German plastics colouring specialist RAL (Sankt Augustin; www.ral.de) has added 200 new shades to its “RAL Plastics” polypropylene-based programme introduced at “K 2010” – see Plasteurope.com of 12.08.2010. The company says the 160 opaque and 40 transparent PP plates that are supplied with the programme open up “new design opportunities” because the time-consuming and costly translation of paint samples into plastics colours is no longer required.

RAL’s newest product, “RAL P2”, is being launched at the “Chinaplas 2012” (www.chinaplasonline.com) exhibition being held in Shanghai from 18-21 April. As with the earlier product “RAL P1” the plastic plates measuring 105 x 148mm (A6 standard) are made from 33mm-thick polypropylene. Three surface structures of 3mm, 2mm and 1mm respectively “give the user a realistic impression of the colour effect in various material applications.”

The new RAL product is sold in a set of 200 plastic colour plates, all available individually. The protective sleeve for each lightfast and temperature-resistant plate provides information on the masterbatch code, colormetric measures, absolute values, reflectance code and distance to the plastics original standard.