Colors with Meaning

At Americhem, color is our business. We work with color every day and we know what makes a good color. With our high color standards, we take a lot of care when choosing the colors to represent our company. We used a tool known as the Dewey Color System®, which is considered the world’s first statistically valid color test that utilizes extensive opinion testing to scientifically verify the common links between color and emotion. With this system, we were able to accurately choose company colors to convey our company values.

Navy Blue
Navy Blue expresses a sense of authority, stability, and efficiency. Over the past 73 years, Americhem has been established as an industry authority. We work hard to educate through our Americhem U  series of courses, to host presentations at industry trade shows, and to be an available resource for our customers.

Navy signifies a company that is stable and efficient and is depended on by its customers. Trust and acceptance from our customers are important. We consistently follow our company principles, holding ourselves to maintaining the highest of ethical and moral standards with our customers.

Sage Green
Sage Green indicates nature and wholesomeness. It represents Americhem’s dedication to being eco-friendly and preserving the natural environment. We recently attained ISO 14001 certification for our Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio plant. This distinction recognizes Americhem for environmental management solution dyeing process  that saves water and energy while eliminating waste material.
systems. We are also the leader of the eco-friendly solution dyeing process that saves water and energy while eliminating waste material.

Green generates a calming, relaxed mood and shows that a company is genuine, forthright, and sincere. Our ability to surpass the competition is dependent upon the collective drive and intellect of cohesive teams. We work in partnership with our customers to create the best available solutions.

Burnt Orange
Burnt Orange is the color chosen to accent our two main colors. While not part of our logo, burnt orange still plays an important part in our company image. It represents Americhem’s specialty in uncovering solutions to problems. Americhem is dedicated to being your problem solver. Some of Americhem’s best selling products came into being as a result of our responsiveness to a specific customer problem.  From idea to reality, we collaborate with our customers to overcome product design challenges and to meet exacting color and end use property specifications.

Orange embodies our innovative spirit and responsiveness to customer needs. Our research and development team are constantly working on polymeric research that leads to groundbreaking technologies  for our customers. We strive to improve our own efficiency and effectiveness to provide the best value and innovations to our customers.

Aubrey Barto

Marketing Assistant, Americhem Inc.

Why Solution Dye?: Performance Advantages

Imagine your favorite pair of socks. What makes those socks so special? It could be the color, the fit or how soft the fabric is. Whatever the reason, you want those socks to stay in good condition as long as possible.

With the solution dyeing process, the quality and color of fabrics have a longer life for a range of textiles from carpet to clothing.

The solution dyeing process integrates colorants into fiber as it is being spun. As a result, the color is dyed throughout the fiber, locking it in. The process also has numerous environmental advantages such as saving water, energy, and chemicals.

Solution dyeing produces fibers that are extremely colorfast. Since the color is evenly spread throughout the fiber, it lasts longer, in contrast with post dyed fibers which are only colored on the surface. Let’s go back to your favorite socks. If those socks are blue, they will stay blue longer. Even after you walk through the house, outside and throughout your daily activities, you will not see the color wear away. Beyond apparel, this applies to carpet, synthetic turf and other outdoor fabrics which hold their color against UV light, perspiration, and cleaning chemicals. So for example, that awning will hold up against the harsh summer sun, and you can scrub your solution dyed carpet using harsh chemicals without losing the color.

What is the benefit to colorfast products if you don’t have consistency? With solution dyeing you achieve lot-to-lot consistency. Whether you produce 20 or 20,000 products, you can see the uniformity in every product produced.

There is no doubt that the advantages of solution dyeing speak for themselves. Like your favorite socks, your appreciation for solution dyeing will endure for a long, long time.

Aubrey Barto
Marketing Intern, Americhem Inc.

Why Solution Dye?: Environmental Advantages

English author and historian Thomas Fuller once said, “We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” This quote brings to mind one of Americhem’s most sacred company principles, which is, “Be a proactive steward of the environment.” One of the ways we do this as a company is to promote environmentally friendly practices and manufacturing methods. One of our biggest company initiatives toward that end is our promotion of the solution dyeing of synthetic fibers. With a solution dye process you not only see better quality, but the process preserves more natural resources.

