German chemicals and pharmaceuticals producer Merck (Darmstadt; www.merck.de) is to collaborate with US compounder and distributor PolyOne (Cleveland, Ohio; www.polyone.com) on the development of in-mould 3D (IM3D) technology, used in the visual enhancement of packaging, and establish it in end-use markets including packaging and consumer electronics. A patent application has been filed for IM3D for plastics applications and Merck already has had success with similar 3D technology for printing on paper.

Michael Heckmeier, head of the pigments and functional materials business unit at Merck, said: “IM3D is just the beginning of our strategic collaboration with PolyOne. Our objective in the coming years is to jointly launch additional innovative plastics technologies with pearlescent pigments.”

The companies said that the human eye perceives in the plastic product a three-dimensional image that appears to come out of the flat surface, but the plastic itself is completely smooth and planar. Several processing steps were previously necessary to generate this depth effect in the polymer, now the 3D impression is created in just one step during the injection moulding process itself using Merck’s technology, the companies claim.