Color Masterbatch: 3 Components, Let-Down Ratios and Selection

A color masterbatch is a concentrate of pigments or dyes dispersed in a carrier resin at 40 to 65 wt% and supplied as pellets, which the converter meters into natural resin at 1 to 5 % to colour the finished part. The pellet is only the delivery form, so the questions that decide whether a colour works are which carrier it uses, which pigments are inside it and how much of it goes into the machine.

Colorants reach a moulding machine almost always as a concentrate rather than as loose powder, which makes masterbatch the dominant delivery form for this group of plastic additives. The carrier that holds the colorant is either a wax, the universal carrier because it works across polymer families, or a resin matched to the base polymer, such as EVA or LDPE for polyolefins and nylon, or polystyrene for ABS, SAN and sometimes PC.

This page works through what a color masterbatch is made of, the arithmetic behind the let-down ratio in both conventions, how to match the carrier and pigment class to a base polymer and its processing temperature, how a masterbatch is compounded and quality-checked, which colorants are listed for food-contact use in the EU and the US, what typically goes wrong in production, and which companies supply color masterbatch.

Key figures

• Colorant content of the concentrate: 40 to 65 wt% (15 to 80 wt% in extreme cases)
• Typical addition rate to the base polymer: 1 to 5 %
• Coloured PE pressure pipe addition rate: 2 to 4 % (49:1 to 24:1)
• Components in every pellet: 3, the colorants, the carrier resin and the dispersing aids and processing additives

What Is a Color Masterbatch?#

A color masterbatch, also called a colour concentrate, is a solid pellet in which pigments or solvent dyes sit dispersed at 40 to 65 wt% inside a polymer carrier, ready to be diluted into uncoloured resin at the machine. The carrier melts with the base polymer during processing and releases its colorant under the screw's shear, so the finished part carries only the fraction of pigment set by the addition rate, normally 1 to 5 % of the base polymer, the same range documented for masterbatch as a delivery form generally.

The parent page on masterbatch covers the other concentrate types that share this delivery form, from white and black to functional additive concentrates.

Converters buy colour as a concentrate for 4 reasons.

• Accurate dosing of an often expensive pigment or dye, because a pellet meters a known percentage instead of a hard-to-control loose powder
• Less dust at the machine, since the colorant is already locked inside the pellet rather than airborne as fine powder
• Longer shelf life than a solvent-based liquid colour, because the pigment sits protected inside a solid carrier instead of suspended in a volatile medium
• Hopper flexibility, since several masterbatches, for example a colour concentrate and a UV or antistat additive concentrate, can be metered from the same hopper at once

Color masterbatch vs liquid colour, dry colour and precoloured compound#

A color masterbatch differs from the other three routes in where the dispersion work happens: the masterbatch maker has already dispersed the pigment, while dry colour leaves that job to the converter's screw and a precoloured compound removes the dosing step altogether. Liquid colour takes a different route again: the pigment or dye is dispersed in a liquid carrier and metered by a peristaltic pump, which gives highly accurate dosing and fast colour changes between production runs.

Table T1 compares the 4 routes on the criteria a converter checks before choosing one.

Table T1. Color masterbatch compared with the other coloring routes

Table note: changeover time, scrap rate, inventory cost and minimum order quantity are not quantified in our source library and are left out of this comparison. No percentage advantage is claimed for any route.

The dispersion step is also the cost driver: because a color masterbatch arrives with the pigment already wetted and dispersed, the converter avoids the capital and expertise that dry colour blending or liquid colour dispersion would demand. Converters needing very fast colour changes on clear or translucent parts often choose the pumped alternative instead, covered on liquid color concentrates.

What Is a Color Masterbatch Made Of?#

A color masterbatch is made of 3 things: the colorants, which make up 40 to 65 wt% of the pellet, the carrier resin that holds them, and a small share of dispersing aids and processing additives that keep the pigment from re-agglomerating. Concentrates outside this band exist, from about 15 to 80 wt% colorant in extreme cases, but 40 to 65 wt% covers the range a converter meets in normal specification work.

