Coating composition and method

Abstract

A coating composition providing enhanced sparkling sheen in both the face color and the down flop color includes a glass material in the form of randomly shaped chips having an irregularly-shaped particulate geometry which are dispersed in a carrier. The chips have a particle size/D10-D90 ranging from about 1 to 30 μm, preferably about 1 μm to about 16 μm, and more preferably about 2 to 12 μm and average aspect ratio/D90 in a range of about 1 to 4. The composition can further include another luster pigment advantageously provided as glass beads having a particle size/D10-D90 in a range of about 0.1 to 12 μm, preferably about 0.2 to 12 μm, and more preferably about 0.3 to 6.5 μm. In an advantageous further embodiment, a flaky pigment comprised of a cholesteric liquid crystal polymer is added to the above described compositional embodiments to impart a dichroism to a film coating formed of such composition. The cholesteric liquid crystal polymer for use in such coating composition is a material having a three-dimensionally crosslinked cholesteric liquid crystal structure having a helical structure and expressing a dichroism, i.e., a chromatic phenomenon resulting in differences in color shade according to the angle of view.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.