Benchtop vs. Portable Spectrophotometers

Both benchtop and portable spectrophotometers have vital industrial applications. These devices facilitate manufacturing color-quality testing and many other industrial processes. Depending on your industry and operational needs, you may need to use each device for different field sites. You’ll need to consider whether convenience or repeatability is your top priority for specific applications.

If you’re weighing the benefits of one versus the other, let us walk you through a comparative guide. We’ll explore the advantages, disadvantages, and differences between benchtop and portable spectrophotometers so you can choose the best option for your applications.

Benchtop Spectrophotometers

Benchtop spectrophotometers offer extremely high precision and consistency for stringent quality control measurements. Professionals across many demanding industries rely on these devices to address critical color measurement needs.

Benefits of Benchtop Spectrophotometers

With benchtop spectrophotometers, you can gain many key advantages, including:

• Dual use capabilities: Portable spectrophotometers are designed for reflectance measurements only, while many benchtop models offer both reflectance and transmittance measurement capabilities.
• Expanded wavelengths: Portable spectrophotometers are often limited in wavelength capabilities, measuring in the visible wavelengths with some offering limited UV capabilities. Many benchtop units offer expanded capabilities in the UV, visible, and IR wavelength ranges.
• Data output: Benchtop spectrophotometers offer more sophisticated and modern interconnectivity to LMS, SPC and other data management systems.
• Sample handling: Benchtop spectrophotometers provide a wide range of sample handling solutions to maximize accuracy and repeatability.
• Maximum accuracy: While all spectrophotometers offer exceptional precision, benchtop options typically feature maximum accuracy for applications with very tight color tolerances.

Drawbacks of Benchtop Spectrophotometers

When you’re creating quality standards or trying to ensure consistency across multiple locations, a benchtop device may be best for the job. However, outside of these applications, benchtop spectrophotometers come with disadvantages.

These options lack portability, so you must transport items to the benchtop spectrophotometer’s location instead of carrying a hand-held model throughout the facility. That can result in lost productivity. Additionally, benchtop options are generally more expensive than portable spectrophotometers.

Portable Spectrophotometers

Portable spectrophotometers offer many of the same capabilities as benchtop devices and provide highly accurate results for on-the-spot quality checks. A portable device can be a significant asset in industries that require professionals to work in the field and storage areas.

Advantages of Portable Spectrophotometers

Some of the benefits portable spectrophotometers offer for your operations include:

• Convenience: Portable spectrophotometers can go anywhere you need to take measurements, giving you the ability to check products away from the lab or conduct quality spot-checks on the production floor.
• Ease-of-use: These options feature simple, intuitive operation and easy-to-read displays, reducing operator training time.
• Affordability: Portable devices often cost less than benchtop units, making them practical solutions for lowering manufacturing costs.
• Rapid measurement: Portable spectrophotometers can take rapid measurements to address your requirements.
• Minimized waste: Portable spectrophotometers cut down on transit time lost in taking items to the lab and back, which allows for maximized productivity.

Many portable devices come with specialized features for UV calibration and other critical measurement accuracy capabilities to help provide the same level of accuracy as benchtop options.

Disadvantages of Portable Spectrophotometers

Benchtop spectrophotometers do tend to have more capabilities to ensure accurate, repeatable measurements. The primary disadvantage of portable devices is that they cannot maintain the same consistent measuring conditions, which affects accuracy. Additional drawbacks include:

• Potentially limited wavelength range: Some models — especially very low-cost ones — have narrower detection capabilities, which can limit their value to specific samples and wavelength ranges.
• Backing requirements: While benchtop models have built-in backing, portable options require manual placement of one to prevent compromised results. 
• Operator technique: Inaccurate or inconsistent operation can produce flawed measurements.

Overall, this option is best for use in the field, on-the-spot quality control, or checks at supplier sites.

How to Decide Between Benchtop and Portable Spectrophotometers

Consider the following when choosing between benchtop versus portable spectrophotometers.

Versatility Needs

A portable spectrophotometer is naturally smaller than its benchtop counterpart, making it ideal for color measurement capture in the field. The size and capability difference can make benchtop models more versatile in high-volume lab or production settings with multiple applications and substrates.

Substrate Opacity and Data Requirements

If your application involves transparent or translucent plastics, measuring color transmittance and haze is critical to quality and consistency. Similarly, gloss measurements are crucial in industries like paints and coatings and automotive manufacturing. Benchtop spectrophotometers are the gold standard for simultaneously quantifying color plus haze or gloss. Portable spectrophotometers offer reflectance measurement, so they're best suited for translucent to opaque substrates with no additional measurements required.

Measurement Area Capability

The size difference between the two options also defines how large an area the spectrophotometer can analyze, with benchtop models typically measuring across more space. While small samples are crucial to cost containment with expensive substrates, analyzing a larger surface area is often helpful in compensating for any surface inconsistencies that could impact data accuracy.

Reproducibility and Repeatability Requirements

Manufacturers with multiple production facilities and lines may find it challenging to manage color uniformity across sites. Benchtop spectrophotometers are designed for exceptional reproducibility and repeatability, making it easier to create and maintain color consistency and reduce variance among equipment or batches.

Additional Considerations

Portable spectrophotometers are excellent for color measurement on many goods and raw materials, including:

• Safety cones
• Yarn, thread, carpets, and fibers
• Paper and packaging materials
• Siding and decking
• Meats

Choose a benchtop model for more complex tasks and substrates, like:

• Heavily textured surfaces
• Nonuniform products or samples with irregular consistencies
• Color formulation
• Fluorescent samples

Ask About Our Spectrophotometer Equipment for Your Applications

If you need trusted resources to address your color measurement requirements, HunterLab can help. Our team draws on more than 70 years of expertise in color management to manufacture the most innovative and comprehensive spectrophotometry solutions available. We provide an extensive inventory of specialized equipment to meet stringent industry standards, and we can help you find the best spectrophotometer for your applications. To learn more about our solutions, please contact us today.