Table T2 orders the 3 components by mass share.

Table T2. Composition of a color masterbatch

Table note: shares are of the concentrate, not of the finished part. Supplier formulations vary; trials decide the final specification.

1. The colorants: pigments and solvent dyes#

The colorants inside a color masterbatch are either pigments, which stay as solid particles and colour the polymer by absorbing and scattering light, or solvent dyes, which dissolve in the melt and give a transparent, brilliant shade. A pigment's hiding power comes from the refractive-index difference between the particle and the polymer: organic pigments have a low refractive index and are usually transparent in plastics, while titanium dioxide has a very high refractive index and reaches its best light-scattering performance at a crystal size of about 220 nm. The full chemistry of every pigment and dye class sits on the hub for colorants for plastics, which this page draws on for masterbatch-specific dosing and selection.

Organic pigments, such as phthalocyanine blue (Pigment Blue 15:3), diarylide yellow (Pigment Yellow 83) and quinacridone magenta (Pigment Red 122), stay insoluble in the polymer and are named individually by the Colour Index, which assigns every colorant a C.I. Generic Name, for example Pigment Blue 15:3, alongside a Constitution Number. The comparative properties of this class are collected under organic pigments for plastics.

Solvent dyes dissolve fully in the polymer melt and are used in amorphous polymers such as PS, EPS, SB, SAN, ABS, PMMA, PC, PPO and their blends, PVC-U, PET and PBT. They are not used in polyolefins, where they migrate, which is why a polyolefin colour masterbatch relies on pigments instead. The grades suited to each amorphous polymer are set out on solvent dyes for plastics.

2. The carrier resin#

The carrier is the polymer or wax in which the colorant is dispersed, and it has one job beyond carrying pigment: it has to melt and flow with the base resin instead of standing out as a separate phase. Wax works as a universal carrier because it flows into almost any base polymer, while a polymer-specific carrier tracks the resin family more closely: EVA or LDPE for polyolefins and nylon, and polystyrene for ABS, SAN and, in some formulations, PC. Buyers should check the carrier before the colour, because a carrier mismatch shows up as streaks, gels or reduced impact strength that no amount of pigment adjustment fixes.

Black pipe masterbatch narrows that choice further: the carrier is MLDPE or LLDPE with a melt index below 20 g/10 min, a specification set to match the flow of the pressure-pipe compound it colours. Formulation data by polymer family sits on masterbatch carrier resins, including the case of a 60 wt% calcium carbonate LLDPE concentrate, whose melt viscosity runs 3 times that of the neat polymer until 3 wt% wax and 1.0 wt% zinc stearate bring it back to just above neat, reported by Radebe et al., University of Pretoria, in the Journal of Polymer Engineering (2022).

3. Dispersing aids and processing additives#

Dispersing aids wet the pigment surface and lower the melt viscosity of the concentrate, so the shear in the extruder breaks agglomerates apart instead of pushing them along intact. Waxes, metal soaps and polyglycerol esters all work this way, and a well-chosen dispersing package shows up downstream as higher colour strength and a lower filter pressure value during quality control. Palsgaard Einar 103, a polyglycerol ester, is used at 1 to 5 % of the masterbatch formulation in PE, PP, PET, PVC and PA colour masterbatch, and the same wax-plus-metal-soap logic explains why 3 wt% wax plus 1.0 wt% zinc stearate return a heavily filled concentrate's viscosity to close to that of the neat polymer.

The wider group of dispersing agents for plastics and masterbatch covers waxes, metal soaps and polyglycerol esters used beyond colour concentrate, including their use in filler and functional masterbatch.

How Much Color Masterbatch Do You Add?#

A color masterbatch is normally added at 1 to 5 % of the base polymer, with coloured PE pressure pipe sitting at 2 to 4 % (49:1 to 24:1) and the exact level set by the pigment loading of the concentrate and by how deep and opaque the colour has to be. For context, 25 kg of masterbatch per tonne of base polymer equals 2.5 % of the blend, a conversion used across the industry as a quick mental check.

4 factors set the addition rate within that range.

