SpectraLight puts Fastline in the fast lane

Citation

(1999), "SpectraLight puts Fastline in the fast lane", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 28 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.1999.12928daf.002

SpectraLight puts Fastline in the fast lane

SpectraLight puts Fastline in the fast lane

Keywords: Cosmopolitan Textiles, GretagMacbeth, Colour, Textiles, Measurement

The Fastline range of nonwoven fabrics manufactured by Cosmopolitan Textiles, and used for covering interior headliners in some of the world's most popular cars, is being verified for colour compliance in a GretagMacbeth SpectraLight colour matching booth. Cosmopolitan, part of the global Cha Technologies Group, supplies high-volume motor manufacturers such as Ford and Toyota with its fabrics, and the SpectraLight is providing a method of ensuring that the company's product meets its customers' strict colour specifications.

The Fastline fabric is produced from polyester fibres which are solution dyed in the required colours to a high degree of colour consistency and fastness to light. The fibres are processed into finished material which has the ideal handling qualities for applying the required quality finish to the surfaces of moulded interior headliner panels, trunk mouldings and visors.

During production, samples of the material are examined in the SpectraLight booth at regular intervals as part of Cosmopolitan's quality control procedures. The booth is designed to provide a controlled lighting environment in which simulated lighting conditions can be consistently reproduced. The colours of automotive parts and materials placed inside it can then be visually checked with greater reliability and compared more accurately alongside control samples supplied by the customer.

The SpectraLight reportedly meets all automotive and international standards for visual appraisal of coloured materials and it is supplied with five pre-selected light sources to encompass most of the viewing conditions that will be encountered by a motor vehicle. These include a CIE international standard D75 simulated daylight source utilising GretagMacbeth's filtered daylight which gives the closest simulation and is greatly superior to fluorescent tube lamps.

Alternative sources selectable for viewing under are fluorescent light settings which can accurately simulate lighting conditions in most car showrooms; Illuminant A which simulates light from spotlights and tungsten filament bulbs; Horizon Daylight to simulate morning and evening sunlight; and Ultraviolet.

In addition to the SpectraLight, Cosmopolitan also uses a GretagMacbeth Color-Eye 2180 spectrophotometer which is believed to provide more accurate colour measurements when necessary. For example, when setting up the fibre dying process for a new colour, initial samples can be measured to a high degree of accuracy and compared with specified colour coordinates.

Details available from GretagMacbeth Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)161 926 9822; Fax: +44 (0)161 926 9835.