A Guide to Color Measurement and

Control in PlasticsCompounding and Molding

X-Rite ColorMeasurement Products

Help You Formulate Colorand Keep Color Quality

Under Control

The more discriminating consumersbecome about color, the greater theneed for a means of measuring anddescribing color that eliminates individual human color bias.

For over two decades, X-Rite hasbeen a world leader in thedevelopment and application ofcolor measurement productsproviding accurate, predictable andconsistent color data. These X-Riteproducts help you manufacture andformulate colors more efficientlyand economically and keep colorquality under control.

X-Rite color measurementinstruments and software are easy-to-use solutions designed to servethe color measurement needs of abroad range of industries andmarkets, including plasticsprocessors, molders, extruders, resinmanufacturers and consumers.

From color formulating to qualitycontrol, X-Rite color measurementproducts make it possible formanufacturers around the world to ensure that even their mostdemanding color quality standardsare met.

Meet the Most Demanding Color Quality Standards Every Time

Where and How Numeric Color Control is Usedin the Plastics Industry

The importance of precise color control is widely acknowledged today byformulation and quality control professionals throughout the plasticscompounding and molding industry.

Formulation Applications — The benefits of numeric color controlare obvious and, in most cases, significant. In formulating,

for instance, the ability to control color permitscompounders to hit target colors with a

minimum of trial and error. It also enablesusers to work off surplus materials in

new color batches by providingguidelines for achieving a desired

color with available pigments orresins.

Quality ControlApplications — Numericcolor measurement plays animportant role in qualitycontrol as well. It allowsmanufacturers to establishtolerances for acceptablecolor. This enables com-pounders and molders tocheck pigments, parts,components, and assem-blies for conformance to

color tolerance specifica-tions. It also contributes

valuable data to statisticalprocess control systems, and

minimizes the potential for partsrejection based on out-of-tolerance

color. Numeric color control can evenhelp plastics manufacturers work off odd

or leftover batches of parts or assemblies byidentifying color-conforming lots.

Establishing and maintaining color standards allowsproducers to match components manufactured at diverse

locations, reducing labor and material costs associated with rejects and reruns.Quality control personnel in the automotive industry, for example, must ensurethat the various textiles, plastics, vinyls, carpeting, and other materials used in avehicle closely meet the designer’s original color specifications and match whenassembled together, regardless of gloss and texture.

Total Supply Chain Color Control

Numeric color control plays a significant role inmaintaining quality standards in an entire OEMsupply chain. As the diagram above illustrates,the responsibility for color quality rests withseveral different suppliers in the plasticssupply chain. Failure to maintain and meetprecise color standards at any stage – fromthe pigment supplier to the resin/basesupplier to the master batch supplier tothe processor – can result in substandardquality in the end product.

This example illustrates why manufac-turers are increasingly adopting a systemof supply chain color management. Manu-facturers can use X-Rite color measurementinstruments and software to establish precisenumeric color standards and deviation toler-ances. Using the same types of instruments,suppliers can then measure and approve color ateach stage of the supply chain, ensuring totalcolor consistency and maintaining the manufacturer’sestablished standards. Often, a supplier’s initial colormeasurement equipment cost is more than offset by theelimination of a single rejected order of off-spec materialsor components.

The inter-instrument agreement between individual X-Rite colormeasurement instruments and X-RiteColor® Master Web Edition letsmanufacturers implement networking within a single plant or between plantsto facilitate color data recording, precise color communication, and totalcolor control for formulating and quality control. X-RiteColor Master WebEdition allows precise color data to be communicated instantly to anylocation in the world.

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Remove Subjectivity from Color Identificationby Measuring Wavelengths as Numeric ValuesRemove Subjectivity from Color Identificationby Measuring Wavelengths as Numeric Values

It’s impossible to understand how color can be measured, communicated andcontrolled without first understanding what color is. Because it is such acommon element in our lives, most of us take color for granted. Yet, it isactually a complex phenomenon, one that’s governed by the interplay ofphysics, physiology, individual experience and memory.