• Pigment loading of the concentrate, since a 65 wt% concentrate reaches the same colour at a lower let-down than a 40 wt% one
• Depth and opacity of the required colour, because a deep, fully opaque shade needs more colorant in the part than a light tint
• Wall thickness or film gauge, since a thicker section shows the same colour at a lower colorant loading than a thin one
• The end-product specification, for example a pipe standard that fixes a minimum carbon black content

Let-down ratio: the percentage and the ratio convention#

The let-down ratio is the dilution of masterbatch into natural resin, and it is written in two conventions that give the same answer: as a percentage of the finished blend, or as parts of resin per part of masterbatch. The industry uses both conventions in the same sentence: Ampacet's technical literature writes a pipe dosage as "5 % (19:1)" and "6.5 % (14:1)", and this page follows that same double notation throughout.

Table T3. Let-down ratio conversion

Table note: the last column assumes a 50 wt% colorant loading in the concentrate; substitute the real loading from the technical data sheet. The 25 kg per tonne row is the example given for masterbatch generally; the 2-4 % and 5-6.5 % rows are the published pipe cases.

5 % of the blend is the same as 19:1, because 5 parts of masterbatch are mixed with 95 parts of resin, and the same arithmetic converts every row of Table T3.

Both conventions are built into the let-down ratio calculator, which converts a colorant loading and a target let-down straight into kilograms per tonne for any base weight.

Worked example: from masterbatch loading to pigment content in the part#

The colorant content of the finished part is the loading of the concentrate multiplied by the let-down ratio, so a 35 wt% carbon-black masterbatch let down at 5 % (19:1) puts 1.75 wt% carbon black into the part. That arithmetic follows the same model used for other actives in a masterbatch: 2.5 % of a 4 wt% antioxidant masterbatch, for example, gives 1,000 ppm of active antioxidant in the part.

That arithmetic is also the compliance check: the EU maximum use level for carbon black is 2.5 % w/w of the polymer, so a 35 wt% concentrate can be let down no further than about 7 % before the food-contact limit is reached. Applied to pipe practice, a 35 wt% carbon-black concentrate let down at 5 to 6.5 % (19:1 to 14:1) gives about 1.75 to 2.3 % carbon black in the finished pipe, and masterbatches above 40 wt% carbon black are avoided because they are harder to disperse evenly at such a low let-down.

Converting between wt%, ppm and parts follows the same logic as PHR (parts per hundred resin), the unit PVC formulators use in place of wt% for the same calculation.

How Do You Choose a Color Masterbatch?#

Choosing a color masterbatch means matching four things in order: the carrier to the base polymer, the pigment class to the processing temperature, the colorant to the fastness the end use demands, and the whole formulation to the regulation that applies to the part. That is four matches and one check, since the fifth item below, pigment-induced shrinkage, is a check rather than a match.

Match the carrier resin to the base polymer#

A carrier made from the same polymer family as the base resin disperses fastest and disturbs the mechanical properties least, which is why polyolefin colours normally arrive on an LDPE or EVA carrier and ABS colours on polystyrene. Wax remains an option as the universal carrier when the base polymer is uncertain or when a colour has to trial across several resin families quickly, though a polymer-specific carrier still performs best in a production formulation. Black pipe masterbatch again narrows the choice to MLDPE or LLDPE below 20 melt index, and any concentrate that does not fully melt with the base resin shows up as gels rather than as a clean colour.

Match the pigment to the processing temperature#

A pigment fails at temperature because it decomposes rather than melts, and the class with the lowest ceiling in common use is the diarylide yellows, which break down into monoazo species above about 200 °C. The first thermogravimetric decomposition peak appears at 162 °C, and 3,3'-dichlorobenzidine release is reported above 200 °C, which is why diarylides are never recommended above that temperature.

Heat stability itself is commonly defined as the processing temperature at which a pigment in a given polymer shows no more than a defined colour change, commonly ΔE*ab 3, after a defined dwell, commonly 5 minutes, though the exact tolerance is always polymer- and concentration-specific. Grade and surface-treatment data for titanium dioxide (TiO2, Pigment White 6) sits on its own substance page, alongside the surface treatments that shift these ceilings.

