Posted by Elaine Becker on Wed, Mar 10, 2010
As the North American Manager of Color Services for Pittsburgh-based PPG, a $16 billion per year manufacturer of paints, coatings, chemicals, optical and glass, Shelley Sturdevant knows something about color matching. She manages and oversees color control for the Coil and Extrusion coatings business at 10 facilities nationwide, with a color palette currently holding over 100,000 colors.
We had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Shelley as she shared some of what she's learned managing color for PPG over the years:
CyberChrome (CC): What prompted your move into digital color matching and when?
Shelley Sturdevant (SS): About 10 years ago we decided we needed to find the right tools, the right hardware and software, to manage our color needs then and into the future. We needed to build a foundation to manage our huge color palette, including some colors we've been managing for more than 30 years. That's when we settled on OnColor.
CC: What were you looking for in a color matching software application?
SS: Two things primarily, speed and productivity. The OnColor software can search through 50,000 to 60,000 colors in seconds. And, uniquely, it gives you the ability to do very specific color calibrations. It's an important tool for us in the lab but it's also key to our production in batch correction so technicians at all 10 of our facilities can consistently produce the same colors.
CC: Anything else?
SS: Compatibility with a range of spectrophotometers. That enables us to get the best hardware to pair with the software. These tools form the foundation of our house so to speak, but where it really gets interesting and valuable is what you might call the ‘attached garage,' that is, how we use it to interface with our customers.
Now, we're all speaking the same language, not just internally, but we can communicate that directly to our customers. About 40 percent to 50 percent of our customer base has adopted our software and hardware systems models and we train them how best to use it. We can all access the same database which we put up on the Web and they can see new colors, research standard colors, and get precise, reproducible results.
CC: What are some of your newest challenges?
SS: Working to comply with the new ‘green' regulations that have recently been enacted, specifically achieving maximum solar reflectance values (SRVs) without sacrificing the quality of the color match.
These new formulations take the known color matching rules and throw them out the door. The use of brown (blended) pigments to effect L value (versus traditional black pigments) creates new color matching models and obstacles. So, we have to rethink how we match colors.
CC: Thank you for spending time with us.
SS: Thank you.
(Note: Shelley Sturdevant can be reached on email at ssturdevant@ppg.com)
Posted by Elaine Becker on Mon, Dec 07, 2009
If we put you under the spectrophotometer now, would you show up in deep shades of recession blue? Perhaps.
Tough economic times often mean having to make do with fewer resources to handle the workload. The same workload for developing new colors, adjusting production batches, and approving colors is spread over fewer people. Staff become stressed and can easily overlook color shifts they might otherwise have caught.
And, as you know, color shifts take time to correct. They result in product that either has to be reprocessed or worse, discarded, let alone the time and labor required to make the corrections.
Sometimes, it's the more experienced staff-the more expensive staff-that had to be let go, and along with them, went years of knowledge of how to work the color matching system or operate older, more finicky equipment.
But, just like a painter who switches from brush to roller and roller to spray gun, an investment in the right industrial color matching or color quality control technology can help ease the burden while increasing productivity and reducing costs.
Don't paint yourself into a corner
Investing in technology is one way to keep up with demand while keeping payrolls lean.
Consider these advantages from a new, up-to-date, industrial color matching system:
Fewer production adjustments: The software can automatically calculate and add colorant to bring production back on track.
- Optimized adds: Color matching software can find the one, optimal colorant to add to correct a batch.
- Batch size variation adjustments: Color quality control software automatically calculates accurate adjustments by weight or volume, or even when the batch amounts are not known.
- Faster estimating: Detailed production costing lets you provide estimates faster, beating the competition to the bid.
- Wider color range: Today's sophisticated industrial color matching software databases help you reduce the number of colorants in inventory while broadening the range of colors you can produce.
This recession will end someday (or so they keep telling us). In the meantime, consider how technology can increase productivity, lower inventory, and keep staffing costs in check. Then, focus on the future, one with a bright, sunny, yellow outlook.
Posted by Elaine Becker on Tue, Sep 22, 2009
The latest newsletter of the Color and Appearance Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers contained a noteworthy article that should be read by anyone involved in the coloring of plastics or coatings. Bruce Mulholland of Ticona authors a technical article "Effect of Additives on the Color & Appearance of Plastics". It can be found in the SPE CADNEWS Summer2009 starting on page 14 at:
http://www.4spe.org/technical-groups/newsletters/105
His opening salvo was right on target about how often color is just considered a necessary evil in the product development cycle. His 9 steps of a typical cycle made me laugh, but sadly are all too often true. The article goes on to describe in depth why color cannot be an afterthought in the development cycle.
What I particularly liked was his explanation of the physics of light scattering and absorption and how various additives to a resin system will affect the color. Equations and diagrams are used to explain how changes in the refractive index within the polymer system will change the color. He describes the effects on color in different resin classifications and then goes on to list typical additives and how they affect light scattering and therefore the color. Any color chemist who wants to understand more about these interactions with light and color would benefit from reading this article. This article would also be of interest to anyone involved in the coloring of plastics-from designer and specifier to the development chemist and technician. Even their counterparts in the coatings industry would benefit from understanding the principles described here.
While you may not always like what happens to a color formulation when you put it into a product matrix, at least now you can better understand what's going on and why.
Posted by Elaine Becker on Thu, Jul 16, 2009
Have you experienced a case where the color computer wants to double the batch size and add a ton of white to correct a batch? Or maybe it's adding some red and you think the color is already too red? A common complaint about color matching software is that it gives bad answers or impractical adds to correct the color of a batch.
Well...this frequently happens when a minor colorant is overshot in the batch and the only way the computer knows to correct it is to dilute it out by adding all of the other colorants. Remember, the color computer is always trying to go for the perfect match or DE=0.00. Often times this is not the "perfect answer" in the practical world. The colorist is frequently able to accept a small color difference if he can fix the batch with the add of one colorant, or a small add of two colorants. In these cases, using the manual correction features of OnColor can solve the problem by giving you control with practical choices on how to adjust the color of a batch.
The Manual Add feature gives the colorist complete freedom to "fix" the batch with whatever colorants and amounts he chooses. The colorist usually starts by setting the computer generated adds to zero for all amounts. Looking at the color plot and color differences, the colorist can then try different adds and see the effect on the delta components and the DE. Using his knowledge of the colorants and products, he can interface his practical experience to get an answer that gets him to an acceptable tolerance, while still being a reasonable add. Colorists like this feature because it puts them in control of the decision making process.
The Optimize Add feature is used to try and correct the batch with an add of only one or sometimes two colorants. In many cases, a colorist will prefer correcting a batch by only adding one colorant. This is due to speed and simplicity. The Optimize Add feature allows him to select the colorant and then automatically computes the "best add" (the add that will yield the lowest DE) of this colorant. If needed, he has the option to optimize on another colorant if it is needed to get within tolerance. The benefit of this feature is that the batch may be adjusted to an acceptable DE with a small add of only one or sometimes two colorants. The fewer colorants to be added, the less chance there is of making a mistake or mis-weighing a colorant.
The Reduce Add feature uses a special algorithm to reduce the size of the add by accepting a DE greater than 0.0. The user inputs the DE or tolerance that he can accept, and then the color matching software computes the smallest add that will get within this tolerance.
Using these manual adjustment routines can greatly speed the batch adjustment process. They save time and money by making smaller adds than the automatic add, while allowing the operator to blend his practical experience with the sophisticated algorithms of the color computer.