Show Your True Colors

7/27/2019 Show Your True Colors

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Show Your True Colors - Today's color quality control is

better than ever

In most manufacturing processes, color is the most visible test of

quality. Not getting your customer's requested color right the first timeputs you at risk for losing the job. With an increasing emphasis onstringent quality control procedures, color remains the first and besttest of a product's quality. A color quality control system can be apowerful tool to ensure effective color productivity--and yourcustomer's acceptance of the job after just the first run.

There are many refinements made to today's color technology that cansupport even the most demanding quality control standards. The latestcolor quality control systems not only do more, but they do so faster

and more easily, utilizing the latest advances in electronic production.

Technology that sees eye-to-eye with visual assessmentsIn quality control processes, there are many factors to consider whenattempting to match samples visually. The goal, of course, is to be on-target and on-color without the need for correction. Yet how oftenhave hours of production time been spent trying to reproduce an exactshade? The causes often lie in the many real-world variables that makeup colorant conditions. Is the sample flat or curved, glossy- or matte-finished, smooth or textured? Under what conditions has the sample

been selected and viewed to match?

All of these variables affect our perception of color and, therefore, itsmeasurement and the ease with which we can achieve visualagreement with that measurement in the quality control process.Differences in gloss levels, for instance, can easily translate into costlyrejections, particularly in darker colors. The opacity of the colorant andthe surface onto which it is adhered (the substrate) can do the same.The light source also affects color sensation (metamerism). A samplewill look quite different under daylight than it will under amanufacturing plant's fluorescent lighting.

Now, through the latest in artificial intelligence, managers can includevisual assessments in the quality control process. Some of the mostadvanced color quality control software actually learns and mimics howhumans see color, basing a pass/fail system on a database of staff orcustomer judgments. This is accomplished through artificial intelligencethat drives an easily implemented, operator-specific procedure.

Each sample is visually examined by a human observer, with acorresponding pass/fail judgment. The data is then run through a"training" program that determines the acceptability or tolerance that

will include all of the "pass" samples and exclude all of the "fail"


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samples. Once this is done, tolerances can be automatically stored in adefined "tolerance area" for that standard. Such a system can alsoallow for visual data conflicts, determining a range of uncertaintyagainst which future samples can be flagged for visual inspection. Aftera visual determination has been made, the data set should be able to

reflect the new information.

Color communication at a clickToday's color quality control technology can include the ability toelectronically send or receive colorimetric data--that is, the numericalvalues assigned to a color by a spectrophotometer or other color-measuring instrument. Additional data, such as custom pass/failscreens and customer-specific information, can also be communicated

via the Internet.

These communication functions are the foundation for speeding up thecustomer-approval process on colors. Therefore, they should be built

into the software rather than offered as "optional" extras.

The e-mail feature should work with e-mail systems that are compliantwith a standard protocol such as Microsoft MAPI. The user should beable to send or receive standard, batch and desktop data with the clickof a mouse. And receiving e-mail should be just as simple as sendingit. To access the data, the system should supply a graphically drivenmethod of retrieving and displaying receipt. Make sure the e-mail iseasily imported into the color quality control system for further

processing.

Integrating color control into the entire quality cycleOf course, quality control systems need to be seamlessly integratedwith a choice of measuring instruments in order to be truly useful.Together, they should make it easy to create a color control systemtailored to internal or customer specifications as well as to trainoperators quickly. From basic e-mailing of color data to complete colorvisualization, users also need to employ consistent quality proceduresto obtain consistent measurements throughout their supplier network.Operators trained on systems with single-screen operations, for

example, can be working well in less than an hour.

In the larger view, today's technology makes it possible to integratecolor quality control throughout the entire supply chain via theInternet. New technologies employ precise on-screen color calibrationand color control systems to help users better communicate andvisualize color electronically, accelerating the product-developmentcycle, reducing costs and improving overall quality.


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How exactly does it work?Consider this typical supply chain scene in which "traditional" colormatching and control is used: First, the designer struggles to talk tothe lab about the color she wants. She uses physical samples anddescribes how her vision of the color is different from the sample (i.e.,

warmer, brighter, bluer). The lab tries to match her words, but fails.This negatively affects the quality control process all the way down theline:

The designer is unhappy, having spent valuable time looking forphysical samples and trying to describe how close the supplierhas come to matching the design color.

