Color QC and Matching Blog

CyberChrome Exhibits at the American Coatings Show 2010

 

CyberChrome Inc was an exhibitor at the recent American Coatings Show in Charlotte, NC.  Featured products included OnColor Profiler for improving inter-instrument agreement and the OnColor Suite of color management software for quality control and color formulation.

According to the press release from the American Coatings Society, "With 328 exhibitors and about 6,700 overall participants (2008: 331 / 5,600), the second edition of the American Coatings Show & Conference was hugely successful as the highlight event of the US paint and coatings industry. The combination of trade show and conference, held April 12-15, 2010 at the Charlotte Convention Center, North Carolina, thus once again exceeded all expectations."

Attendees came from not only North and South America, but there was a strong presence from Asia as well.  Visitors at the CyberChrome booth included many US companies but also companies from Canada, Mexico, India, China, and other Pac Rim countries.

Interest in instrument profiling was high as companies struggle to manufacture to the same electronic color standards with tight color tolerances around the world.  OnColor Profiler helps to meet the objective by providing much tighter inter-instrument agreement and allows them to meet the rigid color tolerances demanded in today's market. 

Many larger companies are also interested in placing color matching systems at their distributor locations where they can match their own custom colors and reduce the burden on the color lab at the main facility. It also allows distributors to turn around custom matches in a much shorter time. CyberChrome's Match Express software provides an affordable and easy to use software package for distribution locations.

While attendance was "decent" at this show, exhibitors and attendees both wonder about the future of trade shows such as this one.  With internet meetings, webinars, and the high costs of travel, it seems like fewer and fewer people attend these shows.  There is still much to be said for face to face meeting, ralationship building and the social interaction that happens at events like this.  What are your thoughts on attending trade shows in the future?

Spot On: Lessons from a Color-Matching Master

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)

10 Surefire Ways to Improve Your Color Matching Results

Paying attention to details can help you get the most out of your investment in a color matching system, get you the best color match accuracy, and get your colors approved in the fewest hits.

1. It's all about the database.  Or what's under the hood? Color matching starts and ends with your color matching database. How good is it? How old is it? Just a few years out-of-date is a lifetime in technology improvements; five or more years borders on Paleolithic.
2. Sampling sense. Were your samples prepared in a manner consistent with how you actually manufacture your product? Are the raw materials  (colorants, bases, resins, substrates) you use today the same as you used when the database was prepared?
3. Reliable replication. Good science and good business practice require that results be replicable, easily and consistently. Will a sample made by your lab technician today match your original used in the database?  When preparing a new database, use your most skilled technician.  Temporary employees are barely a good idea at your reception desk, let alone a temp managing your colorant database.  Tighten up procedures and your color matching accuracy will tighten up too.
4. Trust everyone but cut the cards. Check your incoming raw materials, especially the colorants, for shade and strength. Don't assume they are always 100 percent strength and exactly the correct shade.
5. Standardize. Use standardized lots of colorants when you make samples. Get a COA from your supplier and note which lots were used to prepare the database.
6. Duh! Not quite as fundamental as, "Is it plugged in?" but be sure your database is properly loaded. You'll never get the right results with a database incorrectly loaded.  Look for negative data and wayward levels on the colorant build curve.  
7.  Optimize, then verify. Optimize the database and validate it using known samples. Repeat the process of validating the database using known mixtures at least once a year.
8. Know what you know... and what you don't know. Be sure you truly understand how to run your software. More important, be sure you know how to interpret the results and pick the best match for the task at hand. 
9. Think first, select second. Consider how the colorant combination will work in production before automatically selecting the "Best Match." Getting a practical, workable formulation up front makes production adjustments easier and causes fewer difficulties later. 
10. Apples to apples. Make sure your database was measured on the same instrument you are using. Differences between instruments will directly result in less accuracy in your matches and corrections. Using a "canned" database can seem like a good idea because it saves time and lab resources and pushes the responsibility onto someone else. However, if your measurements, procedures, and raw materials don't exactly duplicate those used to prepare the database, you may be very disappointed in your matches.

Are you happy with the way your colorant database is matching?

Color Me Stressed Out

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.

Installing OnColor Color Software under Windows 7 and Vista

The OnColor  Suite of color QC and color matching software is licensed through use of a hardlock key.  The USB hardlock key that is shipped with the software can be used on one computer at a time. 

There are two ways to successfully install the Hardlock driver required for the USB key used by OnColor in Windows 7 and Vista:

1. OnColor setup will run HLDRV32.EXE (Included on the installation CD) which installs the Hardlock drivers.
2. Allowing Windows to install the Hardlock driver the first time the USB key is used.

If both driver setups take place, however, the Hardlock key will not work as the drivers conflict.

The preferred method is to follow our instructions and not insert the Hardlock USB key until after the setup of OnColor.  The OnColor setup will run HLDRV32.EXE, which will prevent the Windows drivers from being installed when the USB key is inserted.

If for whatever reason, the Windows driver for Hardlock has been installed before the OnColor setup, you must uninstall the HLDRV32 Hardlock drivers after the OnColor setup.  To uninstall the Hardlock drivers, go to the Control Panel -- Programs and Features, which shows a list of programs that can be uninstalled.  You should see "Hardlock Device Drivers" in that list.  Uninstall that program.  Unplug the Hardlock key and then reboot the computer.  Plug in the Hardlock key and you will now be using the Windows supplied Hardlock driver.

If you know that the Vista Hardlock key driver has already been installed by Windows, you can hit the Cancel button during installation of the OnColor CD when the Hardlock setup dialog is displayed and then continue on with the OnColor installation.

Color Matching of Plastics and Coatings

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.

Color Correction – How to use your color software to get practical answers

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.