Linoleum and Floor covering, Food Industry, Roofing Granules

LINOLEUM AND FLOOR COVERING:
In linoleum, the tinting is done after preparing a mixture with the linoleum paste and other compounds such as cement, wood and cork flour.

Ultramarine Blue also takes part, mixed with another pigments, to obtain greys, greens, etc.

The good alkalis resistance of Ultramarine Blue is very appreciated and it avoids a shade change that could be produced by the action of soaps, detergents and other caustic products, used in floor cleaning.

FOOD INDUSTRY:
Ultramarine Blue is accepted by all the legislation as a product that can be added direct or indirectly to foods or that can be in direct or indirect contact with foods.

As an example of direct contact, the Ultramarine blues are used in animal food and concretely as corrector of white in the salt that makes cows thirsty when they lick it. It can also be added to several preparations aimed at direct consumption.

For a long time it has been used as whitener for sugar and salt for human consumption, and there is no known case of the appearance of any intoxication symptom.

We can consider as indirect contact the materials that are in direct contact with foods. This is the case of packing paper, plastics, cellophane, etc., printed with inks, or the pigmented polymeric materials used for packing foods. It is fundamental that the whole tinting system (for example, PVC + plastifier + auxiliary substances + pigment) will be technically stable and will not free harmful substances, not even in trace amounts.

In the other hand, it can also be mentioned the products that could be accidentally swallowed such as cosmetics, pencil varnish, plasticiness, toys, etc.

Because of all these uses, the Ultramarine Blue is one of the safest pigments and universally admitted.

ROOFING GRANULES:
The Ultramarine Blue used in buildings is very appreciated for its optical properties, that gives a maximum of reflection in the lower part of the spectrum, approximately 1400 nm.

Objects painted with Ultramarine Blue remain cool even after a lengthy exposition to the sun. The anti-sun paints are a wide application area for Ultramarine Blue.

A wide use of Ultramarine Blue is in house roof coatings preparations, coloured with blue. The application is done by means of silicate paint on flagstone or fibre-cement slate, or in the way of granulated quartz, Roofing Granules, coated with Ultramarine Blue and compressed in bituminous papers. We suggest the use of an acid resistant Ultramarine Blue for this application.

Another application is the colouring of wavy or flat PVC or polyester sheets for shed roofs, etc.