Could you briefly introduce Ink Invent and explain what your core technology is about?
Ink Invent is a materials innovation company developing functional paint additives that support visibility, safety, and system interaction in automotive and wider mobility applications. Our core technology, RheoLight Crystal Glass Pigments, is a portfolio of high-performance water- and solvent-based dispersions containing engineered Crystal Glass Pigments. These pigments enable coatings and surfaces to actively support how objects are perceived by both human vision and vehicle sensor systems.
Building on this technology, Ink Invent initiated VisibilitySavesLives.org, an independent awareness initiative that addresses the visibility of 3-dimensional objects as a measurable and actionable safety factor driven by color choice. As part of this initiative, the Ink Invent team developed and published the '3D Visibility Label for Mobility Coatings': a model designed to make visibility performance transparent, comparable, and understandable across products, applications, and mobility contexts. The Visibility Label aims to support EU road safety ambitions by translating material-level visibility performance into a framework that can inform design choices, industry adoption, and future standardisation efforts.
What problem does your RheoLight Crystal Glass Pigment technology solve, particularly in the context of mobility and safety?
In real-world traffic environments, visibility constantly changes with distance, lighting and weather conditions, and viewing angle. As observation angles increase, for example inherent to the curved surfaces of vehicle bodies, and changing approach angles in traffic, objects tend to appear darker and lose contrast. This can delay recognition by human road users and reduce reliability for ADAS such as camera-based systems, LiDAR, and future automated driving functions.
RheoLight Crystal Glass Pigments address this challenge at the material level. By reflecting and redistributing light within the coating, these pigments reduce angle-dependent induced decrease in visibility and help maintain visual contrast across a wider range of viewing conditions. This improves how vehicles, infrastructure, and Vulnerable Road Users are perceived in complex traffic situations.
As mobility moves toward higher levels of automation, consistent and predictable perception becomes increasingly important. By supporting higher visibility for both humans and vehicle systems, RheoLight contributes to safer interaction in today’s traffic and to the reliable deployment of tomorrow’s automated and shared mobility solutions.
In what way can your pigments contribute to improved visibility and interaction with modern vehicle systems such as ADAS or LiDAR?
RheoLight Crystal Glass Pigments are designed to support consistent optical responses across a wide spectrum of light sources and sensor technologies. When integrated into coatings or markings, they improve contrast, signal consistency, and detectability for camera-based systems, and LiDAR. This contributes to more reliable object recognition and classification, supporting the robustness and redundancy required for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and future autonomous driving functions.
Which applications within the automotive or mobility sector do you currently see as the most promising for your solutions?
We see strong opportunities in exterior automotive coatings, functional vehicle markings, Personal Protection Equipment, and other safety-critical components, as well as in road infrastructure and urban mobility systems. In particular, applications that sit at the interface between vehicles, infrastructure, and Vulnerable Road Users are highly relevant, as these environments demand clear communication between human perception and automated systems.
Innovation and design go hand in hand in your products. How do you balance functional safety benefits with aesthetics?
Automotive design and brand identity remain essential, even as functional requirements increase. RheoLight Crystal Glass Pigments do not provide fixed effects but are formulation tools, enabling OEMs, suppliers, and designers to integrate safety-enhancing optical functionality within their existing color strategies and design languages. This approach supports functional safety without compromising aesthetics, or as we coin it "Safety Made Beautiful", enabling broader adoption across vehicle platforms and mobility products.
Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the automotive industry. How does Ink Invent address this in its technology and production?
RheoLight' platform technology is based on durable, inert Crystal Glass materials with long functional lifetimes, supporting extended product durability and reduced replacement cycles. Our water-based dispersion systems align with the industry’s transition toward lower-impact processing, while improved visibility and system recognition contribute indirectly to sustainability by helping prevent accidents, damage, and associated material waste.
Why did Ink Invent decide to become a member of RAI Automotive Industry NL?
RAI Automotive Industry NL brings together key stakeholders across the Dutch and European automotive value chain, from innovation and manufacturing to policy and regulation. Ink Invent applied to join RAI to actively contribute to discussions on functional safety, visibility, and system interaction in the context of ADAS and autonomous driving, and to align our material innovations with industry standards and future mobility frameworks.
What kind of collaborations or opportunities within the RAI network are you most looking forward to?
We look forward to collaborations with Automotive OEMs, Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers, infrastructure partners, and knowledge institutions on pilot projects, validation programs, and standardization efforts.
We are particularly interested in collaborations that bridge material innovation with vehicle design, infrastructure, and legislation. This includes pilot projects, standardization initiatives that raise awareness around visibility as a critical safety factor, and joint efforts that address how materials and coatings can support safer human-machine interaction and system reliability in increasingly automated and shared mobility environments. Through the RAI network, we look forward to working with partners who share the ambition to make mobility not only smarter and more efficient, but also safer for everyone.
