X-Rite Incorporated and Pantone LLC have announced a new Cup and Cylinder Fixture, which works with the eXact and Ci6x Families of portable handheld devices to measure cylinder shapes and labels for a range of packaging, plastics and industrial applications.
The new fixture solves specific quality control requirements from customers who need to measure colour on final products using a non-destructive testing method. This helps reduce measurement time, streamline quality control processes and supports sustainable manufacturing practices by reducing waste.
The fixture helps manufacturers measure and control colour on small plastic parts, cups, bottles, tubes and other curved surfaces without damaging the sample. ‘Measuring any curved surface can introduce errors, making it hard to control colour on cups, cans, sleeves and bottles,’ said Michael Beering, product manager, X-Rite and Pantone. ‘As a result, many manufacturers resort to destructive testing by cutting a piece from the finished product to lay it flat for measuring. This adds time, waste and potential safety risks into the quality control process. Working directly with our customers, we created the Cup and Cylinder Fixture to hold a range of cylinder-shaped objects for easy colour measurement without destroying the sample. Initial customer feedback has been extremely positive, with one customer saving 12 employee hours per day due to significant reductions in measuring time by eliminating the need to cut samples.’
X-Rite’s Cup and Cylinder Fixture includes a sample-positioning arm to hold the sample at the correct height and angle, while accounting for the thickness of the sample wall. It also includes a bench to align the X-Rite instrument to the measurement plane. The fixture can be customised to support samples of various thicknesses and ensures that the eXact or Ci6x sits on the stand with the aperture aligned over the sample. The sample-positioning arm allows the operator to move the sample or rotate it to measure different locations.
‘An operator in a manufacturing facility can use the Cup and Cylinder Fixture with an eXact to easily measure the colour on a wide array of opaque materials, including plastic, foam, film and paper,’ continued Beering. ‘When the fixture is used with the Ci6x Family, a manufacturer can measure textured, reflective, translucent and transparent samples using ISO-compliant Munsell backing material. Both uses provide actionable data to help operators control colour throughout the manufacturing run, between presses, and even across sites, without the added work and expense of cutting samples.’
DIGITALVIEW 0114624849 mark@digitalview.co.za http://www.digitalview.co.za
