Adding Color, Pigment to UV Curable Coatings

Published: June 12, 2018

Send Fiber Optic Center an email to ask a question

From time to time, FOC has been asked to recommend a pigment that can be safely added to UV curable coatings as well as offer advice about what ratio of pigment to coating is acceptable without compromising the integrity of the coating.

As communicated by our customers, the main reason there is a need to alter the color of a coating is that the fiber being coated or re-coated can be the same color as the UV curable coating, making it challenging for operators to visually identify where splices are.

If the coating being the same color as the fiber presents a problem, the solution seems simple… add a color or pigment to the coating to differentiate the coating from the fiber and help the operators easily see where the fiber splice is. Well, not exactly simple, unfortunately, because we are dealing with chemistry.

Adding pigment to an existing UV curable coating product is not advised by manufacturers; they cannot guarantee the performance of the coating after altering its chemistry.

Each coating has its own chemistry and technically adding anything, such as liquid dye, powder dye, food coloring and even UV curable ink, can affect the chemistry of the coating and its performance and even block the light from getting in for proper cure speed.

Without pigment product recommendations from coating manufacturers, with good reason to protect the performance of their coating products, FOC can only recommend that adding pigment to UV coatings is up to the discretion of each customer.

A follow up recommendation is to experiment, test and validate the colored coating in your application with only using the smallest amount of pigment necessary to achieve a color variation to differentiate from the fiber.

Adding less color/pigment is best to minimize the possibility of it detracting from any of the properties of the UV curable coating.

Click to learn more:

Bonding Optical Fiber to the Ceramic Ferrule SERIES:
- November 2017: Part 1: Best practices for epoxy preparation and dispensing
- December 2017: Part 2: Best practices to characterize oven ports used to thermally cure epoxy
- January 2018: Part 3: Best practices to validate your epoxy curing schedule

Additional resources from the FOC team include:

View Epoxy Technical Solution Content
View the Glossary, Acronyms, Military Specifications for Connectors
Q&A Resource: email technical questions to AskFOC@focenter.com
Bookmark the ÅngströmBond Solutions Center: https://focenter.com/angstrombond/

ÅngströmBond Solutions Center for additional epoxy expertise through:

technical content, best practices, weekly tips
our dedicated adhesives expert to help meet Individual customer needs
specialty stock materials or high-tech custom epoxies in custom package sizes
FOC developed ÅngströmBond, the only specialty adhesive line developed exclusively for Fiber Optics

Follow:@FiberOpticCntr

About the Author

Kelly Barker Kelly Barker, Business Development, Epoxies, Technical Sales Kelly started her career in customer service, marketing and sales. Since then, she has been promoted to management positions in these departments, project management director, and new business development with a specialty in product line marketing strategy. Kelly joined Fiber Optic Center, Inc. from PennWell Corporation where she spent more than five years in business development within various industries including Fiber Optics, Cabling, Connector, LED, Military and Aerospace. She has worked extensively with adhesive manufacturers on their product lines and applications within these markets. Kelly graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in 1997 with a BS degree in Marketing and Management and a minor in Legal Studies. She resides in Nashua, NH with her husband and two girls, Maizie and Audrey. She enjoys being involved in community activities, such as park and recreation sports with her girls, and enjoys camping and reading. Follow @EpoxyExprtsFOC

About Fiber Optic Center, Inc.

Fiber Optic Center, Inc., (FOC), is an international leader in distributing fiber optic components, equipment and supplies and has been helping customers make the best cable assemblies in the world for over two decades. Several areas of specialization and expertise, in which they are the industry leader, make them the preferred choice for many of the world’s fiber professionals. In these key technology areas, FOC is "at least as technical as the manufacturer" about the products they sell. Striving to "make the business part easy," they offer outstanding and personal customer service, low or no minimum purchase order values, and from-stock delivery on industry-leading products and technology. FOC is the industry connection to the most innovative optical products, technologies and technical experts who integrate their manufacturing knowledge and vast experience into customers' worldwide operations. @FiberOpticCntr

For further information contact:

Fiber Optic Center, Inc., 23 Centre Street, New Bedford, MA 02740-6322
Toll Free in US: 800-IS-FIBER or 800-473-4237 . Direct 508-992-6464. Email: sales@focenter.com or fiberopticcenter@focenter.com

For media contact:

Kathleen Skelton, Director of Strategic Marketing, C: 617-803-3014 . E: kskelton@focenter.com

Copyright Notice: Copyrights in all articles published on focenter.com are owned by Fiber Optic Center, Inc. (FOC) or other individuals or entities. No content on focenter.com may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form of by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of Fiber Optic Center, Inc.