The benefits of the 2-in-1 Integrated Colour and Gloss Measurement Solutions
Increasing customer demands and evolving industrial trends influence manufacturers to implement colour and gloss measurement solutions to ensure the delivery of high-quality products.
Despite utilising measurement instruments, such as spectrophotometers, colorimeters, and gloss meters, manufacturers can still be effected by bottlenecks within QC when evaluating the appearance of products.
One such bottleneck occurs when separate devices are used for colour and gloss measurement of material surfaces and textures. Device swapping and repetitive sample presentation and alignment impacts reproducibility, work efficiency, and overall productivity.
These issues emphasize the need for an integrated colour and gloss measurement solution.
In the past, manufacturers opted for separate devices because of the lack of integrated technology. However, thanks to technological advancements, Konica Minolta facilitated the integration of simultaneous colour and gloss measurement within a singular device.
As a result, since 2019 we have assisted numerous companies in revolutionizing their colour and gloss control processes. The innovative technology of our 2-in-1 spectrophotometers provides simultaneous colour and gloss measurement in an efficient, reproducible, and productive manner.
The main three advantages of Konica Minolta’s 2-in-1 colour and gloss measurement solutions
1) Faster Measurement Speed
With separate portable devices, the process for sample measurement is slowed by the need to swap instrument and repeat sample positioning and alignment for each device.
A Konica Minolta spectrophotometer with integrated gloss provides simultaneous colour and gloss evaluation with one measurement in around one second. The reduced measurement and interval times of the newer technology compounds this time saving.
2) Enhanced Work Efficiency
While utilizing separate colour and gloss instruments, you must average multiple sample measurements to ensure the accurate repeatable and representative data. This tedious and repetitive process is time consuming and can introduce errors.
As an integrated device eliminates the errors that can be introduced by inconsistent positioning and alignment, it may be possible to reduce the number of measurements required to achieve repeatable and representative data.
3) Increased productivity
The time saved by utilising gloss integrated spectrophotometers can increase productivity and alleviate a production bottleneck. The time saved can be used for other tasks or increased sampling to improve the certainty of QC data if needed.
4) Savings in Capital Expenditure, Operating Expenditure and Training
By combining these two functions the number of devices to purchase, maintain, calibrate and train new operators for is reduced. This saves costs and simplifies the onboarding process for new operators.
5) Simplified and improved reporting and analysis
Consolidating data for gloss and colour into a single file and if needed a single software program not only saves time and effort used in reporting; analysis and related tasks like troubleshooting are simplified.
Suitable spectrophotometer models for simultaneous colour and gloss measurement
Konica Minolta provides a wide range of colour and gloss measurement instruments.
However, for accurate, efficient, and reliable measurement of colour and gloss samples, our experts recommend the following spectrophotometers:
- The CM-36dG and CM-36dGV benchtop spectrophotometers
- The CM-26dG and CM-25cG portable spectrophotometers
The CM-36dG and CM-36dGV benchtop spectrophotometers
The CM-36dG and CM-36dGV are benchtop spectrophotometers optimal for the simultaneous measurement of colour and gloss samples. These models contain an integrated 60°gloss sensor conforming with the plastic, paint, and metal industrial standards.
Besides colour and gloss measurement, the two models can also provide haze measurements.
As benchtop instruments, they offer higher measurement accuracy and flexibility because of their large apertures and aperture variety. Thus, customers can select from the three available apertures, depending on their measurement requirements: large (LAV), medium (MAV), and small aperture (SAV).
The SAV is an exclusive feature, especially for gloss measurement. Most gloss meters have limitations when it comes to the accurate targeting and measurement of small areas or adjacent materials. This is because of their wider measurement sizes.
However, the CM-36dG and CM-36dGV’s SAV accurately targets and measures small sample sizes and adjacent materials.
In addition, you can evaluate various samples, from liquid to solid, in reflectance and transmittance modes:
• Reflectance mode: opaque, thin material measurements
• Transmittance mode: transparent, translucent sample measurements
The CM-36dGV spectrophotometer is a vertical benchtop model with a compact design, saving space, and eliminating the risk of samples falling. Furthermore, it minimizes the need for cells or Petri dishes in solid sample measurements.
These features assist you in saving measurement time and minimizing measurement error.
The CM-26dG and CM-25cG portable spectrophotometers
The CM-26dG and CM-25cG models are portable spectrophotometers, easy to carry for on-site inspections or samples that are not easily transported to a benchtop device for measurement.
The two portable devices contain an integrated 60° gloss sensor and conform with colour and gloss measurement international standards. This integration saves you time and reduces errors by simultaneously measuring the colour and gloss of a sample.
The 45°c:0°geometry of the CM-25cG portable spectrophotometer is typically used for textured samples, high visibility clothing and retroreflective samples where it provides users with close measurement tolerances and a better correlation for visual assessment.
The diffuse 8° geometry of the CM-26dG allows you to measure with and without the specular reflection, this is useful for measuring the colour of the surface both with and without the effects of surface characteristics like gloss.
Our expert application teams can help you to chose which geometry and solution is best for you and can arrange a demonstration with your own samples to show the benefit to your processes.
Customer Success Story
Review how one of our customers, Sanko-Kasei, successfully implemented our 2-in-1 spectrophotometer solution for colour and gloss measurement. Discover how switching from separate devices to Konica Minolta's integrated spectrophotometer saved significant QC time over their previous measurement process.
Download our free success story and learn how our integrated solutions can enhance your production process, improving production efficiency, and ensure the highest quality control standards.