Faber-Castell demonstrates a further example of pioneering work in the interests of the environment with its paint coatings for pencils. Nearly all the black-lead and colour pencils produced in Stein near Nuremberg are coated with water-based paint. With this process, Faber-Castell changed over from conventional paints using organic solvents to environment-friendly aqueous emulsions – a technology developed in-house. The plant was opened by Klaus Töpfer, at the time German environment minister and later executive director of the UN environment programme. Faber-Castell has set new world standards in this field.
In water-based paint technology, the chromophoric pigments are dispersed in water. This means that, unlike in the case of acetone-based lacquer, no harmful vapours are released during the drying process.However, water-based paint requires heat for the drying process and thus necessitates greater energy expenditure when compared to acetone-based lacquer. Faber-Castell generates the required energy by using residual materials of the wood cased pencil production.