Paint, Resin & Polymer Compounding calculator

Pigment Loading Cost Calculator

Cost the pigment charge and its grind stage against your budget. Enter total batch and dry pigment masses, pigment price, grind costs and the approved allowance.

What this calculator does

  • Calculate pigment-stage cost and weight loading from recorded pigment charges, purchase price and grind costs, then compare with your budget.

Formula used

  • Pigment material cost = dry pigment mass × dry pigment price
  • Pigment-stage cost = pigment material cost + grind and additive cost
  • Cost per batch pound = pigment-stage cost ÷ charged batch mass
  • Weight loading = dry pigment mass ÷ charged batch mass × 100
  • Budget headroom = budget − pigment-stage cost

Inputs explained

  • Total Charged Batch Mass: Total ingredient mass on the batch charge sheet.
  • Dry Pigment Mass: Dry pigment mass contained in the charged ingredients.
  • Dry Pigment Purchase Price: Invoice pigment cost per pound on the same dry basis.
  • Grind and Additive Cost: Recorded grind operation and nonpigment additive costs for this batch.
  • Pigment-Stage Cost Budget: Approved allowance for pigment, grind operation and additives.

How to use the result

  • Best suited to pigment charge costing, grind-stage budget review.
  • Input ceilings are computational safeguards, not plant benchmarks. Weight loading is not pigment volume concentration. Does not establish dispersion quality or the maximum workable pigment loading.

Current U.S. benchmarks

  • The producer price index for plastic resins and materials stands at 280.569 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 6.6% from a year earlier. Quotes priced off last quarter's material cost miss this move.
  • Industrial electricity averages 9.77 cents per kWh across the U.S. (EIA, Jul 2026), up 4.7% from a year earlier. Energy-intensive steps carry this directly into unit cost.
  • The producer price index for industrial chemicals stands at 336.006 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 13.3% from a year earlier. Quotes priced off last quarter's material cost miss this move.
  • The U.S. has 14,543 chemical manufacturing establishments employing about 911,245 workers (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).

Common questions

  • Is this pigment volume concentration? No. This is dry pigment mass divided by total charged batch mass. Pigment volume concentration requires ingredient volumes and excludes volatile components.
  • Can I enter a purchased pigment dispersion? Use its dry pigment content and matching dry-basis pigment cost only if the supplier provides that allocation. Do not mix whole-dispersion price with dry-pigment mass.
  • Where do grinding resin and additives belong? Enter their batch cost in grind and additive cost, along with the grind operation. Exclude pigment material cost already calculated from mass and price.
  • Does a higher loading guarantee stronger color? No. Pigment properties, dispersion, compatibility and the final formulation affect performance. This calculator reports cost and weight loading only.

Last reviewed 2026-10-01.