Match the colorant to the end use and its fastness#

The end use decides which fastness properties the colour has to carry, and a garden chair, a food tray and an automotive interior trim each fail on a different one. A specification names 4 fastness properties in most cases.

• Lightfastness and weatherfastness, the resistance of the colour to fading under UV exposure and outdoor weathering
• Heat stability at the processing temperature, since a pigment that survives storage can still fail during moulding or extrusion
• Migration resistance, covering both bleeding into a contacting material and blooming to the surface of the part
• Chemical resistance, for example the sensitivity of DPP pigments to strong acids and bases

Heat, light and weather ratings for the full pigment set are collected under pigment fastness in plastics, which this page does not repeat in numeric form.

Bleeding and blooming, the two migration mechanisms named above, are separated in detail on colorant migration in plastics, which explains why one mechanism responds to a carrier change and the other does not.

Check for pigment-induced shrinkage and warpage#

Some pigments nucleate semi-crystalline polymers, which raises shrinkage and can warp an injection-moulded part that the same tool produces flat in natural resin. In one published trial on injection-moulded polypropylene coloured with green masterbatch at 1 to 5 wt%, relative shrinkage in the flow direction rose from 13.6 % to 22.3 % with a transparent phthalocyanine concentrate and from 49.5 % to 58.3 % with an opaque chromium and copper oxide concentrate, compared with neat PP, reported in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences 24 (2023) 9924.

Among the pigments studied, Pigment Blue 15:3 (phthalocyanine blue) is one that nucleates polyolefins, a property that also makes it useful as a clarifying aid in some formulations even though it is added here for colour.

Both warpage mechanisms, nucleation-driven shrinkage in the flow direction and the opacity-dependent magnitude reported above, are separated in detail on pigment-induced warpage, which explains why a transparent and an opaque concentrate of the same pigment family can shrink a moulded part by very different amounts.

Check the regulatory route before the colour is approved#

The regulatory route has to be settled before a shade is signed off, because a colour that matches perfectly in the lab may contain a pigment that is not listed for the market the part is sold into. Colorants sit outside the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, so EU food-contact colour is judged against national rules and Council of Europe practice rather than an EU-wide migration limit. In the United States, 21 CFR 178.3297 lists the colorants cleared for food-contact polymers and caps many of them by weight, and EU packaging carries a separate heavy-metal ceiling under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. All three routes are covered in full below.

Which Color Masterbatch Suits Each Polymer and Application?#

The right color masterbatch for a given polymer is set by the carrier that melts with it and the colorant class that survives its processing window, which is why the same shade is built differently for PE film, for ABS housings and for PET bottles. Table T4 collects the 9 combinations covered on this page, each traceable to the fact behind it.

Table T4. Color masterbatch selection matrix

Table note: carrier and colorant choices are starting points from the technical literature cited; the masterbatch supplier's trial on the actual resin grade decides the final specification.

The full additive package for each base resin, beyond colour alone, is indexed under additives by polymer, which covers UV, impact and flame-retardant packages alongside the colorants named here.

How Is a Color Masterbatch Made?#

A color masterbatch is made on a twin-screw compounding line: the carrier is melted, the colorant is fed in and dispersed under shear, and the strand is cooled and cut into pellets. Two feeding routes reach that result: the premix route blends all components homogeneously before they enter the extruder, then feeds the blend by a volumetric feeder, while the split-feed route sends polymer pellets into the main feed and doses the pigment through a side feeder positioned downstream of the melting zone.

The difference between the two feeding routes is where the pigment meets the melt: a premix goes in cold with the carrier, while split feeding drops it into an already molten carrier downstream, which wets it gently and leaves fewer agglomerates. The line layout and the process steps behind both routes are set out on how masterbatch is made, the manufacturing page for the whole masterbatch family.