A Basic Definition of Color

In the simplest terms, color is the result of the interaction betweenlight, an object and a viewer. The specific manner inwhich an object modifies light determines theviewer’s perception of its color.

Objects can modify light in different ways. Forexample, solid objects reflect light, whiletransparent objects transmit it. What’smore, light sources themselves are highlyvariable. Daylight, incandescent light andfluorescent light, for example, each con-sist of distinctive combinations of wave-lengths. What we see as an object’s coloris actually an individualized response to aunique combination of light waves that ittransmits and/or reflects. For example, aparticular rose appears “red” when it hap-pens to reflect the wavelength that is visu-ally perceived and subjectively defined as“red” by the viewer — not because it pos-sesses an innate and specific “redness” of itsown.

It follows from this definition that color is apartially subjective phenomenon of infinitevariability. And it’s precisely this variability thatmakes perception-based communication of color sodifficult. That’s why having an objective system for measuringand communicating color is so important.

The Science of Numeric Color Measurement and Control

A New, Universal Language of ColorA New, Universal Language of Color

The key to color control lies in theability to measure color’s basicstructure — visual light waves — andarrive at absolute numeric values thatallow us to assign precise identities tospecific colors. This is an impossiblegoal without objective and highlyaccurate measurement devices.

The instruments receive color thesame way our eyes do. They gatherand interpret wavelengths of lightthat are reflected by an object. But,unlike a human viewer, when aninstrument perceives color, itinterprets the reflected wave-lengths as numeric values absentindividual human bias.

Numeric color measurementmeans everyone involved in thesupply chain speaks a universalcolor language. This newlanguage lets you compare ameasured color to a pre-established specification. And thatenables you to control the color —maintain it within acceptabletolerances — at every step in yourproduction process or supply chain.

Great advances have been made innumeric color control since itsinception. Today, X-Rite productsmeasure, communicate, and helpcontrol color to a degree fewthought possible. What’s responsiblefor this new language of color? Itstarts with spectrophotometry.

The Power of Spectrophotometry

Spectrophotometers are the mostaccurate, useful, and flexible colormeasurement instruments available.They measure light reflected from anobject at many points along thevisual spectrum to produce spectral

color data. The two

uncontrolledvariable

componentsof color — theviewer and the light source — arecontrolled when spectral color data isrecorded with an instrument.Spectrophotometers measure thecomposition of light before it is

interpreted by a viewer or device,and without regard to the ambientlight source. The result is a set ofreflectance values that aregraphically interpreted in the formof a spectral curve. This curve is ahighly precise color “fingerprint”that is the truest possible numericrepresentation of a color.

X-Rite’s line of portable spectrophotometersincludes a full range ofcolor measurementoptions. For example, X-Rite multi-angle spectrophotometers areavailable to measurepearlescent, metallic and special-effect colors, and X-Rite

sphere spectropho-tometers accurately

measure color surfaces of varying gloss or texture.

More informationabout the science

of color, color communication,color measurement and color controlis contained in X-Rite’s comprehensivebooklet, A Guide to UnderstandingColor Communication. For a freecopy of this guide, call X-Rite at 1-800-657-0553 ext. 292.

X-Rite Color Measurement Products Remove Subjectivityfrom Color Identification by Directly Measuring the Light Waves that the Human Eye Visualizes As Color

X-Rite Products for Color Formulation and Quality Control

X-RiteColor Master Software

Windows-based, intuitive and easy touse. Available in two different versions.

X-RiteColor® Master QualityAssurance Software monitors andmaintains color quality throughoutthe supply chain.

X-RiteColor Master FormulationSoftware formulates opaque, translu-cent and transparent colorants atfixed loads or with minimized pig-ment usage.

All X-RiteColor Master software isdesigned to work with X-Rite’s portfolio of color measurementinstruments.

