Industrial Paints for Cycling: From Bikes to Accessories
In the dynamic world of cycling, where performance meets style, industrial bicycle painting is not just an aesthetic detail, but a crucial element that ensures durability and identity. The use of specialized bicycle paints is essential for decorating, protecting, and enhancing products made from various materials, providing the desired aesthetic appearance and meeting specific functional needs.
Contecolor, with over 50 years of experience, stands out for its ability to create customized paints in every aspect, developed specifically to perfectly adapt to the needs of each project on plastic, metal, or glass substrates.
1. Bike Customization (Metal)
A modern bicycle, whether made of metal alloy or another material, requires finishes that ensure both excellent aesthetics and superior technical performance. Painting the bike frame is a crucial step in combining design and durability.Materials and technical requirements
Sports bike paints are designed for substrates such as ABS, PU, polystyrene, nylon, and more, ensuring durability and longevity. Paints for metals (such as steel or light alloys) are designed to ensure maximum adhesion and increase the product’s technical performance while preserving its aesthetics.What can be customized on the bike?
The strength of industrial painting lies in the ability to create custom solutions, built from scratch around the customer’s needs. Aesthetic customization options include a wide range of finishes and colors:- Custom Colors: development of custom colors, even outside of the main reference color charts (RAL, NCS, Pantone).
- Special Finishes and Paint Types: base colors, transparent colors, pearlescent colors, enamels, acrylic, polyurethane, and epoxy paints.
- Visual Effects: paints with a matte or glossy rubberized effect, finishing cycles that replicate acid burnishing or galvanic treatments on steel.
- Pearl/Iridescent Effect, with reflections that change with the angle of the light.
- Metallic Effect, with gold, silver, or copper reflections.
- Matte or glossy finishes, transparent or pigmented, with high gloss or velvety (soft-touch).
2. Personalizing the protective helmet
The helmet is a central element of cyclist safety and, being made of plastic materials (such as polystyrene or ABS), requires specific helmet paints, capable of adapting and resisting complex substrates.Helmet Painting Options (Plastic)
Plastic paints maintain their aesthetic and functional characteristics over time. In the sporting goods and automotive sectors, customization focuses on:- Color customization: a wide selection of helmet paints, both opaque and transparent, developed by the R&D laboratory.
- Functional resistance: the paints guarantee resistance to scratches, impacts, and daily wear, essential for a protective accessory.
- Adhesion to complex substrates: helmet paints ensure maximum adhesion even on difficult plastics.
3. Customizing glasses
The eyewear sector, a flagship of Made in Italy, requires coatings to ensure aesthetics, durability, and sustainability. Eyewear, a key cycling accessory, must combine design and resistance.Treatable materials and technical resistance
Eyewear coatings must ensure a remarkable visual impact and perfect brilliance. Their adhesion to metal and plastic materials is crucial, as is their ability to integrate with galvanic and enamel treatments. Key elements of customization:- Resistance to sweat and wear: finishes must pass stringent tests (e.g., resistance to synthetic sweat according to ISO 12870:2016).
- Safety and sustainability: products must be free of harmful substances such as formaldehyde.
- Technical compliance: for example, the nickel release test (UNI EN 16128:2015) for metal finishes.
Aesthetic effects for frames
For eyewear, which also includes fashion accessories, creative finishes are available:- Transparent, matte, or glossy.
- Special colors, pearlescent or iridescent.
- Treatments that enhance aesthetics without compromising durability.
