Anything but colorblind

At the start of 2017, ROWA Masterbatch‘s color measurement lab moved to its new facilities. The new rooms offer greater potential for development and enough space to optimize the coloring work processes. The company has installed new color and gloss measuring instruments in its color measurement lab and has integrated a walk-in color sampling room. By eliminating interference from natural daylight, the true color impression of the samples and patterns can be visually assessed based on different types of standard light sources.

An experienced team of colorists works out polymer specific color settings. “Customers often send a sample part for readjustment,” explains Dorit Krienke, the Quality Assurance Manager. “This, for example, can be a component which must compliment other components. A special requirement is that there should be no visible visual difference between the indi-vidual components.” To begin with, the sample part is analyzed colormetrically. Subsequently, a distinction is made between two different measuring geometries: the directional geometry and the spherical geometry.

“In order to make optimal use of the respective strengths, we combine both techniques in our investigations,” states Krienke. “It is only by getting exact measurement results that we can create the color formulation such that it corresponds to the exact color requirements of the customer.”

The color measurement lab is based on “Colibri” by Konica Minolta, one of the leading color management systems, which allows efficient operation, both pertaining to measurement and formulation. The program had to be supplied in advance with numerous data, measurements and information on the colorants. It is possible to calculate a suitable formulation with just a few mouse clicks. This is then mixed in the pilot plant and extruded. In spite of all the technical assistance, human beings are still indispensable as the last authority for color assessment. Only experienced colorists with a trained eye are able to give the mechanically calculated formulations the final touches. Only then are they presented to the customer for sampling.