Five Steps to Fast, Precise Color Matching For The Plastics Industry

Whatever your business -- a color concentrate manufacturer, resin producer, compounder, molder or extruder -- you are aware of the critical role color plays in overall profitability. It's a simple equation: the more color control, the less waste, and the greater your productivity and customer satisfaction. Added into today's mix, however, is an increased urgency created by just-in-time scheduling and the challenges, in some organizations, created by a more diverse user population involved in colorization. Computerized systems offer to enhance your ability to control color by streamlining the color matching process. Yet not all color matching systems are created equal.

In the production laboratory, when the master shader receives a new target color to match, he compares that target to his personal file of previous matches. Based on his visual assessment of the color difference, he selects a known recipe that is the closest match to the new target. He then adjusts the recipe until he obtains an acceptable match. This evaluation and selection process has been captured and simulated by many color- matching systems on the market, although with varying degrees of comprehensiveness and ease of use.

But what happens when a close batch doesn't exist and an entirely new formula must be created? A master shader can hand mix pigments and adjust the lab batch for scale up and supplier effects based on his vast color matching expertise. What about the more novice users throughout your organization? It is this deeper level of color control, adjusting a theoretical match based on practical experience that not every color matching system can approximate.

Expert-based technology -- with its ability to take theoretical predictions and adjust them based on the "experience" of the system's knowledge base -- is among the points to consider when selecting a color match system. Five key considerations in selecting the right color match system for you constitute the subject of this white paper.

One: The technology
As mentioned, the latest developments in color matching software offer expert technology to solve and correct problems, using the experience of real world data to improve prediction results. There are additional technological advances to look for in a color match system guaranteed to maximize its value to your color control processes, from built-in color expertise to flexible, easy to use software.

An "expert" base. How can you be sure the color match system you are considering truly incorporates expert-based technology? First and foremost, this type of system has the ability to "learn" from historical trials and therefore should become more useful over time as the database of "real" knowledge fills. Some of the specific advantages you can expect from a color match system with true expert technology include:

Precise color matching -- employing advanced mathematics to predict colorant behavior. The Datamatch color matching system by Datacolor even provides automatic compensation for the difference for gloss between two samples.
Automatic search and correct functions -- using the information stored in your color library (i.e., proven colorant combinations) as the starting point for the new formula.
Risk-free formula modifications -- allowing users to try new combinations or formulas by modifying individual components on screen without risking production or product trials.
Transparent and translucent matching -- reducing colorant costs by automatically accounting for the "show through" of colored substrates to reduce colorant cost. Some expert-based systems, such as Datamatch, can also match both opaque and transparent targets measured by either reflectance or transmission.

Ease-of-use. All the advantages of expert-based technology aren't much good if the design is awkward or difficult to use. Even the most complex technology should be seamlessly integrated into the normal matching routine so that the system continuously improves first-shot matching without any special effort on the part of your users. The entire color match system should be configurable to the various levels of your users' experiences, delivering into their hands point-and-click control over multiple color matching operations. Look for a system that supplies user-friendly tools such as user-defined job identifications for quick and painless job tracking. Similarly, if the system delivers instant on-screen evaluation information for all formulas and corrections, then you know your users can easily access tools they need to make the right color decision.

Compatibility issues. Not only should your color matching system of choice be compatible with a range of other instruments and systems, but also it should provide a wide variety of output capabilities to make optimal use of the color match data. Make sure each formula can be examined or exported in a variety of ways, from single-formula displays to expanded forms that show individual components. The system also should export formulas in a delimited format such as ASCII. This ensures easy access to the data by other departments within your organization or to your customer's third-party programs. For instance, Datamatch provides total integration with Datacolor's full range of laboratory color measurement and portable instruments as well as color quality control and data management system for a complete color control package.

Two: Match specifications
You expect your new system to encompass every aspect of color matching. It should also be flexible enough to be used in virtually any laboratory or production color application and support various color standards.

