Companies that make products as
large as an automobile or as small as a
toaster all share the basic need to
measure colour accurately and reliably
to meet their customers’
specifications, says Peter
Smith of X-Rite.

To assist these
manufacturers, instrument
companies have come
up with some
sophisticated tools that can help
anyone to learn and use the language
of colour for quality control.

To precision measure the colour of
paints and coatings, manufacturers
frequently use any of three types of
spectrophotometers: spherical, 0/45°
or 45°/0, and multi-angle.

A spherical spectrophotometer
uses a hollow sphere made of a special
ceramic material to measure the
colour and gloss of test surfaces
independently, which can be an
important consideration for
painted and coated surfaces.

Handheld sphere
spectrophotometers
generally are
convenient to use,
cost-efficient and designed to provide
fast, precise colour measurements on
a wide range of materials.