Post dyeing is the process by which finished white yarn is colored with liquid dyes after the fiber is made.  This process leads to an extraordinary amount of water being used and a huge amount of that water being permanently polluted. According to the Color Masterbatch Technical Handbook, there are about 30 metric tons of PET fiber produced globally every year. Let’s assume that a third of those products will require color. In this scenario, if post dyeing is used exclusively, 99,000,000 gallons of polluted color effluent is produced. It brings to mind the African proverb, “Filthy water can not be washed.” And indeed, the industry must find a way to safely dispose of this effluent water, which is not an easy task.

Solution dyeing, which adds the colorant from a masterbatch to the fiber as its being spun, presents a more eco-friendly alternative. No water is used during the solution dyeing process and very little water is used in the overall process.  It has been estimated that the overall water consumption in post dyeing is one hundred times greater than that of using masterbatch in the solution dye process.

Solution dye not only saves water during the process, it also saves energy. By combining fiber spinning and coloring into one step, the amount of energy used is considerably reduced. This one-step process also means that no additional equipment is needed, whereas the spinning and coloring steps in post-dyeing each require their own special equipment.

You can read more about the advantages of solution dye from Americhem global director of business development, V.G. Kulkarni, in his recent article in International FiberJournal.

Value Engineering is Americhem's Most Important Additive

How does Americhem provide value? The answer lies beyond our color, additives, compounds and other world-class polymeric products. The heart of Americhem’s value is found in the bundle of value-added services that are wrapped around our products. We call it Value Engineering. It’s what helps set Americhem apart. Any supplier can make a color or additive masterbatch. But by partnering with Americhem, you benefit from our industry-leading expertise, our decades of experience, our problem-solving capability, and our ability to customize a solution exclusively for you.

What’s more, we don’t sell color matches. We engineer our products so that they will work best inyour resins, equipment and processes. All of our products are engineered to give you the best overall value when considering all of your requirements.

No other masterbatch supplier takes a more holistic approach to helping our customers succeed. We lead the industry in color control, color consistency and additive properties, but that’s only the beginning of our value engineering story.
It also includes:

• The best service and technical guidance in the business. Right where you need us to be, with the availability of field and technical service at your location.
• Testing Expertise. Whether it’s your products, your raw materials or competitive products, our analytical and physical testing labs can provide the answers you need. And our accelerated and outdoor weathering labs are world-renowned and can help prove that your products will weather and endure as long as you intend them to.
• Customer product design. We have product development labs at all of our locations. They work to develop exactly the product you need to ensure consistency, performance, and the physical properties you desire. Our vDesign® web-based color and property software can help you design a product quickly, with the benefit of millions of possible colors and decades of Americhem expertise.
• Pilot lines and product simulation. To fully understand your challenges and to help you bring new products to market faster and more cost effectively, Americhem has invested in numerous pilot lines to effectively simulate your processes. Not only does this aid in trialing color and additive masterbatches, but it also allows you to perform tests on our equipment without interrupting your workflow.
• Color education. Through our Americhem U. series of educational classes, we keep you up-to-date on topics such as color theory, color trends, additive processing, color measurement and more. Rely on our experts to give you the information you need that will help you get your job done right.

You are at the heart of our value engineering model. Benefit from our approach and experience Americhem’s most important additive.

Scott Blanchard
Senior Corporate Marketing Specialist, Americhem, Inc.

Why Americhem Provides Education

Knowledge is power. At Americhem we believe that an educated customer is a successful customer. A key part of Americhem’s value engineering model is keeping our customers up-to-date on the latest trends, technologies and science behind color and polymer performance. Through our Americhem U. educational seminar series, we present important, helpful, insightful topics, for free, to let our knowledge base benefit our customers.

We conduct seminars on topics such as color theory and performance additives to keep our customers aware of information that can really help them in their daily work.

Americhem U. started as an internal program for our employees in the late ‘90s. It was initiated to create a learning culture that built the foundation for change, continuous improvement and performance development. Over the years, we have developed course curriculum, bench-marked other corporate education programs, and educated hundreds in our workforce on topics critical to our company’s success.