The lab is unhappy, having paid the cost of making the samplesand express shipping them to the designer.

The quality control manager is unhappy, having lost valuabletime and money getting the goods into production.

Today, it's possible to manage color better. By using the mostadvanced computer technology, it's now possible to communicate colormore accurately--and quite literally move from mind to market. Thekey to streamlining the color development time is to replace physicalsamples with digital samples that can be electronically transmittedbetween computers. More than just a color image is transferred.Numerical color data is also sent.

Making digitized color samples work depends on the level of

calibration. The monitors must be calibrated to a fine precision. Thisallows color to be reproduced on-screen with variations so slight theyare virtually undetectable to the human eye.

A complete color communication system would proceed as follows:

1. An instrument--e.g., a spectrophotometer--measures a colorstandard.

2. The color standard then appears as a digital image on thecomputer monitor, which has been calibrated for accuracy basedon the CIE (or color measuring) scale.

3. Once the color standard is set, it's electronically sent to asupplier, where trial samples are produced. Note that in manyinstances, suppliers may choose to create virtual samples inorder to narrow the gap between what their customers initiallyspecify and what can be produced cost effectively.

4. The supplier then electronically sends back its digital sample ofthe best possible color match to the production house. If thematch is not acceptable, more trials are requested andperformed by the supplier until the trial sample is consideredacceptable.


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Although true color matching is the most vital feature (as well as theprimary goal) of a color quality control system, the new technologyalso takes into account other practical needs, such as security andease of use.

Security standards you can setThe latest functionality in color quality control provides for ease inmaintaining security, as well. The best systems provide user-definedsecurity levels. These allow authorized users of the system (e.g., asystem administrator) to define different levels of user categorieseither as a class or on an individual basis. Examples of a "class" mightbe quality control technician, lab supervisor or production manager.Systems with this function permit administrators to define whichscreens, functions, reports and other operations a particular securitylevel is entitled to view. Each security level is assigned a user nameand password.

There are several benefits to this approach. First, technician training issimplified. The learning curve is minimized, with all workers in yourorganization trained on a "need to know" basis rather than having to

absorb (and forget) areas of the system they'll never use.

A second benefit is the elimination of common operator errors.Functions that require a higher level of security simply aren't availableto this user. But be careful to ensure that the system you choosedoesn't lock out necessary functions along with advanced levels. Users

should still have easy access to on-screen tools that help themmaneuver around the screen and those parts of the system availableto them.

Desktop design for easy useEven the most sophisticated color quality control systems should beeasy to learn and operate in their entirety. And they should be usefulto everyone throughout the quality department. With systems basedon today's Windows-driven, graphic-oriented software, users should beable to create files, set up pass/fail criteria, share data and generatecustomized reports--with point-and-click ease from a desktop

environment.

Some vendors also are adding to the ease of use by including powerfulsearch functions. Color quality control and formulation system usersoften generate enormous databases of color data as well as colorformulations. The ability to search through these massive amounts ofinformation for the closest color goes a long way toward satisfying therequirements of your in-house personnel or customers. Once usersenter the samples to be used as the search criteria, for example, theyshould be able to measure this data in the system or retrieve it from a


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compatible database. The search function should be equally accessible,being initiated by clicking on a button or similar screen icon.

Flexibility is also an important attribute. For example, some of themost advanced systems let users define and configure screens and

report formats to ensure that the system meets their exact needs orthe requirements of the department. It's even possible for today's colorquality control users to submit professional presentations and analysesto management and customers in 2- or 3-D mode for highly accurateand visually communicative forms of color data.

In today's competitive just-in-time environment, anything less thanconsistent, high-level quality risks both your position in the globalmarketplace and customer relationships altogether. Color, too, issubject to increasingly tight quality control standards. If anything,effective color control, beginning with accurate and repeatable colormeasurement and data analysis, is the best test of quality. At present,there are a variety of advances in computerized systems engineered

with the idea of improving quality, productivity and profitability.

Collected By Sohel Noman

DataCare Solutions

0173011709www.datacarebd.com

[email protected]

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Show Your True Colors