Industrial Paints for Sports Eyewear: Strength, Safety, and Style
The eyewear sector is a flagship of Made in Italy, recognized for the high quality of its products. In the field of sports accessories, glasses are subjected to extreme stress from sweat, impacts, and atmospheric agents. For this reason, industrial paints for sports glasses not only serve an aesthetic purpose, but also ensure durability and performance.
Contecolor, with over 50 years of experience, specializes in the production of high-quality paints, customizable for application on glass, metal, and plastics. The customization process begins with an in-depth discussion with the client to create ad hoc technical solutions, built from scratch around the project’s needs.
1. Customizing frames: aesthetics and fit
Sports eyewear frames are primarily made of plastic or metal alloys. Eyewear paints must ensure maximum adhesion to both metal and plastic materials, without compromising style.Specific materials and paints
- Plastic paints: suitable for decorating, protecting, or adapting to any type of plastic material, maintaining their aesthetic and functional characteristics over time. The eyewear industry is a specific field of application for plastic paints.
- Metal paints: designed to ensure maximum adhesion to metals, alloys, and galvanized surfaces, while preserving their aesthetic characteristics. In the eyewear industry, the Zamak alloy (zinc and aluminum) is often used for small technical parts and accessories, which requires a dedicated production cycle (primer, coloring, finishing).
Custom aesthetic options
Eyewear finishes, which also fall within the fashion accessories sector, offer endless possibilities for color and tactile customization:- Colors and Shades: Custom colors can be developed even outside the main reference color charts (RAL, NCS, and Pantone).
- Visual Effects: Transparent tints, pearlescent colors, enamels, and varnishes that replicate special effects are available.
- Matte or Glossy Effect: Transparent matte or glossy finishes can be achieved, with a high gloss or a velvety (soft-touch) effect.
- Metallic Effect: Finishes that simulate gold, silver, copper, bronze, or titanium.
2. Lens painting: functional transparency and style
The lenses of ski goggles or sunglasses for running and cycling, often made of materials that fall into the field of glass or technical polymers, can be treated with eyeglass lens paints.Functional and chromatic customization
Coating glass (or similar materials) is crucial for creating distinctive aesthetic effects and specific functional resistance. For lenses, the following are particularly relevant:- Transparent tinted effect: allows the glass to be tinted without compromising its transparency, maintaining uniform light transmission, vital for sports vision.
- Glossy/mirrored effect: provides a mirrored and reflective surface.
- Pearled effect: provides a pearly and iridescent finish, with reflections that change with the angle of the light.
3. Performance and safety guarantees for sports use
Given the daily and intensive use of eyewear, the finishes must be extremely resistant and durable. Sports eyewear lacquers guarantee the quality and safety required for disciplines such as running, tennis, cycling, and skiing.Certified technical resistance
- Perspiration resistance: Paint must pass rigorous tests for resistance to synthetic perspiration. Contecolor’s F140FF paint, for example, passed the ISO 12870:2016 standard without staining or color changes.
- Abrasion and scratches: Finishes must be resistant to scratches and abrasions and must be tested for turbulence (UNI EN ISO 23150:2011).
- Safety and nickel: Paints must be tested and certified for nickel release (UNI EN 16128:2015) and completely free of harmful substances such as formaldehyde.
Commitment to sustainability and innovation
Contecolor develops custom eyewear paints with a focus on environmental responsibility. Innovation and sustainability are essential values.- Eco-friendly paints: production of water-based paints with low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) content, with values close to 5% during the application phase, drastically reducing environmental impact.
- Research and Development (R&D): The research and development laboratory designs formulas from scratch, ensuring innovative and customized products, carefully evaluating their chemical composition and resistance to external agents.