Several years ago, we opened this program to our customers in the plastics and synthetic fibers industries. We realized that our customers’ employees are eager for education that helps promote growth and development. Americhem U. courses provide necessary skills, knowledge and abilities that can help customers’ businesses grow. When customers learn skills promoted at these courses, both Americhem and its customers can contribute to problem solving, product development and service improvements which are the life blood of growing, vital organizations. They provide fertile ground for change and improvement.

We’re proud to help plant the seeds of education through Americhem U. We’re especially proud that our participants help determine future subject matter based on follow-up survey results. After all, we want to provide education that you can use. Together, we can tackle the challenges our organizations are faced with today and into the future.

For more information you can visit Americhem’s website or email Scott Blanchard at sblanchard@americhem.com.

Aubrey Barto

Marketing Intern, Americhem, Inc.

What is Solution Dye?

There are many decisions to make when you are looking to produce a top quality product. You want the best for your customers. When you think about things from your customer’s perspective, product and process decisions seem obvious. Who wouldn't want to have a more durable product? Who wouldn't want a product that is more resistant to fading? A product that stands up to stands up to harsh cleaners? A product that’s more environmentally sound? When it comes to synthetic fibers, the obvious choice is solution dyed fibers.

But what is Solution Dye?

Think of the difference between solution dyeing and post dyeing as the difference between a carrot and a radish. The radish represents post dyed fiber, which is dyed after the fiber is spun. In post dyeing, color only coats the outside of the fiber while the inside remains uncolored. This leads to rapid color fade. The carrot represents solution dyed fiber, where the fiber is colored throughout, clear to the very core. This prevents color fading and keeps your fiber looking newer, longer.

Yarn that is produced by the solution dye method has color that is added before the fiber is spun. As a result, these colorants become an integral part of the fiber. Solution dyeing can be used in multiple end-use applications: carpet, apparel, upholstery, outdoor fabrics, automotive fabrics and other high performance textiles.

In addition to the difference in quality, there are also outstanding performance and environmental advantages to solution dyeing. Which is sounding better, carrots or radishes?

For more information about solution dyeing visit Americhem’s website at http://www.americhem.com/solutiondye, or leave a comment below with your thoughts and questions.

Color Trends 2015-2016

It’s amazing how many reactions color can evoke. It can convey a broad range of emotions. It can make things stand out from their surroundings. It can make people excited, or calm, or inspire them. It can make people do things they otherwise wouldn't do, or it can make them refrain from doing something.

At Americhem, we are very lucky to be able to help our customers represent color on an everyday basis. Each and every day, we ensure that our customers can convey the proper mood, say the right things and inspire their customers to use and purchase their products. As a marketing professional, I can’t imagine any concept that’s more exciting to market than color. You literally have the world’s broadest palette of options to choose from.

But on a more basic level, color itself speaks to us in indescribable ways. Author and poet Oscar Wilde put it this way, “Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”

That’s why it was so exciting to attend Americhem’s September presentation of “Color Trends 2015-2016” in Dalton, Georgia. This event launched this year’s color forecast, and we couldn't have had a more attentive or inspired audience than the full room of carpet designers and other carpet professionals in attendance. Our color trends expert took the audience through six distinct palettes with hundreds of images from the worlds of art, nature, architecture, fashion, high tech gadgets, interior design and more. These images helped illustrate the fact that these colors will guide consumer preference in the years to come. You can read more about the palettes and the colors here.

But why are color trends so important to companies, designers and marketers alike? Research has proven that color is a huge driver of consumer decision making. According to the Seoul International Color Expo, when asked to approximate the importance of color when buying products, 84.7 percent of the total respondents thought that color accounts for more than half among the various factors important for choosing products. In addition, according to research conducted by Xerox Corporation, 92% of people believe color presents an image of impressive quality, while 90% feel color can assist in attracting new customers.

Throughout our decades of existence, Americhem has staked our reputation on the power that color holds over all of us. That’s why programs such as our color trends forecasts can be so valuable in keeping industry professionals ahead of the curve when it comes to color choices. Color determines how people perceive your product and even your brand. We’re here to help you make good, informed choices.

If you’re interested in learning more about Americhem’s 2015-2016 color trends forecast, please contact me at sblanchard@americhem.com.

Scott Blanchard

Senior Corporate Marketing Specialist, Americhem, Inc.