X-Rite Incorporated, a color science and technology company, and its subsidiary Pantone LLC, announced a next-generation family of portable multi-angle spectrophotometers designed for characterizing effect finishes.
"The new MA-T12, a 12-angle device, and the MA-T6, a six-angle device, are the first instruments to combine color imaging and multi-angle spectral measurement to quantify color, sparkle and coarseness," said a company spokesperson. These devices allow customers to more precisely define and control the extreme effect finishes now commonly used in the automotive, plastics, coatings and cosmetics industries to reduce defects and achieve more efficient quality assurance.
"Color is a decisive buying factor when it comes to the purchase of new products-from cars to consumer electronics and household appliances," said the spokesperson. "Consistency of color across different components of a product strongly influences a customer's perception of quality.
"In today's competitive marketplace, manufacturers increasingly use extreme effect finishes to differentiate themselves. For example, in the automotive industry, approximately 70% of new vehicles use effect finishes that include aluminums, pearls or special effect pigments like Xirallics. As a result, measurement of color alone is no longer sufficient to completely characterize these materials, or to ensure consistency across adjacent parts, such as car bumpers and body panels. This is especially true when parts are manufactured by different suppliers at multiple locations." The new MA-T family is designed to help manufacturers set, communicate and ensure conformance with global standards for effect finishes-encompassing color, sparkle and coarseness-to achieve a new level of consistency and harmony.
"The MA-T family represents a significant advance over current multi-angle measurement technology," said Chris Winczewski, Vice President, Strategy and Product Planning, X-Rite. "The combination of a color camera and up to 12 angles of measurement gives manufacturers and their supply chain partners an entirely new level of sophistication in the definition and measurement of even today's most extreme effect finishes. This new technology delivers results that more closely approximate the way the human eye perceives color, reducing approval cycles, minimizing costly rework and accelerating time-to-market."
New MA-T Family and Auto QC Software
"The MA-T family of portable spectrophotometers has 2.5X the repeatability and 2X the reproducibility of any other multi-angle device on the market when measuring color, sparkle and coarseness," said the spokesperson. The devices have an ergonomic design with a centrally located aperture and positioning pins to ensure stable measurement. Touchscreen navigation makes operating the devices simple and intuitive. A real-time preview of measurement areas or "check zones" ensures accurate targeting, streamlining the overall measurement process.
Both models feature an RGB camera and white light illumination to ensure the most accurate capture of color, sparkle and coarseness and quantifiable results that match the way the human eye perceives color. The MA-T6 measures color from six different viewing angles while the MA-T12 offers 12 angles of measurement. "This enables the most complete characterization of today's extreme effect materials," said the spokesperson.
The MA-T family interfaces with new AutoQC software, a cloud-based solution that ensures that color standards, measurement procedures and data are clearly communicated and effectively managed across distributed supply chains. New visual tools, including performance trend charts and stored images of specific measurements, enable real-time performance monitoring and provide actionable insights that speed up the process of troubleshooting out-of-tolerance product.
The MA-T12 and MA-T6 are both backwards compatible with X-Rite MA68 and MA94, MA96, MA98 portable multi-angle spectrophotometers, ensuring agreement with legacy data.
For more information contact:
X-Rite, Inc.
4300 44th St. SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
888-800-9580 / 616-803-2100
www.xrite.com