By John Book, Custom Color Solutions, JDSU
JDSU and PPG Industries have a long history of collaboration and have worked together again on a new generation of products. PPG has introduced Prizmatique® II paints as part of its Vibrance Collection® refinish paint offering. Utilizing JDSU’s SpectraFlair® 1500-20 pigment, the product provides a rainbow look over a silver metallic base, making it a good option for luxury automobiles and high-end motorcycles.
The JDSU pigment flakes utilized in the new family are thinner, allowing standard application processes to be utilized, which saves money for manufacturers and jobbers. The material is suitable for both exterior and interior applications.
The Vibrance Collection line of finishes from PPG offers the latest in hot colors, unique micas, innovative pigments and special effects to create an unlimited choice of custom finishes for those who want their prized vehicle to stand out from the crowd.
The Vibrance Collection line recently re-launched Harlequin® paint colors in their Envirobase® waterborne lineup, which features six color-shifting pigment options such as cyan to purple and gold to silver. Harlequin tints can create great special effects because the colors change completely when viewed from different angles, thanks to JDSU technology.
The Ditzler® Big Flake® product line is another PPG offering under the Vibrance Collection brand, and it utilizes ChromaFlair Glitter with very large metallic flakes. The flakes add intense color and sparkle to custom car, truck or motorcycle finishes and are frequently found on award-winning show vehicles.
Big Flake, Ditzler, Harlequin, Prizmatique and Vibrance Collection are registered trademarks of PPG Industries Ohio, Inc.
In November, JDSU attended the 12th International Abrafati Exhibition of Coating Industry Suppliers in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This year’s theme was Innovation and Sustainability, with over 220 exhibitors in attendance and 20,000 visitors.
Forscher, the representative for JDSU in Brazil, featured a large booth to support its major principals. JDSU introduced the new SpectraFlair Plus 25 as a lower cost alternative to the earlier 1500 series. In addition to improving hiding power, the pigment’s flake uniformity increases the diffractive color of the pigment. The strong diffractive properties of SpectraFlair Plus 25 deliver bright and dramatic effects both indoors and outdoors under various lighting conditions. This makes it a good choice for nail enamel applications, which are a hot trend in Brazil, so the lower cost version of the pigment was well received.
Latin America has over 500 coatings manufacturers that produce 1.5 million liters of coatings per year with a revenue of over $4 billion, and Brazil represents the largest single market within the region.
JDSU special effect pigments are sold to a number of these manufacturers and are used in a variety of industry segments including automotive, consumer electronics, architecture, packaging, and sporting goods and apparel.
There are a number of opportunities for JDSU in Brazil and Latin America, and with the help of the Forscher team business will continue to expand.
The JDSU 2012 tech trends campaign has arrived!
The video below highlights a wide variety of technologies that JDSU creates that play into broader technology trends that ultimately impact people's lives. But what's different about this year's campaign is a message about the continued need for technology innovation to help contribute to a better world.
I've included the video below for you to enjoy, but if you also go to the official campaign page on JDSU.tv at http://www.jdsu.tv/tech-trends/2012 and take a brief survey, you can enter win a free iPad this week!
Start Video Code
End Video Code -
By Melissa Jones
JDSU joined the Laser Illuminated Projector Association (LIPA) in October 2011. LIPA is a new association, introduced to the public in March 2011. It was established by several leading companies to advocate for commercial adoption of laser illuminated projectors for use in large venues such as theaters.
Of particular interest to JDSU is the fact that laser illumination can dramatically enhance the brightness and color impact of the 3D movie experience. JDSU’s unique optical filter technology is a key element in delivering high-quality 3D cinema and specialty projection experiences using laser light sources.
Using lasers as the ‘lamp’ in digital cinema projectors has several cost and quality benefits over the xenon gas discharge lamps which have been used in cinema projection for several decades. These benefits include dramatic reduction of operating costs through reduction of maintenance, uniform image color and intensity, as well as increased 3D brightness.
Consumers have questions about eye exposure safety when they hear the term ‘laser.’ In digital cinema applications the projected light from a laser illuminated projector is essentially no more hazardous that the light from current cinema projectors.
The FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) has expressed willingness to implement new legal and usage requirements appropriate for this emerging technology. The CDRH requires that stakeholders in the cinema industry speak with a unified voice via a formalized representative industry association, and LIPA has been formed in response.
In addition to advocating for new regulations, LIPA will develop basic information on laser illuminated projectors for consumers, regulators, media channels, and the general public, and also provide a forum for creation of guidelines for operator training.
Melissa Jones manages Strategic Marketing & Communications in Santa Rosa, CA for the Advanced Optical Technology business segment at JDSU.
JDSU impacts people's lives in many ways with a wide variety of technologies.
The company has created a new corporate video that tells the story. Even your grandmother will get it. Enjoy!
Start Video Code
End Video Code -
JDSU optical coatings impact a wide variety of products in many different markets. They are in concert lighting and 3D movie projectors that create special effects for viewers. They can also be used to make gadgets more intelligent - a special coating can make a smart phone’s display light fade out when it’s pressed to your ear, saving battery juice.
All of this is great to think about - but where optical coatings may impact us the most is way out there in space. Right now, high end coatings are being used in the creation of next generation satellites that will help scientists study things like global precipitation to improve weather forecasting. This could make people safer from impending storms or help experts identify more potable water sources as they become available.
Anyone who works on optical coatings at JDSU will tell you that making these types of satellite coatings requires a great deal of precision and accuracy. It makes sense to me - who would want to blast an extremely expensive piece of equipment out into space unless they knew it can perform really well for a really long time?
Some of these satellite dishes are also up to 2.5 meters in size, further narrowing the field of providers that have large enough coating chambers to handle the task.
How Optical Coatings Work in New Weather SatellitesFor those of you that want to know more, here’s a breakdown of how our coatings technology works in new weather satellites.
There are two dishes on these satellites that require three different types of optical coatings:
- One particular dish has a coating with a specific surface texture that is called an Aluminum Vacuum Deposited Coating. It allows wavelength frequencies that reflect off of water from rain drops forming in the atmosphere or from water on the earth’s surface to be sent and received. This is how precipitation activity is detected. The coating can be modified to ‘scatter’ light in different ways.
- This same dish also has to protect the satellite from the fire ball intensity of the sun, requiring another special coating, called a Thermal Control Coating, that deflects solar light.
- The second satellite dish has a third optical coating that allows it to record information from the cold sky and black space (places without nearby light sources) to calibrate the overall system.
Hopefully I got this all down right from what the experts told me. Please note that there will be a quiz later. :)