Optical brighteners for road marking paint
Road marking is bought on two numbers - daytime whiteness and night-time retro-reflectivity - and a brightener moves the first without compromising the glass bead layer that delivers the second.
What the grade has to survive
Four things that decide the choice
- Higher daylight whiteness against grey asphalt
- Compatible with thermoplastic and water-based systems
- Holds up under UV exposure in service
- Low addition rate on a high-tonnage product
These are the constraints we work through with customers on this application. Everything on this page traces back to the published data for the grades listed below.
Grades for road marking paint
Optical brightener OB
The workhorse of the benzoxazole family and the grade most plastics buyers are matching when their specification says Uvitex OB or Tinopal OB.
Optical brightener FP-127
A methoxy-substituted distyryl biphenyl built for soft PVC.
Optical brightener CBS-X
The detergent industry's benchmark, and the grade behind a Tinopal CBS-X specification.
Background reading on road marking paint
Enhancing Whiteness and Reflectivity with OBA for Road Marking Paint
Road markings play a vital role in ensuring driving safety and traffic management, guiding drivers day and night under all
Optical Brighteners for Paints: Improving Whiteness, Brightness, and Visual Appeal
Optical brighteners for paints play a vital role in enhancing the visual quality of modern coatings. Also known as fluorescent
Related markets
Plastics
In a polymer the brightener has to dissolve into the melt, survive the process temperature and then stay put.…
Detergents
A detergent brightener has a harder job than a textile one: it has to survive the box or the bottle, deposit…
Paints, coatings & inks
Coatings split cleanly into two camps. Oil-based and solvent systems take OB, which dissolves in the resin…
Other application briefs
White masterbatch
A masterbatch concentrates the brightener twenty to a hundred times over the let-down dosage, so…
PVC foam board
Foam board yellows for two reasons at once - thermal stress during expansion and the intrinsic cast…
PVC pipe & profile
Pipe and profile are extruded hot, run long, and are judged on appearance for decades in sunlight.…
PP woven bags
Woven sack tape is drawn hot and thin, often from a resin blend that includes recycled material.…
EVA shoe soles
Footwear foam is the application KCB was developed for. The expansion step destroys a poorly chosen…
Blown film
In film the brightener has to raise apparent whiteness without touching clarity, and it has to do…
Send us the road marking paint brief
Substrate, process temperature, whiteness target and trial quantity. That is everything we need to name a grade.