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The Grey Change scale can help detect the amount of fading that occurs in different textiles after they’re washed. Image Source: Max Pixel

A homeowner decided to wash a set of red living room curtains for the very first time, carefully following the cleaning instructions listed on the label. He avoided bleach products and washed the curtains on the delicate cycle setting. But despite his diligence, the color nonetheless faded significantly after washing; his once-red curtains were now a shade of faded pink, and they no longer matched the color scheme of the living room.

This is a common challenge that textile manufacturers face, whether they’re dyeing textiles for curtains, blankets, clothing or any other colorful fabric. If a large-scale textile manufacturer fails to identify problems with fading or color bleeding in its products early on, it could lead to customer dissatisfaction later. Yet there is a solution to this problem. Using the Grey Change and Grey Stain color scales, which are included in the software packaged with some advanced spectrophotometers, textile manufacturers can identify both fading and bleeding early on in the dyeing process. These two color scales are specifically designed to analyze color fastness and dye durability, allowing manufacturers to refine their dyeing processes and invest in the most durable dyes for their products.

The Problem with Some Colorful Textile Dyes

Certain textile dyes are more prone to fading and bleeding than others and environmental factors like exposure to UV rays or frequent washing can significantly alter product color depending on the chemical makeup of the dye.1 This is why textile manufacturers must consider the color fastness of the dye being used for each product, as different types of dyes will have different benefits and downsides.

The term “color fastness” refers to a dye’s durability against fading and bleeding; a dye that has excellent color fastness will be durable and long-lasting, even when exposed to environmental factors that cause color fading or bleeding. A dye with poor color fastness won’t be as durable. For instance, one type of dye that is known for its excellent color fastness is an azoic or naphthol dye.2 These dyes produce bright, bold colors, especially in the red and orange spectrum, and are highly resistant to fading in the wash or even when exposed to bleach. Conversely, acidic dyes tend to be resistant to color fading when they’re exposed to sunlight, but they’re much more prone to fading and bleeding after washing. Here are a few more examples of common textile dyes and their typical color fastness:

• Basic: Excellent light and wash fastness.
• Disperse: Good light and wash fastness, but sensitive to nitrogen gas.
• Direct: Fair lightfastness, but very poor wash fastness.
• Reactive: Great light and wash fastness, but prone to bleeding excess dye unless it’s washed well during manufacturing.
• Mordant: Good light and wash fastness, but only available in a small range of colors.
• Premetallized: Good light and wash fastness, but only available in a small range of colors.
• Sulphur: Fair light and wash fastness.
• Vat: Excellent color and wash fastness. It’s perhaps the most durable textile dye used by manufacturers.
• Fluorescent brighteners: Fair wash fastness, but very poor lightfastness.

While this basic list of color fastness can give you a general idea of which textile dyes will be the best choice for your textile products, the list isn’t foolproof. For example, although sulphur dye is generally fairly resistant against color fading after being washed or exposed to sunlight, some manufacturers have found that certain sulphur-dyed yarns will occasionally fade after about six months of use. This is why it’s important to test your dyes for true color fastness using the Grey Change and Grey Stain scales; every dye reacts differently with each fabric you use, so by testing each new product in advance, you may produce more durable, colorful textiles.

Textile dyes vary in color fastness depending on the chemical makeup of the dye or the type of fabric that a manufacturer uses. Image Source: Shutterstock user Pichit Tongma

Biomedical optics offer non-invasive alternatives to many healthcare procedures through the use of spectrophotometric technology. Image Source: Flickr user frankieleon

Biomedical optics very well may be the future of our health care industry. Whether you are an athlete, patient, or parent of an infant, biomedical optics will most likely play a significant role in your health care or that of someone you love in the near future. Biomedical optics utilize NIR (near-infrared) spectroscopy in a number of ways and provides a safe, non-invasive, and non-destructive method of analysis for a variety of medical needs.