Dispersion, not distribution, is the hard part: distributing a pigment evenly through the melt is a mixing problem, while breaking every agglomerate down to primary particles is an energy problem. A heavily filled concentrate also behaves differently in the melt than the neat polymer, since a 60 wt% calcium carbonate concentrate reaches 3 times the melt viscosity of the neat resin, and a milder version of the same penalty applies to a heavily pigmented colour concentrate. Screw configuration and feeding hardware for this kind of high-shear compounding are covered under plastic compounding.

How Is Color Masterbatch Quality Controlled?#

A color masterbatch is judged on two axes: whether the colour is right, measured instrumentally against a standard, and whether the pigment is properly dispersed, measured by how the concentrate behaves in a melt filter or on a film. Both checks run independently, because a masterbatch can match its target colour perfectly while still carrying agglomerates that will show up as specks once it reaches production speed.

Colour: CIELAB, Delta E and metamerism#

Colour is measured instrumentally in a CIE colour space, most often the CIELAB L*a*b* system the CIE defined in 1976, and the difference between a sample and its standard is expressed as a Delta E value. The CIE's earlier Yxy space, built from tristimulus XYZ values in 1931, is still used as an intermediate step in some instruments, but CIELAB is the working space for plastics colour matching because its three axes correspond directly to lightness and the red-green and yellow-blue colour dimensions.

The tolerance that counts as a pass is not fixed for colour approval generally; it is set by the customer specification for each part and typically narrows as the visible surface area grows. Metamerism, a match under one illuminant that fails under another, has to be managed whenever a heavy-metal pigment is replaced, because the two pigments rarely share an identical reflectance curve even when they match under daylight. Instrument geometry and illuminant choice are explained on color measurement and matching of plastics.

Dispersion: filter pressure value and microdispersion rating#

Dispersion and distribution are different failures: dispersion is whether the agglomerates were broken apart, and distribution is whether the broken-down pigment was spread evenly through the melt. A good dispersing package shows up as both higher colour strength and a lower filter pressure value, measured by the filter pressure value method of the EN 13900 series, because unbroken agglomerates raise back-pressure across a fine screen pack.

Black masterbatch for pipe is rated on a microdispersion scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the best result, assessed on about 1.5 mil PE film and reported per production lot. Method details for both the filter pressure value test and the microdispersion rating sit on dispersion testing of pigments and masterbatch, which this page does not repeat in full.

Which Colorants Are Allowed in Food-Contact Color Masterbatch?#

In the EU, colorants sit outside the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, and in the US, 21 CFR 178.3297 names the colorants that may be used in food-contact polymers and caps many of them by weight, so the same shade can be cleared in one market and unresolved in the other. That split is the single biggest reason a colour formulation changes when a part moves between the two markets.

The full food-contact additive package, beyond colour alone, is covered on additives for food packaging, which this section sits alongside for the colorant-specific rules.

EU: colorants are outside the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011#

Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 does not cover colorants: pigments and solvent dyes have no FCM number and no specific migration limit, so a coloured food-contact article is judged against Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, the Council of Europe Resolution AP(89)1 and national rules. EU 10/2011 is the same regulation that sets the specific migration limits for every other class of plastic additive covered on this site, and colorants are its one deliberate exception.

Only 8 colorant-type substances hold their own FCM entries under this regulation: carbon black (FCM 411), titanium dioxide (FCM 610, plus the surface-treated entries 805, 873 and 1077), zinc sulphide (FCM 403), iron oxide (FCM 409), mica (FCM 597), OB-1 (FCM 422) and BBOT (FCM 500). Carbon black's own conditions illustrate how narrow that exception is: a maximum of 2.5 % w/w of the polymer, benzo(a)pyrene at a maximum of 0.25 mg/kg of carbon black, toluene extractables at a maximum of 0.1 % by ISO 6209, and primary particles between 10 and 300 nm.

