Color quality control is a procedure used to guarantee the uniformity, reproducibility, and dependability of color in a variety of sectors, from magazine publishing to the production of paint. It entails a variety of procedures, from utilizing scientific equipment such as colorimeter, spectrometer, spectrophotometer and benchtop spectrophotometer to gather extremely exact data on the colors used in a specific project to assigning employees to walk the line and look for any deviations from protocol that can impair color quality control. Attending training seminars is a common way for those working in the paint, dye, ink, and other product production industries to learn more about color quality control.
Customers anticipate that colors will remain constant throughout batches and items; knitters, for instance, depend on being able to find yarns that coordinate with their projects. Also, highly exact and consistent coloring is anticipated for items like logos because many businesses heavily rely on color quality control for customer recognition and for product branding and marketing.
In order to prevent misunderstanding, color quality control demands that colors be defined precisely at the outset of a project using a consistent approach. The cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (CMYK) scheme is widely used in printing to mix and match colors. To create items of the required shade, inks, dyes, and paints are mixed according to the information provided.
How to Quality Control Color?
At these five crucial stages, there are four main techniques to quality control color, starting with straightforward eye assessment and progressing quality control to linked hardware and software solutions. The quality control continuum is what we refer to as.
1 Evaluate color quality control visually. Visual assessment is the quality control process of visually assessing a product’s color against a reference. For less demanding color applications, visual inspection could be acceptable, but it also allows room for error and conflict with your customers and suppliers. Many people lack the required training to analyze color quality control visually, and various lighting circumstances might result in inconsistent evaluations. Yet every person perceives color differently.
For the finest visual quality control evaluation programmer possible, we provide quality control visual assessment tools including color vision tests, color standards, and physical references for quality control process.
2 Visually assess in a regulated lighting environment. The addition of a light booth or an above luminaire is the next stage in the continuum for quality control. Your product will look accurate in every sort of light it may meet in the real world by being compared to a standard under various lighting circumstances, such as daylight, incandescent, and fluorescent. A light booth for this quality control process may also be used to detect metamerism, which occurs when parts are identical under one light source but not under another.
The Spectra Light QC, which has seven light sources, and the Judge QC, which has five, are our two most popular light booths.
3 Use a spectrophotometer to measure and analyze the color for quality control. When compared to eye inspection alone, using a spectrophotometer to measure color gives considerable benefits for quality control and considerably boosts acceptable quality. We provide a variety of spectrophotometer sizes, from very accurate benchtops to define color and develop standards and quality control to tough portables to measure color around the lab or on the loading dock.
Learn which spectrophotometer type is appropriate for measuring plastics, coatings, textiles, and other surfaces by downloading our free whitepaper.
4 Include related workflow applications. The best technique for quality control to get the tightest color tolerances from batch to batch and at many sites is by connecting spectrophotometers and software. Also, it serves as a reference for everyone to use the same quality control color management techniques.
- • Color iMatch to create and assess sample formulations for a range of applications, such as textiles, plastics, and coatings.
- Net Profiler to assess and enhance a fleet of spectrophotometers’ performance, improving repeatability between locations and during production runs.
- Color iQC, which links color data throughout the course of production to allow operators and management to monitor trends and adjust of color quality control.
Moving along this continuum to more uniform color also reduces the impact of human error, which is a major contributor to wrong color quality control. Operators’ and lab workers’ slightest deviations in how they assess color quality control can determine whether a color passes or fails.
Why Quality Control is Important?
Customers are more inclined to offer you repeat business if they believe they can rely on the high caliber of your items. Hard labor, attention to detail, and procedures for tracking and evaluating whether your goods match the criteria you have established are necessary for consistently high quality. Quality assurance is a continuous process that affects all areas, including buying, production, and distribution.
Minimize Material Variability
The materials you purchase could come from the same places, but they won’t necessarily be the same. Nature is full of variation, thus it’s impossible to consistently produce the same item. Machines require calibration as they age and degrade. Genetic constitution causes genetic variation in organic materials like vegetables and dairy products. Many materials also respond differently under various temperature and weather conditions.
You can spot irregularities and create mechanisms to make up for them even if you can’t guarantee that the materials you employ are completely constant. When compensation is not available, quality control procedures help your company identify inappropriate products and remove them from the supply chain before they reach your clients.
Improve Client Satisfaction
In order to produce high-quality goods that live up to client expectations, quality control is an essential component. You attract repeat customers when your items perform as intended, taste as intended, and behave consistently over time. By generating a consistent income stream and earning you recommendations, which are free and may be particularly successful for bringing in new clients, this customer loyalty reduces the expense of marketing and advertising.
Avoid Legal Responsibility
Quality control procedures assist your company in avoiding circumstances that might endanger clients and result in costly liability claims and legal action. If your company manufactures machinery, quality control requirements eliminate the errors and discrepancies that may render these devices dangerous. In order to lessen the possibility of causing illness, quality control procedures are used while manufacturing food products to keep an eye on temperature and foreign objects. By ensuring consumer safety, your company avoids financial loss and reputational harm. It’s just the proper thing to do, too.
Minimized on waste and expenses
Waste costs money and is more likely to happen when quality control procedures are not followed. You will have to discard more finished inventory, costing you the cost of the labor and resources used to produce it, if you don’t pay attention to detail or put systems in place to decrease variability. Pay close attention to processes at every stage to spot flawed materials before combining them with valuable ones. By doing this, you may avoid having to go back and forth and waste time and money on tiresome damage control.