The Ultra-Scan VIS can accurately measure carpet color because it takes texture into account. Image source: Pixabay user Frantisek_Krejci

A hotel chain has hired an interior designer to replace the old carpet design in every guestroom with something that looks more sleek and modern. After sifting through a number of swatches, the designer finds the perfect shade: a simple charcoal grey design that will contrast beautifully against the crisp white comforters and bed sheets that the hotel uses. But in order for the interior designer’s vision to truly come to life, the carpet color needs to be consistent from room to room. Not only does every guest room have to match, the hotel also needs to ensure that the carpeting looks seamless from the entrance of the room to every corner. If the hotel receives rolls of carpeting that vary in color even slightly, it will make every seam more obvious–the hotel will end up with a room that looks more like a patchwork quilt than a chic, modern space (commonly referred to as a “carpet sidematch problem”).1

This is just one of many reasons carpet manufacturers should take accurate color measurements of their products before releasing them on the market. However, it isn’t always easy to measure carpet color, even when you use color measurement tools like spectrophotometers. Because carpeting is soft, uneven and not always entirely opaque, analyzing the color of your samples can be frustratingly complicated. An instrument such as the UltraScan VIS, however, simplifies this process by allowing for optimal measurement methodology and the highest degree of color measurement precision. Unlike many other spectrophotometers on the market, the UltraScan VIS instrument is specifically designed to measure carpeting (among many other sample types), and makes the color quality control process fast, simple and extremely accurate.  

The Challenges of Analyzing Carpet Color

Carpet swatches seem easy to analyze at first glance, especially when designs feature just one solid color. However, carpeting is never truly “solid” in color, even if it appears so to the naked eye. If you look carefully at any carpet swatch, you’ll see that the tiny particles that make up the sample frequently vary in opacity, shape, and color. These three factors pose a number of challenges for manufacturers.   

Challenge #1: Opacity

Opacity is one of the first challenges you’ll come across when you try to measure the color of your sample using a spectrophotometer. Many carpet products are slightly translucent, and this becomes more obvious when you change the backing of your sample. For instance, your slightly translucent carpet sample will look lighter when backed by a light-colored background, but that same sample will appear much darker when backed by a dark-colored background. In order to get an accurate measurement, you have to standardize your sample backing.

Challenge #2: Shape

Carpeting isn’t flat. Rather, the material is flexible, and the tiny threads that make up the sample can shift with even the slightest pressure. The non-homogenous nature of carpeting makes it difficult to measure color unless you use tools specifically designed to handle textured samples. When a color measurement instrument presses into a carpet swatch, it creates a pillowing effect. The tiny carpet particles bend around the instrument’s measurement port, and this in turn can cast shadows that alter the overall color reading. To fix this, you need to take several readings in succession, then average those readings to get an accurate measurement.

Challenge #3: Color

Finally, the color of your sample or the type of dye that you use can cause a few unexpected problems for color measurement instruments. The most common problem that you may come across is the use of fluorescent dye in carpeting. This dye makes the product appear brighter and whiter than it is, and it is frequently used in white carpeting.2 Although this dye makes your products look whiter and potentially more appealing, it also makes your samples more sensitive to UV light. When your sample is exposed to the UV that naturally occurs in your light source, it can alter the overall measurement result, making your product appear lighter. This is why you need to cancel out the impact of UV on your sample or take UV into account when you measure your product’s color.

Pile heights and texture can significantly affect the appearance of your carpet samples. Image Source: Unsplash user Dane Deaner

The current AOCS Automated method of assessing the color of refined fats and oils requires that the oils are visually free of turbidity (particulates and moisture), because the clarity of the oil affects the color result. They require the user to do a visual assessment prior to doing an automatic filter selection determination.

Turbidimeters are instruments that can objectively determine clarity of oils and Spectrophotometers can provide objective color results using cell pathlengths of 10mm to 20mm that correlate with current 5.25in cells.

Advances in instrument design such as the Vista enable a user to prepare a single sample and record both Turbidity and Color from a single measurement. These instruments remove the subjectivity inherent in human eyesight from the inspection process resulting in more complete and more consistent reporting year after year.