The Annex II metal limits still apply to every coloured article, so an inorganic pigment can fail on its metal migration even though it has no SML of its own: aluminium 1 mg/kg, barium 1 mg/kg, cobalt 0.05 mg/kg, copper 5 mg/kg, iron 48 mg/kg, manganese 0.6 mg/kg, zinc 5 mg/kg and nickel 0.02 mg/kg, with cadmium (detection limit 0.002 mg/kg), chromium, lead, mercury and arsenic required to stay not detectable. Council of Europe Resolution AP(89)1 sets the purity framework the industry uses in place of an EU specific migration limit, alongside the German BfR Recommendation IX and national lists in Switzerland and Italy, though its own numeric purity limits are not established here. The purity framework behind that route is named, without figures, on Resolution AP(89)1.

US: 21 CFR 178.3297, colorants for polymers#

In the United States, 21 CFR 178.3297 lists the colorants that may be used in food-contact polymers, and it defines a colorant broadly enough to include optical brighteners that add no visible colour at all. The regulation defines a colorant as a dye, pigment or other substance that imparts or alters the colour of a food-contact material without migrating visible colour into the food, and it explicitly includes optical brighteners and fluorescent whiteners within that definition. Colorants already listed for direct food use in 21 CFR parts 73, 74, 81 and 82, and their lakes, may also be used under this same regulation.

Table T5. US food-contact limits for common masterbatch colorants (21 CFR 178.3297)

Table note: these are maximum use levels written into the regulation, not recommended dosages. Check the specific food type and condition of use in 21 CFR 178.3297 before specifying a grade.

None of the values in Table T5 is a recommended dosage: FDA limits are legal maxima, never a formulation target, and a colorant listed here is cleared under 21 CFR 178.3297, not "FDA approved", a phrase this page avoids because the agency does not pre-approve individual formulations. Food types and conditions of use behind every row are decoded on 21 CFR 178.3297: colorants for polymers, which expands the shorthand condition letters used in the table.

Packaging, toys and electronics: heavy-metal limits#

A colour that is acceptable in a moulded housing can be illegal in packaging: the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation caps the sum of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium in packaging at 100 mg/kg from 12 August 2026. That limit, set by Article 5(4) of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Regulation (EU) 2025/40, applies to the packaging or packaging component as a whole, not to the colorant alone, so a pigment that passes on its own can still push the finished packaging over the limit once every other coloured or printed layer is added in.

Lead chromate pigments, Pigment Yellow 34 and Pigment Red 104, have been on the REACH Candidate List since 13 January 2010 and were listed on Annex XIV, entries 10 to 12, with a sunset date of 21 May 2015, removing them from ordinary EU use without an authorisation. Lead in PVC is separately restricted to 0.1 % w/w under REACH Annex XVII restrictions entry 63, in force under Regulation (EU) 2023/923, and cadmium sulphide has been an SVHC since 16 December 2013, with cadmium in the listed plastics capped at 0.01 % by weight under Annex XVII entry 23. In Japan, the JCII sets a food-contact colorant prerequisite of 100 ppm lead, 50 ppm mercury and 100 ppm cadmium, and its Food Contact Materials Safety Center took over JHOSPA certification from 1 April 2021. Toy and electronics colour limits under schemes such as RoHS and EN 71-3 appear in supplier literature but carry no sourced numeric value in this reference, so this page names the schemes without printing figures.

What Goes Wrong with Color Masterbatch?#

Five failures account for most color masterbatch complaints: gels and unmelts, pink or yellow discoloration of white parts, warped mouldings, a shade that matches in daylight but not under store lighting, and a colour that fades or burns at the processing temperature. Table T6 sets out the likely cause and the first countermeasure for each.

Table T6. Color masterbatch troubleshooting

Identifying the gel source first is critical, because the wrong countermeasure, for example raising the temperature when the true cause is a weak antioxidant package, makes the problem worse rather than better. High heat, high shear, a long residence time and a weak antioxidant package all contribute to gel formation, so troubleshooting starts by separating a masterbatch problem from a base-resin problem before any process setting is changed. The full pinking mechanism behind the second row of Table T6 is explained on why plastics turn yellow or pink.

Source identification for gels and fisheyes in plastic film is covered in more depth than the summary in Table T6 allows, and the same discipline, ruling out a masterbatch cause before changing the base process, applies to every row in the table.