Colorant combinations. A key determinate in how useful the system will be across organizations and applications involves combinations of colors. How many colorants will the system allow you to consider for each match and in each formula? Your users should be able to quickly select groups of colorants to use in a match as well as quickly and easily browse through individual colorant selections.

Load and opacity specifications. Similarly, the system should allow users to select various load options to meet required coverage specifications. These include fixed colorant percent, fixed white percent, user defined contrast ratio, and measured contrast ratio. Make sure the system can handle opaque matching situations, measured by either reflectance or transmission.

Three: Formula selection and evaluation
Notice the ways in which the color matching system allows the operator to choose the best formula, from evaluation of predicted formulas to formula storage and retrieval programs.

Evaluation. The instant availability of various evaluation options with the touch of a button can be particularly useful. Consider an operator who needs to evaluate a formula to which manual adjustments have been made. That operator should be able to easy and quickly choose from among various sorted formulations, including reflectance curves, on-screen color displays, strength comparisons, and L,a,b, color plots.

Selection. In order to help formula selection, users should be able to examine quickly virtually all possible formulas that meet match criteria. This includes single formats as well as multiple format displays, such as spreadsheets. It also should encompass flexibility in the ways in which information is viewed (e.g., by weight or volume) and sorted (e.g., by lowest formula cost or total color difference).

Handling. Ascertain how expansive the storage and retrieval program is. The ability to store a full formula is optimal for use either in the laboratory or on the production line. Also, a full formula storage and retrieval program allows for the easy transfer between files. It also means raw material information can be shared between different colorant sets.

Four: Color recycling and corrections programs
Your system of choice should offer you a variety of ways in which to reduce the costs of raw materials and waste. These should encompass the functionality to minimize expensive pigment loading, match new colors using on-hand raw materials, or recycle excess and recoverable materials from inventory.

Material management and work-off. You can count on your color match system of choice to reduce raw material and disposal costs if it provides certain programs that allow your operators to easily manage and reuse recycles. Chief among these programs is the ability to automatically store recycles as formulas and colorants and the ability to easily characterize recycles by a single measurement. Also, make sure the system provides a method of recycle inventory tracking as well as automatic updates. This ensures that new formulas using recycles optimize the use of such materials.

Laboratory and production corrections. Providing fast, accurate corrections is paramount to reducing the number of lab trials you need to run. Look for systems that make such tasks as lab reformulation easier with the flexibility to perform automatic additions, automatic reformulations, manual corrections, and even in-line evaluations of corrections. Some advanced packages such as Datamatch allow the operator to retrieve matched formula data from a file, including first shot formulas, without having to reenter the information. Be sure the operator can easily modify correction formulas even when in manual formulation.

New Batch and Combinatorial Corrections. Batches which contain unknown materials can present one of the biggest challenges to getting the color right. Some of the most advanced color match systems can eliminate this problem by automatically determining the contents of a batch and providing the operator with a correction to the standard.

Five: Support and service considerations
How much support your organization will need from the vendor depends largely on the ease of use of the system as well as on the general level of expertise within your user group. However, your operators should never have to learn on their own. You should explore the kind and quality of support services offered, from start-up help to system performance reviews to on-going training and education either on-site or in a classroom situation. Consider also what kind of documentation is supplied with the software, and whether it is available in all the country languages in which your organization or your customers do business.

Of perhaps more importance is the level and availability of service expertise the vendor is prepared to provide before, during, and after the installation of your color match system. Are there service technicians in your geographic area? What is their training and expertise? Datacolor operates technical centers and has service and applications specialists around the globe.

Finally, although the technology behind today's latest system advances continues to evolve at a rapid rate, the basic principles of communicating, formulating, and reproducing color have not. Look for a source that has a depth of experience in both the science and technology of color.

Datacolor, 5 Princess Road, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648. Tel: 609-924-2189 ; Fax: 609-895-7472 .