Colour Measurement for Powdered Construction Materials
Spectrophotometers and colorimeters for colour control of powdered construction raw materials
Building materials come in many forms: one of them being in powder form, such as grey materials like cement, mortar, or plaster. The colour of these products depends on the raw materials used to manufacture them. In order to maintain consistency and colour uniformity, it is important to control these raw materials. This is especially true for concrete, where it is necessary to control the aggregates used to obtain the desired colour using a colorimeter or spectrophotometer.
Konica Minolta colorimeters are widely used in the production of cement, aggregates, and related products, offering a comparatively rugged and straightforward solution for colour and colour difference measurement that can be used either for colour control and process control for drying/curing.
Colour difference is more perceptible over larger areas, and this is commonly experienced within building materials.
Konica Minolta offers robust, high-performance colour measurement instruments and quality control software used to establish and maintain colour quality standards in the building materials industry. These solutions enable users to accurately assess and control the quality of raw materials and finished products in production.
A portable tristimulus colorimeter will offer a simple and mobile solution for measuring traceable L*a*b* colour data that can be stored, analysed or shared with customers or supply partners. A benchtop colorimeter or spectrophotometer provides a more static solution that may offer additional flexibility and additional data for the development lab.
Colour control can help businesses to control processes and offer competitive advantage through improved consistency of finished product.
By measuring and communicating traceable colour data, organisations in the building materials industry can build supply relationships based on quality, consistency and clear communication, reducing subjectivity from specification through to approval.
The product specialists from Konica Minolta can offer the expertise from hundreds of installations within this field, supported by a network of authorised service facilities in order to offer swift repairs, and to maintain the accuracy and traceability of these instruments year-round.
Benefits
- Improve production efficiency with traceable data driven process control and quality control whether on powdered wet or curing product.
- Expedite QC and improve consistency by delivering a consistent colour product to customer specification.
- Reduce waste and save time in development and manufacturing.
- Establish a consistent product colour that can be measured and reproduced anywhere in the world.
- Improve perceived quality.
- Simplify quality control.
Instruments
Applications
Aggregate Measurement in the Mass
The CR-410 colorimeter and its CR-A33e glass cone allow the direct measurement of powdery products in the mass. With its 50mm measuring aperture, it is the ideal instrument for measuring structured or uneven surfaces such as sand, stone, etc. The objective is to qualify the quality and colour of raw materials according to the deposits.
Clinker Control
Cement is mainly composed of 90% clinker, which is made of 80% limestone and 20% clay. The CM-5 spectrophotometer or the CR-5 colorimeter, two benchtop instruments used in laboratories, allow the whiteness/colour of the limestone and the general colour of the clinker to be measured using a petri dish. The aim is to obtain a cement that is always the same colour. The colour of the cement powder is a guarantee of quality in the eyes of construction professionals.
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