Who Supplies Color Masterbatch?#

Color masterbatch is made by named producers ranging from global compounders active across every masterbatch category to specialist colour and black concentrate makers. Buyers should compare concentrates by colorant loading, carrier and regulatory status, not by shade card alone, since two pellets that match on colour can differ sharply on all three.

Table T7. Color masterbatch producers

Table note: listed alphabetically by category, not ranked. Company data is taken from the sources named; no supplier pays for placement.

No market-size figure for masterbatch or color masterbatch is verifiable from a primary source at the time of writing, so this page states none; sizes, shares and consolidation activity are tracked instead on masterbatch market. Full company profiles, plant locations and grade ranges for the colour segment sit in the directory of color masterbatch manufacturers and suppliers.

What Other Masterbatches Does a Coloured Part Need?#

A coloured part rarely runs on colour alone: the same hopper usually takes a white, black or filler concentrate for opacity or cost, and an additive concentrate for the properties the polymer cannot supply by itself. Several masterbatches, for example a colour and a UV or antistat concentrate, can be metered from the same hopper at once, one reason converters buy colour as a concentrate rather than as loose pigment.

White, black and filler masterbatch#

White, black and filler concentrates are colour masterbatches by another name: white carries titanium dioxide for opacity, black carries carbon black, and filler carries calcium carbonate for cost and stiffness. White masterbatch reaches its opacity through the same titanium dioxide processing ceilings covered above, black masterbatch follows the 35 wt% carbon-black pipe formulation used as the worked example on this page, and filler masterbatch trades colour strength for the lower cost and added stiffness that calcium carbonate brings.

A white surface also runs 10 to 15 °C cooler outdoors than a black one of the same shape, a difference that matters when choosing between the two for an outdoor part. Carbon black in plastics carries the full particle-size and food-contact detail behind the black concentrate named here.

Additive masterbatch and universal carriers#

An additive concentrate delivers function rather than colour, from UV stabilizer and antistat to slip and antiblock, and it shares the same carrier logic as a colour concentrate. Additive masterbatch covers the full range of functional concentrates built the same way as the colour concentrate described on this page, and universal masterbatch is the wax-carried version of either type, chosen when a formulation has to work across several base polymers without a carrier change.

Is a color masterbatch the same as a pigment?#

No: a pigment is the colorant itself, while a color masterbatch is that pigment already dispersed at 40 to 65 wt% inside a carrier resin and pelletised so the converter can meter it accurately. A pigment on its own is loose powder that still needs dispersion, wetting and dosing equipment before it can enter a part; a color masterbatch has already done that work.

What is the difference between a pigment and a dye in plastics?#

A pigment stays insoluble in the polymer and colours it as dispersed particles, while a dye dissolves in the melt and gives a transparent shade. Pigments scatter and absorb light from their particle surface, so they add opacity as well as colour, while a solvent dye colours the polymer without scattering light and adds no opacity of its own. Because a dissolved dye offers no optical barrier the way a particle does, dyes are reserved for amorphous polymers where they will not migrate, while pigments cover both amorphous and semi-crystalline resins.

Can color masterbatch be used in recycled plastic?#

Yes, colour concentrates are used in recyclate, but the pigments already in the feedstock matter as much as the ones being added: printing-ink diarylides that decompose above about 200 °C are a documented cause of yellowing in recycled polyethylene, reported in Science Advances (2025). A 2025 study by Fraunhofer IVV and OFI reported positive results in miniaturised Ames tests on printing-ink pigments after 30 minutes at 240 °C, a laboratory heat-ageing condition, published in Materials 18 (2025) 3325. How colour choices affect sorting and reprocessing more broadly is covered on design for recycling.

Does color masterbatch change the strength of the plastic?#

A colour concentrate at 1 to 5 % rarely changes strength by itself, but it can change dimensions and melt behaviour: pigments that nucleate a semi-crystalline polymer raise shrinkage, and a carrier that does not melt with the base resin leaves gels. No tensile or impact data for coloured versus natural compounds is established in our source library, so this page states no percentage change in any mechanical property.

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