Disrupting the Textile Market: Novel Budget-Friendly Color Measurement Technologies

The textile color measurement market has been driven by a handful of established brands for decades. In addition to high expectations for accuracy and stability, market players often set exorbitant prices to obtain their products. While the color measurement instruments perform reliably, the high prices serve to exclude small and medium manufacturers, new laboratories, and growing sectors of textile industry that demand precise color control. However, the textile market has begun to shift. Color measurement technologies of the new generation are budget friendly and are determining new possibilities for measurement technologies.

This new generation of technologies are defined by professional level accuracy and repeatability as well as additional performance capabilities, all at an affordable price. 3NH is a leader in the advancement of spectrometer technologies. 3NH is redefining textile spectrometers by tailoring their designs to meet end user spectrum measurement requirements. In developing their technologies, 3NH has demonstrated that they have a solid understanding of the color spectrometer industry by offering lower price alternatives to high end legacy spectrometers.

Reviewing Value in Color Measurement

In the past, one might have seen a spectrometer's price as a true indicator of the instrument's quality and reliability. If the instrument was expensive enough, and with the purchase of a spectrometer that was thousands of dollars, one might have assumed that the instrument would be stable, precise, and consistent. Significant improvements in optics engineering, light detectors, and LED technologies have made the same quality performance achievable at much lower prices.

New generation spectrophotometers focused on the specific requirements of modern manufacturing. No longer does a brand name cover up poor performance in measurement speed, ΔE control consistency, measurement flexibility, and standard compliance. These requirements have shifted the needs and the performance expectations of spectrophotometers away from price. This new development allows the use of disruptive technologies like the 3NH TS7700 and YS3060.

TS7700: Optical engineering at a reasonable price.

A clear sign of the quality that does not break the bank is seen with the TS7700 handheld grating spectrophotometer. During its 3 year design, all of 3NH’s original and independent prototype designs were incorporated into the TS7700, and also included a 1000-line precision blazed grating and a large-area silicon photocell array. This specific configurational design means that the TS7700 is capable of producing consistent and stable measurements at all speeds, on a wide variety of materials and surfaces.

The TS7700 gives a detailed spectrum with an optical resolution under 10 nm for most of the visible spectrum. It has an inter-instrument agreement of ΔEab ≤ 0.15, and a repeatability of ΔEab ≤ 0.02, which gives an incredible inter-instrument agreement. This level of inter-instrument agreement is usually associated with much more expensive instruments, so the TS7700 is likely a more affordable option than its competitors.

The TS7700 has the ability to measure a wide variety of materials, including plastics, textiles, coatings, packaging, food, and automotive interiors. The TS7700's ability to measure a broad array of materials is likely due to the versatility of the measurements and the ability to work in demanding manufacturing environments.

YS3060 Compared with X-Rite CI64

SCI and SCE: Precision for Both Science and Visual Perception

One of the most vital aspects of color measurement is the measurement of intrinsic color and the perception of color. The TS7700 is designed to measure both in compliance with international standards using D/8 geometry for SCI & SCE measurements.

The SCI measurement is specular included and is well suited for assessing intrinsic color of paints, coatings, and plastics. The SCE measurement is specular excluded and is more closely aligned with human perception, which is important for end consumer products, including packaging for cosmetics and casings for appliances.

With the new dual optical path design, the TS7700 has the ability to simultaneously measure the spectra of the Scatter Collection Indicators (SCI) and Scatter Collection Elements (SCE), eliminating the need for multiple instruments and further streamlining the value-driven design philosophy.

Challenging Premium Benchmarks Through Data Consistency

In comparative test scenarios, modern 3NH spectro colorimters have evidenced a strong alignment in the spectral curves, LAB (Lightness, a-axis, and b-axis), ∆E (delta E), and overall color difference with other proven benchmark instruments. The TS7700 has demonstrated significant cost reduction in the field compared to premium handheld spectrophotometers.

Just as the YS3060 grating spectrophotometer has demonstrated consistent performance in comparison to more expensive portable sphere spectrophotometers. In the areas of repeatability, inter-instrument, and overall ∆E evaluation, the YS3060 has proven a reliable substitute in color matching and Quality Assurance (QA) workflows.

This level of consistent performance doesn’t happen by chance. These innovative optical systems, stable calibration mechanisms, and the strict quality control in the manufacturing process result in this performance.

3nh Advanced Textile Color Management Solutions

3nh textile color management solutions deliver one-stop digital color control for the textile and dyeing industry, covering the entire production chain from raw material testing, dyeing process monitoring to finished product QC. Equipped with high-precision spectrophotometers, standard light boxes and professional color matching software like PeColor, it ensures ultra-accurate color measurement, batch-to-batch consistency and standardized visual evaluation. It builds traceable color databases, cuts rework waste and boosts production efficiency, empowering textile enterprises with reliable color quality and stronger market competitiveness.

Beyond Spectrophotometry: Affordable Precision in Density and ΔE Measurement

For 3NH, market disruption goes beyond spectrophotometry to packaging and printing, where process control entails the measurement of density and color difference. The YD5050 Plus spectrodensitometer, for example, is in keeping with the 3NH philosophy in this respect.

Reliability on printing density measuring and ΔE evaluation is printed on the YD5050 Plus, which is as commendable as industry favorite devices from the exact series. For color consistency, YD5050 Plus also enables cost efficiency for print stores. Additionally, it enhances the print industry’s competitive quality by low cost.

A New Competitive Landscape

The printing industry has never experienced anything like it - a low-cost solution for measuring color that is as effective as the rest. Now every print shop can provide the same quality service. The number of color correction tools that analogously to cost quality color measuring solutions can be available to only a limited number of print shops is increasing.

The competitive advantage previously experienced only at a high cost is found in the integrated color measuring tools. This allows print shops to move beyond the standard used for the industry to more sophisticated color measuring tools.

With customer expectations, industry tolerances, and material costs ever-changing, finding a balance between affordability and accuracy is no longer an option at this point.

Conclusion

The industry of color measurement has shifted. The assumption of the existence of a relationship between price and quality is no longer the case with products. 3NH is a leader of driving down costs and combining disparate industry components such as, optical systems, intelligent systems, and technology driven systems.

Even the most expensive industry offerings are now outperformed and driven down in cost by the instruments such as the TS7700 and the YS3060, which prove that low cost and accuracy, stability, and compliance to global standards. These first of kind offerings are above and beyond the notion of an option. Within the industry of color measurement, 3NH has disrupted the industry from simply lowering the cost, but to the redefining and the true standard of to what extremes the technology of measurement color should be.