Dr. Marzia Barattini, Ferro Italia Frits and Glazes R&D, gave a presentation on tintometric systems at a workshop in Sassuolo, Italy dedicated to the use of ceramic technology for color matching. A tintometric system is used to prepare colored ceramic product starting from an instrumental color measurement for screen printing, glazes and gres porcellanato body mass.
Hundreds of technical specialists from ceramic equipment and additives companies, color manufacturers and tile producers attended the all-day event. Held April 28 at Assopiastrelle Auditorium, “Machinery, Equipment and Products for Screen Printing Pastes and Ceramic Body Slips Through Color Matching Systems” was organized by Faenza Editrice Group.
Barattini’s presentation, based on years of research, encourages Ferro’s tile manufacturing customers to use a tintometric system to reduce their wide range of colors and glazes and to reduce warehouse inventory to simplify the production process.
The tintometric system consists of a visible spectrophotometer that measures colored surfaces, software that formulates the equivalent ceramic product and a dosing system that provides the colored material managing suspensions of pigments and glazes.
The formulation software is based on the Kubelka-Munk theory, which states that when measuring reflected color, the values obtained for every wavelength are a function of absorbed and reflected light.
First, materials (pigments, glazes and printing bases) are selected based on chemical composition, refractive index and surface texture. After testing calibration curves and conducting color matching trials, the formulation software is then used to reproduce each ceramic color.
Advantages of the tintometric system include reduction of basic materials, rationalization of inventory management, just-in-time production, improved management of color-related quality problems and better environmental conditions and waste material recovery.
“With this research Ferro Italia is satisfying an important demand from the worldwide market,” said Barattini. “Because Italian and other tile manufacturers are trying to optimize processes and economize their productions, this topic is of increasing importance in our industry,” she added.
Color matching systems have been used for more than ten years in other fields such as the textile, automotive and leather industries. Applying these methods to the more complex ceramic industry requires a combination of different technologies: spectrophotometer formulation and analyses systems, analyses software, color manufacturers, additives for milling and decoration, mechanical dosing systems and others.
In the past, automatic color formulation techniques were not as widespread in the ceramic industry due to the many variables that affect color matching trials.
“Over the last few years, the graphic complexity of ceramic products has gradually increased the number of glazes, pigments, products and equipment for decoration,” said Barattini. “Recently, remarkable improvements in formulation software, together with continuous technological innovation and more rational process management, have popularized automatic formulation integrated with a dosing system.
“The tintometric system can have positive effects on inventory management,” she added. “Although installation requires significant changes, it provides a unique opportunity to create a basic material palette and an industrial process that represents the best in terms of quality, convenience and reliability.”
For more information about the system and the presentation held, or about the whole workshop, contact us.