There are two methods of coloring plastic components: externally and internally. External coloring refers to print, coating, plating, and many decoration techniques. Internal coloring refers to coloring plastics by adding colorants during the molding process. Unlike external coloring, plastics is colored evenly up to the inside, because colorants are mixed with plastics.

When enumerating the advantages of using plastics over other materials such as metals, ceramics, and wood, one of the items that inevitably comes up is molded-in color.

Colorants used for internal coloring are generically called Plastic Colorants. There are different colorant categories include dry color (raw pigment), liquid color, paste dispersion, compounded color, and masterbatch. In SRP, we use masterbatch towards desirable color expectations. There are several benefits with masterbatch as a plastic colorant.

• Masterbatch comes in pellet form, making it far less messy to store, move and manipulate than powdered pigments. It is simpler to feed and handle color concentrates during the manufacturing process when masterbatch is used.
• Masterbatch is designed and engineered for optimal dispersion in a polymer matrix, contributing to excellent color distribution throughout the final product.
• The binding agent used within the masterbatch can be matched to the polymer used in the component for improved melt processing.
• Masterbatch offers better color consistency of products from lot to lot and allows for better control of opacity and transparency of the colored product.
• Masterbatch can contain additive concentrates that deliver desirable traits such as UV stability, antioxidants, flame retardants, or optical brightening, maximizing production efficiency by limiting the number of feeds. Additive ingredients are included in masterbatch in predetermined ratios, minimizing the chance of variance during processing.