RAL EFFECT

A new colour collection

RAL EFFECT was first introduced to the international professional public in the exhibition "Farbe – Ausbau & Fassade" from the 18th until the 21st of April 2007 in Köln.

The starting point

In spring 2005 questioning domestic and foreign colour manufacturers and distributors revealed the wish for a new and enhanced palette of industrial colours which would be fit for designing. Especially retail in Europe vocalized the need for such a product.

The development of RAL EFFECT was an international project where experts of the colour industry, colour design and product design from Finland, France, Italy and Germany worked alongside each other.

The new colour collection meets the demand of the growing impact of colour computation especially in product design and industry application. The new collection will be positioned as a new colour standard in these areas.
The conceptual limited constrictions of RAL CLASSIC as a colour collection with historical roots will be avoided.
Colour design trends like the penchant for light and metallic colours were considered as well as an organized and practical coverage of the colour space.

The conception

RAL EFFECT...

  • you can calculate using the colour names. Not just the simple examples above are possible, rather more complicated problems, like for example the limits of a colour space, colour pigment or dynamic non linear colour developments.

  • „Colormanagement“, also based on CIELAB, under Windows and Macintosh provides for an accurate reproduction of the RAL DESIGN colours on monitors and printers.

  • many design programs allow for the direct entry of RAL DESIGN colours (as HLC- or Lab- colour values).

  • using RAL DIGITAL software RAL makes the RAL DESIGN colours availabe for immediate use in the most important design programs, from CorelDRAW to 3D Studio, from Photoshop to Illustrator. A total of about 30 software programs are supported.

The uni and metallic colours of RAL EFFECT can be combined safely and harmoniously.

No collection other than RAL EFFECT contains metallic colours in this breadth and range.

RAL EFFECT contains colours which conform to several different european EN and ISO standards, for example the norm for safety colours and signs, colours for non-reflective road-signs and code colours for tubes.

A gloss scale page shows the corner points of different steps of shine which are expicitly named and sorted.

The technique

RAL EFFECT is the first colour collection from an independent colour standardizer which is based on watery varnish systems.

This way environmental conservation aspects (european VOC-directive) are respected and technical production advantages concerning the reproduction of colour hues in painting materials without metamerism effect are achieved.

In order to prevent the metamerism effect the same pigments are used for the colour cards as are normally utilised in the subsequent manufacture of a product with the same colour hue. Lead, cadmium and chromates are excluded and as such the environmental compatibility is further improved.

Aside from the environmental compatibility the design of an easy and low cost production of the paint colours played another great part in the development of RAL EFFECT.

Even without the usagae of lead, cadmium and chromates clear yellow orange and red hues have a satisfactory covering power and allow for the requests of a economic usage of pigments in the manufacture.

The formulation

The choice of pigments resulted from the consideration of the lasting availability for industrial applications. All formulations mirror the „state of the art“.

The usage of few pigments offer the colour manufacturer a low cost colour production compared to other colours which use many or expensive pigments.

The reproduction of colour sample cards for RAL EFFECT is eased by a simple and modern formulation.

The colour formulations and the colour index combinations for the colours are property of RAL and can be supplied to the industry by request.

RAL EFFECT products

RAL EFFECT starts initially with three products:

  • A 490s set of primary standards in a practical wood box

  • Novel double colour card with which you can view the uni and metallic colours together or separately. For this colour card protection of utility patents was requested.

  • Single colour cards in DIN A6 format which are needed by the users for the colour choice.

A simple, easy to understand and describable four-digit classification system

The design and mechanic of the products are consequently oriented at the target audience and offer the unproblematic manufacturing of personalized products for high volume customers. Custom-made colour selections are also possible by request.

Who is predestined for RAL EFFECT?

  • Colour and varnish industry as well as colour wholesale and retail

  • Industrial users (metal/synthetics/textiles/ceramics/and so on)

  • Manufacturing industry (buildings/industrial equipment/furniture/consumer goods/car motives/and so on)

  • Product designer, colour designer

  • Architects, interior design and others

  • Training and schooling institutions


The RAL EFFECT pattern.