Reviewed by Anurag Mishra (Sr. Technical Consultant)
As a layman, I know about basic colours of the chart. To express myself in details I just say, 1 shade darker or 2 shades lighter. I don’t even know whether the person got my point or not. But this vague description is not acceptable in industries where colour plays a significant role. Colour managers understand only numbers. This is why they are able to achieve huge precision and uniformity in their products. In different industries like textile, automotive, furnishing, labelling and packaging, printing etc. Everything is controlled with a number.
Now the question is how are they quantifying colours?
Well, this question has a very simple answer. Colour measurement instruments are capable of giving numeric form to colours. Devices like spectrophotometer, colorimeter work on the principle of measuring the absorbance of light by a solution. They have smart sensors, detectors and circuits to do all the calculations and simplifying the tasks.
Devices offered by Testronix
Portable Spectrophotometer – TP 800 and TP 810
It works on the principle of spectroscopy. The device segregates the luminance of the light according to the wavelengths. The wavelengths are observed by the group of sensors to analyse the colour. It gives the value of ? E, L, a, b. Apart from this, spectral reflectance curve is depicted which is widely used by the managers is preparing the colour recipes. It helps in comparing the samples with the master. It produces real time factors of colour formulas. The measurements are done on the scale of white to black, dark to light and other standard colours instructed by ISO. They are widely used in industries like textiles, dental science, automobiles, etc.
Colorimeters – TP 310, TP 110, TP 60CP
This device works on the principle of measuring the absorbance of wavelengths of light by the solution. It determines the concentration of the solution. The absorbance of light increases with the concentration of the solution. For higher accuracy, some devices have observation angle of 45°/0°. It has been observed that measuring colour at this angle reduces the interference from the external light and thus reduces any error. It works with a detector made up of photoelectric diode fabricated from silicon.
Gloss Meter – Tri-angle
Due to the texture of the surface, the gloss reflectance varies. It is very difficult to achieve uniform glossiness in different batches. The best part about Testronix’s Gloss meter is that it works on three angles, i.e. 20°, 60°, 85°. It is a portable device and very sensitive to the reflectance. The procedure is used to measure the shine, appearance and quality of the products.