Combining It All: X-RiteColorMaster Web Edition combines allthe features of X-RiteColor Masterquality assurance and formulationsoftware into a server-based comput-ing environment.

X-RiteColor Master Web Editionsoftware now resides on a centralserver located anywhere in the world.Users leverage the power of yourexisting intranet, LAN, WAN orInternet connections. They haveaccess to global color standards andformulation data when they need it.Changes to software and standardsare executed on the central server byqualified personnel, ensuring theentire supply chain is simultaneouslyupdated. This eliminates the need forsoftware to reside on individual andsometimes remote computers, savingtime and money.

X-RiteColor Master Web Editionmakes global color standards andreports a reality and paper-basedreporting a thing of the past.Barriers such as time zones and lan-guages no longer exist with X-RiteColor Master Web Editionbecause your server is running con-tinuously, and seven languages areavailable with one mouse click.

X-Rite color measurement products offer a variety of benefits. They allowformulators to obtain desired colors quickly, easily and with little waste. Quality control personnel can verify the color of raw materials, finished partsand assemblies to determine whether they meet established quality standards.Powerful system software allows you to compile detailed color reports tosupport internal statistical process control (SPC) programs, and to meet your customers’ ISO 9000 and other reporting requirements.

X-Rite offers a complete line of color measurement products to support the plastics manufacturing process.

Premier 8000 Series Benchtop

Ideal for quality control andformulation in the laboratory.

This high performance benchtopspectrophotometer offerstransmission and reflectancemeasurement, horizontal and verticalpositioning and built-in imagecapture technology. The 8000 Seriesfeatures a sphere interior made ofmachined Spectralon®, a patented,rugged, scientific-grade reflectancematerial, not a coating. It won’tcorrode, flake or peel, eliminating theneed for costly recoating.

Available in two models with varyingprice points and features sets.

TeleFlash™ System

Ideal for quality control in the colorconcentrate and resin manufacturingprocess.

This non-contact spectrophotometeroffers automated color measurementon a moving sample. TeleFlashfeatures color evaluation from up tofive feet away, while generating acontinuous color quality report.TeleFlash offers instant colordeviation detection, eliminating theneed for random samples to bebrought back to the laboratory. Thissaves valuable time, money andexpense.

SP60/62/64 Portable SphereSpectrophotometer

Ideal for quality control for plasticprocessors, molders and extruders.

These portable sphere spectro-photometers are compact, ruggedand lightweight ready for use on theplant floor. The SP60/62/64 seriesoffers multiple measurement areas,opacity and color strengthmeasurement and simultaneousmeasurement of specular componentincluded and excluded. All threemodels feature patented Spectralon, adurable, highly reflective materialdesigned to perform in a rigorousproduction environment. Available inthree different models with varyingprice points and feature sets.

MA68II Portable Multi-AngleSpectrophotometer

Ideal for quality control for plasticsprocessors, molders and extruderscreating metallic, pearlescent andspecial-effect finishes.

This portable multi-anglespectrophotometer is compact,rugged and lightweight, ready for useon the plant floor. The MA68IIoffers five viewing angles (15°, 25°,45°, 75°, 110°) allowing completeand accurate evaluation of changes inmetallic, pearlescent and special-effectcolors. X-Rite Dynamic RotationalSampling technology utilizes asimple, robust optical systemproviding simultaneous measurementof all angles. The remote operationallows measurement data to be stored and downloaded to X-RiteColorMaster software.

L10-111 (5 /03) Printed in U.S.A.

INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANYKIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WAR-RANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The user assumesthe entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this information. All text must be copied without modifi-cation and all pages must be included. All components of this information must be distributed together. This

information may not be distributed for profit. © X-Rite, Incorporated 2003. X-Rite® is a registered trade-mark of X-Rite, Incorporated. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective holders.All trademarks may be registered in the United States and /or other countries. Product design and specifica-tions subject to change without notice.

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