Color Quality Control

The production industry constantly requires accurate custom-made color references for machines and parts to be supplied or assembled using components from different suppliers, or produced on another product line or by a subsidiary. The color of coffee capsule for instance indicates the kind of coffee in the capsule and stands for the name of the coffee constantly used by the trade and the consumer. In the automated production and packaging of coffee capsules, mistakes in the color of capsules would be disastrous because the consumer would soon doubt the quality of the product.

Another example are products that are produced by injection molding. For instance the manufacturer of bracelets for wristwatches must guarantee his customer that every new production run of a particular item is identical with the previous production and the original. If it’s not the case, the customer will refuse the acceptance of items which must then be re-manufactured causing enormous economic loss.

To date, quality control is mostly done by using special light boxes simulating daylight and comparing samples by eyesight. Such quality control by human eyesight is not reliable and does not guarantee the detection of small color deviations. Therefore many manufacturers are using expensive spectrophotometers to measure the L*a*b* value of the manufactured parts with equipment which costs between € 4'500 and € 20'000. Worse, the measurement values obtained are not always easy to interpret.

For the use of industrial control Colorix has therefore developed this special iOS app for iOS systems called «Color Quality Control». A COLORCATCH NANO connected to the App can be easily personalized by the simple input of some data. It is very precise, allows a maximum of flexibility, and is inexpensive as a professional quality control system.

Here is a short description of how Color Quality Control functions:

The Quality Control app software is first asking to create a group by giving it a name. Under this and following groups an unlimited number of items/products can be stored. When checking the products, the software asks for the name of the product group or the item listed thereunder.

Provided the item is correctly defined in the software, COLORCATCH NANO is first connected to the smartphone or tablet. This puts the NANO in connection with the app software enabling the measurement to be made. This is done by five consecutive color measurements in different locations of the original. Squares of 0.10 mm up to 4 mm edge lengths can be measured. Incidentally this feature allows to measure even the smallest details such as the hand of a watch (world’s first).

Once the measuring procedure (5 measuring) is finished, the app will automatically display an average delta value (ex. Delta E = 0.2). The program then sets the hue for the desired delta E value to be registered in the software. A small cursor easily allows the operator to adjust the hue (max. color deviation) by simply sliding the curser on the screen to the desired value. Once defined, the program asks to register the value in the app.

This procedure can be repeated for other items as above described, so that each color has its own delta E value attributed.

Once all products are color-recorded and stored in the app, COLORCATCH NANO is ready to be positioned on the product to be inspected in order to check the correct color. If the color meets the predetermined tolerance, a green screen lights up; if the color is outside the set parameter, the screen will be red.

Within a fraction of a second each person can check the color values L*a*b*, CMYK, RGB and LCH in production without any particular effort. The data stored in the app can be exported and imported. This way the manufacturer, the supplier and even the end customer can control the merchandise on delivery. Precise color management. Anywhere. Anytime.

Please contact us to get an offer for this app.