State-of-the-art Measurement and Quality Control of

Colours with Special Effects towards Comfort and

Aesthetics for End Users

Dr. Kelson dos Santos Araujo

Independent Colour Consultant, Braga/Portugal - Rio de Janeiro/Brazil

kelsondossantosaraujo@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
In the last couple of decades, paints formulated with special effects pigments have been
developed as to provide end users with a customised touch for their ultimate satisfaction
in terms of comfort and aesthetics. Since then, a variety of state-of-the-art technologies
have been employed for enhancing the colour measurement and quality control of
paints with special effects by dealing with factors like: gloss, total appearance,
pearlescent and metallic effects, aesthetics, among other variables during design,
laboratory, production, marketing and commercialization. This is all about satisfying the
needs of an end customer - who wants a paint that matches a colour from a piece of
painted wall - or to fulfil a big production order for a major manufacturer of automotive
paints. This work lists state-of-the-art technologies for colour measurement and quality
control of paints with special effects pigments towards the wellbeing and full satisfaction
of the modern and well-informed consumers.

Keywords: paints, effects, quality, appearance, colorimetry

INTRODUCTION
The most advanced technologies from different scientific and industrial domains
represent what has been called the 'state-of-the-art' of each sector. These advanced
technologies seek to materialize, for example, in the form of instruments and equipment
(hardware) and/or programs and computerized applications (software), the current
expertise of each respective domain of knowledge to solve production problems related
to some special market requirements - or even to leverage the good development and
progress of pure research.
This article seeks to describe some state-of-the-art technologies as main solutions
currently offered by major leaders from the colour measurement and control sector to
companies that manufacture paints with special effects pigments. The big 'popes' and

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 State-of-the-art Measurement and Quality Control of Colours with Special
Effects towards Comfort and Aesthetics for End Users

pioneers in the field of Colour Science and Colorimetry have been through a long way
studying how to deal with the physical phenomena of this type of specialized paints.
Starting from the vast literature that supports theories and methodologies of traditional
colorimetry and colour quality control, theoretical and mathematical representations
created by the big names in this domain are already exhaustively described and studied
in the form of tristimulus values, spectral reflectance, colorimetric coordinates,
equations for calculation of colour difference, metamerism, included and excluded
specular component, thermochromism, opacity, transmittance, yellowing index,
whiteness degree, colour tolerances, gloss, among other fascinating subject matters
related to colours (MacAdam, D. L. 1942; Hunter, R. S., 1948; Billmeyer F. W. & Saltzman
M., 1966; Judd D. B. & Wyszecki G., 1975; McDonald, R. 1987; Kühni, R. G., 2003). These
well-established Colour Science and Colorimetry are currently in full and effective
practical usage in many industrial sectors, and also serve as the basis for new
developments aiming its application to unconventional colours with special effects and
finishings, which are the object of our interest.
This article gives a glimpse of how have been managed the intrinsic difficulties of
measuring and controlling the quality of colours with special effects in relation to factors
inherent to the newly-studied reflective and translucent physical characteristics and
properties which have been added to paint products as to cope with the current global
markets' demands and requirements towards the wellbeing and full satisfaction of the
modern and well-informed consumers. In addition, this article seeks to provide a brief
overview of what is currently available in the market of paints with special effects in
terms of state-of-the-art products and solutions for specification and design,
development and formulation, as well as for production and quality control in order to
obtain colour products in a consistent and reproducible manner, towards meeting
specific aesthetic requirements from end customers.

ISSUES RELATED TO COLOUR MEASUREMENT AND QUALITY CONTROL OF PAINTS

WITH SPECIAL EFFECTS PIGMENTS
As indicated by the vast literature available in the field of traditional colour
measurement and quality control, it is evident that the colorimetry of opaque samples,
mainly dyed or pigmented with 'flat' or 'spot' colours - and without optical effects - is a
science already well described by many professionals in the academic and industrial
sectors. However, our world is not made only of uniform colours. How dull would our
physical world be if there were no peacock's feathers with their beautiful iridescent
colours, or the nacred colours from molluscs and their mother-of-pearls, or the metallic
colours from shells or bodies of some curious insects? Also, many industrial companies
would not be what they are today if there were no colorants with special effects for

