows because they allow light to pass through. These same colorants are also used in the plastics industry to create colored and transparent plastics.

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