Watch HunterLab Poster Presentation at 2023 AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo:

The agricultural meat and dairy industry are under heavy scrutiny in today’s market as consumers question the quality, safety, and sustainability of their food choices. Color assessment plays a vital role in monitoring these three interrelated characteristics. From inception to consumption, these food products undergo a series of evaluative testing procedures. Safe handling, packaging, preservation, waste, and even livestock management practices can all benefit from color assessment and technology.

From livestock production to supermarket shelf, color assessment provides a wealth of data to help inform better practices, safer food products, and less waste. Image Source: Flickr user U.S. Department of Agriculture

To get colorful, vibrant tattoos that last for years, ink manufacturers must thoroughly test their products for color consistency and fastness. Image Source: PxHere

When clients walk into a tattoo shop, they usually have a specific design idea in mind. To create this perfect tattoo, the tattoo artist must carefully select the right ink color for their clients. After all, a tattoo is permanent, so the ink must be high in quality and have excellent colorfastness; the ink should not only look great today, but remain vibrant decades after it’s applied under the skin.

However, colorfastness and consistency aren’t always easy for tattoo ink manufacturers to achieve, as inconsistencies in the manufacturing process as well as the types of raw materials used to create the ink can negatively impact the ink’s appearance and quality. For example, tattoo ink can become too thin when too much alcohol is added to the formula, or the ink’s color will fade after just a few years if there’s not enough pigment in the mix.

This is why tattoo ink manufacturers should use a spectrophotometer to test their products for consistency and colorfastness throughout the manufacturing process. A spectrophotometer will help you identify even minor differences in color between one bottle of ink and the next, ensuring that your inks perform predictably and appear beautiful on every client.

Color Consistency and Fastness is a Sign of Tattoo Ink Quality

Despite the popularity of tattoos, the tattoo ink industry is still largely unregulated. While the FDA does occasionally investigate the quality and safety of inks, for the most part, the responsibility lies with manufacturers to ensure their products are safe, free of contaminants, and high in quality.1 A reliable color quality control protocol not only helps you identify possible contaminants in your inks, it also improves the overall quality and colorfastness of your products.

Tattoo ink is made by mixing together a carrier and a colorant.2 The colorant is a pigment made from mineral or organic sources, while the carrier is a clear liquid that helps the skin absorb the pigment molecules. This includes liquids like witch hazel, alcohol or glycerin. The challenge that many ink manufacturers face is that the colorant and carrier ratios must be as precise as possible in order to maintain color consistency. For example, if the ink is too diluted with witch hazel or other carriers, then the ink will appear too light when it’s applied under the skin. Likewise, when an artist has to complete a large tattoo over a period of multiple sessions, they need the ink colors to remain the same from one session to the next; any minor change in the formula could ruin the look of the final tattoo.

In the tattoo industry, artists choose inks based on the manufacturer’s reputation and perceived perception of quality. Many artists choose inks that come in a variety of colors, but most importantly, they expect these inks to perform predictably in their clients’ skin. In general, low-quality tattoo inks are inconsistent in color and thinner or less permeable than high-quality inks. Meanwhile, the highest-quality tattoo inks are usually alcohol-based, relatively thick, and completely consistent in color from batch to batch.3 By testing the quality of your own ink formulas using a spectrophotometer, you can improve your brand’s perception of quality and create reliable ink products that will stay vibrant for decades.Tattoo ink

If black tattoo ink is too diluted by a carrier like witch hazel, it may appear grey in color when applied to the skin. Image Source: Shutterstock user Lumen Photos

Color is the first standard that most consumers rely on when it comes to the quality of their food products. Image Source: Flickr user U.S. Department of Agriculture

How do you measure the quality of food products? For many items, food quality can be measured on various levels using different parameters for the collection of data. Color, texture, taste, and smell are all human perceptions that give us both instant and specific information about the quality and state of our food products, but measuring color quality in food goes far beyond what the human eye perceives.