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 State-of-the-art Measurement and Quality Control of Colours with Special
Effects towards Comfort and Aesthetics for End Users

diversifying the colour palettes of their products, like in the case of automotive, plastics,
printing, cosmetics, and paints and coating industries.
There has been a time when the first generation of colorants with traditional,
classic effects were enough to provide coloured products to satisfy all popular demands.
However, consumer markets all over the world became more and more dynamic, well
informed, wealthier and, thus, eager for novelties in terms of more appealing, colourful
products. According to a recent report on the global and regional market forecasts for
special effect pigments by type (metallic/pearlescent) and by application (plastics, paints
and coatings, inks and cosmetics), the market is foreseen to grow from an estimated
US$750 million in 2017 to about US$970 million by 2022 (MarketsandMarkets, 2017).
It has been found that designers and stylists, during their product creation
processes, are demanding the use of high-performance colorants that generate more
and more 'modern' and eye-catching special effects. Accordingly, out of their modern
research and development laboratories, colorant manufacturers from leader countries
in this sector are regularly launching new dyes and pigments that provide better
durability, opacity and heat stability, light and weather fastness, chemical and migration
resistance or other attributes not found in lower-cost colorants as to meet such
technological demands (Diamond, 2015). Cramer & Gabel (2001) gave an overview of
major types of special effects pigments that have been launched in the market at the
beginning of our 21st century. These novelty pigments would represent the main
components of modern paints due to the unique characteristics that this type of
colorants impart to colour appearance and visual perception. These above-mentioned
authors pointed out that conventional pigments based on aluminium and on tin-copper
alloys have been replaced by so-called pearlescent or nacred pigments, which are based
on mica, a mineral from the phylosilicate class.
According to the previously-mentioned authors, pigments can be generally
classified as metallic, silica-metal, and liquid crystals, each type showing a different kind
of effect that cannot be explained here due to the mandatory maximum length of this
article. More details can be seen then in the corresponding Poster. According to Cramer
(1999), although there are many sharp differences between the ways in which pigments
with special effects are manufactured, their optical properties can be fully explained in
terms of a physical phenomenon called 'interference'. The incident light on a colorant
undergoes a partial reflection from its surface and a partial refraction through it. This
causes shifts in the wavelengths of individual light rays and generates their merge with
each other, thus creating interference-related physical phenomena.
Figure 1 illustrates the phenomena of the two types of interference. In the
constructive type, the peaks of each wave converge, thus increasing the amplitude's
intensity and creating that above-mentioned system of fringes. On the other hand, in
the destructive type of interference, a valley of one wave encounters a peak of the other

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 State-of-the-art Measurement and Quality Control of Colours with Special
Effects towards Comfort and Aesthetics for End Users

one, thus partially cancelling the resulting amplitude to form the previously-mentioned
standing wave. Complete cancellation occurs only if the wave signals are perfectly out of
phase which, in practice, never occurs.

Figure 1. The phenomena of the two types of interference: constructive and destructive
Source: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

This physical phenomenon provides the fundamentals for the development of an

equation that indicates the place of maximum reflection and, therefore, the resulting
colour as a function of the calculation of the shift that occurs under simple and ideal
conditions. The factors of such equation are the thickness of the layer of titanium
dioxide, responsible for the refraction, the refractive index and the angle of the incident
illumination. As the thickness of the metal oxide layer increases, the colour of the
pigment changes from silvery white to yellow, red, and blue to green resulting in the
desired, beautiful effect (Cramer & Gabel, 2001).
There are two fundamental types of chromatic shifts that can be perceived in the
case of interference pigments: aspecular and interference per se (Cramer & Gabel,
2001). The first one, aspecular shift, is typically produced by keeping the incident
illumination angle constant (for instance, at 25° or 45°) and varying the aspecular angle.
The term aspecular - thus referring to the viewing angle - is also known as 'degree from
gloss', 'cis-trans position' or 'angle of effect'. The second effect is the interference shift
which is generated by varying the illumination angle and keeping the aspecular angle
constant (for instance, 15° from the gloss angle).
More recently, Rahman and Johnson (2008) have added two new types of physical
effect colorants that have been the subject of intense research for their effective
industrial use, taking into account the wide versatility and higher uniformity of the
colour effects that they can generate: nanoparticles and photonic crystals. Again, more
details are available in the corresponding Poster.

