[TCML] Black ink/plastics conductivity - one more point

[FIFTYGUY@xxxxxxx]

Folks-
 
    I mentioned to our ink supplier about my tests with  black ink and how 
extremely conductive it was. Given that he had previously  explained to me how 
they manufacture it from lampblack, this wasn't surprising. 
    But he did explain to me that the conductivity of  black ink caused 
problems for their customers, even on normal printed cardboard  products. Seems one 
customer needed to print on the tags for the tea bags they  manufactured. 
Despite their best instructions, consumers insisted on putting the  tea bags into 
cold water, and then the bags and water into the microwave  together to make 
their tea. The conductive black ink obviously caused an instant  problem. 
    This is where it gets interesting: the customer  *really* wanted black 
ink on their tea bags. Apparently non-black inks are  commonly made with mineral 
pigments that are non-conductive. So the ink  supplier blended red, blue, and 
yellow pigments together to make  a non-conductive black ink for the teabags.
    This might explain the numerous non-conductive  black plastics that we 
come across in our search for materials. Although I  suspect most non-conductive 
black plastics are dyed, not pigmented.
 
    The Wikipedia article on pigments is very  interesting:
 
 _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigment_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigment) 
 
-Phil LaBudde
Center for the Advanced Study of Ballistic  Improbabilities



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