Plastic Packaging Knowledge | Plastic Coloring Method – Toner Coloring
Toners for plastic coloring in the industry are mainly divided into three categories: inorganic toner, organic toner and dyes. They differ greatly in raw material sources, physical properties and applicable packaging scenarios. Improper material selection will directly cause defects such as color fading, whitening and uneven color on pump heads and packaging bottles.
Inorganic toner is refined from natural minerals. Its biggest strengths are excellent high-temperature resistance and weather resistance. It can withstand processing temperatures above 300°C and hardly fades even after long-term outdoor storage, making it ideal for hard plastic packaging and regular pump housings. However, it also has obvious drawbacks: weak tinting strength and average dispersion performance. It cannot produce highly transparent or highly saturated bright colors, and is mostly applied to basic packaging in black, white, grey and matte dark shades.
Organic toner is extracted from petrochemical raw materials with outstanding dispersion performance for even and soft coloring, suitable for soft plastic packaging and mild light-color packaging. Still, it performs poorly in heat resistance and tends to discolor or turn grey during high-temperature injection molding, so it is not applicable to hard plastic pump bodies that require high-temperature forming.
Dyes deliver the best coloring texture among the three types. They feature optimal dispersion, bright and transparent shades, and decent heat resistance, making them perfect for manufacturing high-transparency colored packaging bottles. Their critical disadvantage is high migration tendency. Long-term contact with soft plastic will lead to color bleeding and smudging, so dyes are prohibited from soft plastic packaging production in the industry.
Overall, toner coloring boasts prominent advantages. Pigments can disperse evenly in resin materials for delicate coloring effects. There is no need for pre-produced color masterbatch or color paste, which eliminates secondary processing and cuts labor and equipment costs. This process delivers extremely high cost performance for small-batch customized orders, so many niche color orders of plastic lotion pump choose it as the preferred solution. Nevertheless, the process has usage limitations. It cannot be applied to thin plastic products produced by film blowing or spinning, as these products are prone to color difference and hole defects.
Guangdong Hongyuan is a high-tech manufacturer integrating design, R&D, production and sales services. As a professional lotion pump factory, lotion dispenser pump manufacturers, plastic lotion pump supplier, plastic lotion pump suppliers and plastic lotion pump manufacturer, we focus on plastic packaging containers for skin care, cosmetic and washing supplies. We have mastered multiple coloring technologies including toner, color masterbatch and color paste. Supported by professional technical teams and lean production management, we precisely control the color stability of every batch of pump heads and packaging bottles, striving to become a leading enterprise in the plastic packaging industry.