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 State-of-the-art Measurement and Quality Control of Colours with Special
Effects towards Comfort and Aesthetics for End Users

INSTRUMENTAL SYSTEMS FOR COLOUR MEASUREMENT AND QUALITY CONTROL FOR

PAINTS WITH SPECIAL EFFECTS
A study conducted by Gabel & Pieper (1992) indicated that the measurement
geometries provided by the colorimetric instruments from the last decade of the 20th
century were adequate to deal with the first generation of special effects pigments.
Another study indicated that, at that time, there was a small number of 'problematic'
interference pigments which colour characterization and quality control did not perform
well by means of reflectance spectrophotometry (Gabel, Hofmeister & Pieper, 1992).
Some technology companies that manufactured cutting-edge spectrophotometers at
that time based on measurements done under different illumination and viewing angles
were: Datacolor, Gretag-Macbeth, Instrument Systems, Minolta, Murakami, Optronik,
Phyma, X-Rite Inc., and Zeiss. While innovative special effects colorants were being
launched in the market and their instrumental characterization and measurement
became increasingly more complex, then leader suppliers of spectrophotometric
systems began accordingly to foster research and development of new hardware and
software that would allow adequate results to be obtained. Such new solutions seek to
take into account the physical properties and optical characteristics of these innovative
colorants in question in order to meet the latest needs and requirements from a new,
demanding, and wealthy class of consumers around the world. In order to obtain
acceptable results for the desired purposes, all instruments employed must be able to
measure the aspecular and interference colour shifts from special effects colorants.
Therefore, illumination and observation angles should be used as close as possible in
relation to the horizontal, "so as to better mimic the actual visual impression" (Pfaff &
Gabel, 2005) by means of instrumental measurement data.

CONCLUSION
The Poster presentation illustrates a brief survey of the main cutting-edge solutions
developed by leading manufacturers of computerized colour and appearance
measurement and quality control systems designed for paints with special effects:
Murakami GCMS-4, BYK-mac i Series Spectrophotometers, Minolta's RHOPOINT -
TAMSTM, and X-Rite's Total Appearance Capture - TACTM - all this with the aim of
obtaining coloured products in a consistent and reproducible manner - towards the
wellbeing and full satisfaction of the modern and well-informed consumers.
Therefore, paint and coatings manufacturers have a highly sophisticated
technological 'arsenal' to meet the main special effects colour quality market
requirements in line with the latest industry standards and customer demands.
However, choosing the supplier of the most appropriate system for a particular
application should not only be done taking into account the innovation and
technological modernity of the system, but it is mandatory to carry out a comprehensive

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 State-of-the-art Measurement and Quality Control of Colours with Special
Effects towards Comfort and Aesthetics for End Users

study which also takes into account documentation availability in local languages
(hardware and software manuals, installation and operation guides, and so forth),
possibility of system updating and scalability, sharing of measurement data between
creation/design, laboratory, production, sale and retail systems, as well as the provision
of theoretical and operational training for users. All this makes another subject matter
to be covered in a new article in the near future.

REFERENCES:
Billmeyer, F. W., Jr. & Saltzman, M. (1966). Principles of Color Technology, New York,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Cramer, W. R. (1999). How do pearl lustre pigments show different colours? European
Coatings Journal, 1999 (6) 72.
Cramer, W. R. & Gabel, P. W. (2001). Measuring Special Effects. Editorial published in
European Coatings Journal, Edition # 7/2001.
Diamond, C. (2015). High Performance and Special Effects Pigments Market. Associate
Editor, Coatings World - The Resource for the Global Coatings Industry, August 17, 2015.
Gabel, P. W., Hofmeister, F. & Pieper, H. (1992). Interference Pigments as Focal Point of
Color Measurement, Kontakte, 1992 (2) 25.
Gabel, P. W. & Pieper, H. (1992) A Comparison of Different Colorimeters. EuroCoat (6) 356
Hunter, R. S. (1948). Photoelectric Color-Difference Meter. JOSA. Proceedings of the
Winter Meeting of the Optical Society of America, 38 (7) 661
Judd, D. B. & Wyszecki, G. (1975). Color in business, science and industry. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 3rd edition
Kühni, R. G. (2003). Historical Development of Color Space and Color Difference
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MacAdam, D. L. (1942). Visual sensitivities to color differences in daylight (abstract).
JOSA. 32 (5) 247–274
MarketsandMarkets (2017). Special Effect Pigments Market by Type (Metallic,
Pearlescent), Application (Plastics, Paints & Coatings, Printing Inks, Cosmetics), and
Region - Global Forecast to 2022. Published by MarketsandMarkets™
McDonald, R. (1987). Colour Physics for Industry. Editor: Roderick McDonald, Society of
Dyers and Colourists, Bradford - UK
Pfaff, G. (2008). Special Effect Pigments: Technical Basics and Applications. Vincentz
Network GmbH & Co KG, 2008 - Pigments 201-203
Pfaff, G. & Gabel P. W. (2005). Colour Measurement from Many Angles. Editorial archive
- European Coatings Journal (6) June 2005
Rahman, F. & Johnson, N. P. (2008). The New Generation of Physical Effect Colorants.
Optics & Photonics News - OSA, The Optical Society of America, February 2008

AIC Interim Meeting | 25 – 29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org