Olikrom, a paint that changes color with pressure

Olikrom piezochrome paint

Olikrom develops intelligent paints that change colour with pressure. An innovation whose applications in the nautical industry could be numerous...

Intelligent pigments

Olikrom has developed paints incorporating intelligent hybrid pigments that combine the recognized strength of metal ions with the flexibility of molecular matter. The modification of the structure of the paintings, linked to an external disturbance, causes its change of color.

Olikrom technology exists for different types of solicitation:

  • temperature (thermochromic property)
  • light (photochromic property)
  • pressure (piezochrome property)
  • a solvent (solvatochrome property)
  • a gas (chemochromic property)

Olikrom Pigments

Paintings to measure

Different paint parameters can be adjusted by Olikrom according to needs, such as colour, reversibility or irreversibility of the colour change, its speed..

Each intelligent coating is designed and produced by Olikrom to meet specific customer specifications. The company always supplies a finished product and not the pigment in powder form.

All the inventions developed since 1998 with the Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux, which led to the creation of Olikrom in October 2014, are the subject of patents.

Multiple applications

The use of Olikrom intelligent paints as a non-destructive testing tool affects multiple sectors, from aeronautics to chemistry and construction.

In boating and ocean racing, we can imagine its use to detect the impacts and overstrains suffered by a hull or deck while sailing. While some advanced boats locally incorporate strain gauges inside the composite, Olikrom paint can provide quick visual control over the entire part. Ultrasonic testing is then limited to critical areas.