Tech Talk Blog

There are two primary reasons that dye fades:

1.) The dye is loosely attached into a device and “falls out”. A good analogy to visualize this effect is water on a screen door. Visualize the dye as the water and the screen as the polymer.The dye will remain in place until the polymer is stressed; like snapping the wet screen.

2.) The dye molecules are ‘excited” by UV and combine on contact with the oxygen in the air. In other words they are pulled out of the material by a chemical reaction that occurs normally.

Dyes can also fade to some extent due to the heating of the polymer in hot weather conditions, perspiration and cleaning. Most customers are instructed to wash polymers in warm, soapy water. When the lenses are cleaned the top most layer of the dye molecules is wiped away. You can reduce the effect of the first, but can do nothing to prevent the second. Unless a clear top coat from TriStar Plastic’s product line is used. To discuss your particular needs, please visit our website Tristar Plastics.

Tags: color, color fading, Dye, fade, fading

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 5:00 AM and is filed under Surface Modification. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.