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Visual and Instrumental Assessments of Color Differences in Automotive Coatings
1 1 1 AQ4 Omar Gomez , * Esther Perales, El ısabet Chorro, Francisco J. Burgos,2 Valent ın Viqueira,1 2 1 AQ1 Meritxell Vilaseca, Francisco M. Mart ınez-Verdu , Jaume Pujol2 AQ2 1Color & Vision Group, University of Alicante, Carretera De San Vicente Del Raspeig S/N 03690, Alicante, Spain
2Center for Sensors, Instruments and Systems Development (Cd6), Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Rambla De Sant Nebridi, 10, Terrassa 08222, Spain
Received 22 October 2014; revised 31 March 2015; accepted 31 March 2015
Abstract: The interest in gonioapparent pigments (metal- correlation being worse. In particular, it was checked lic, pearlescent, interference, or diffractive) has increased that observers accepted a larger number of color pairs, in the last few years, especially for applications in the that is, the visual color difference was smaller than the automotive industry. To assure a proper characterization tolerance demanded by the industry (derived from of colors with gonioapparent pigments, commercial devi- AUDI2000). VC 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 00, 000– ces have appeared to characterize the color in different 000, 2015; Published Online 00 Month 2015 in Wiley Online Library geometries, which are called multiangle spectrophotome- (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/col.21964 ters. As the gonioapparent pigments and multiangle instruments are relatively new, no studies exist regarding Key words: vision; color; color measurement; perception the instrumental-based procedure followed in the indus- psychology; psychophysics; industrial inspection try, and if the results provided are in agreement with the observer perception. Consequently, the main objective of this study was to INTRODUCTION examine the correlation of the instrumental color differ- ences with visual assessments. The instrumental color dif- The interest in gonioapparent pigments applied in many ference was calculated with the color difference formula industries (cosmetics, inks, etc.) continues increasing day AUDI2000 (specific for this sector) between the pairs of by day, especially in the automotive sector. This sector similar samples of three types of coated panels (solid, has undergone many changes and updates in the last 1,2 metallic, and pearlescent). The values measured by a tel- years from employing only paints without visual effect espectroradiometer in a directional lighting booth and to use many of them containing gonioapparent pigments the colorimetric values obtained by means of a multian- providing new and attractive visual effects by combining gle spectrophotometer BYK-mac were considered for this variable color and texture according to irradiation and purpose. Additionally, a visual experiment was conducted viewing directions. to quantify the color difference by using the gray-scale Goniochromatism is a change in any or all attributes of method. color of a specimen on change in angular illuminating– The results revealed that an acceptable instrumental cor- viewing conditions but without change in light source or 3 relation existed despite the visual and the instrumental observer. This happens when the material that is under evaluation includes gonioapparent pigments. Therefore, it is possible to classify the materials into three types *Correspondence to: Omar Gomez(e-mail:[email protected]) according to the pigment recipe and its colorimetric Contract grant sponsors: EMRP, EMRP participating countries within EUR- 4–6 AMET, the European Union. behavior : solid, metallic, and pearlescent or interfer- ence coatings (Fig.1, right). The solid color includes F1 VC 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. only scattering pigments, and hence, the perceived color
Volume 00, Number 00, Month 2015 1
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C O L O R Fig. 1. Left: Color appearance of the 60 assessed color pairs. Right: Colorimetric behavior according to the pigment recipe.
does not show significant changes owing to the variation lighting booths.15–17 In other words, there are no studies of the direction of lighting and/or detection. The metallic to check if the procedure followed in the industry, mainly coating includes metallic pigments that provide a color based on the instrumental measures of a multiangle spec- shift mainly in lightness. The pearlescent coating includes trophotometer, would match the decision that an observer in its recipe pearlescent pigments (even solid pigments) would give.18 Therefore, the conventional approach using that provide a color shift mainly owing to a hue and a a diffuse lighting booth and an integrating sphere spec- chroma change. troradiometer is not valid for gonioapparent colors, and Currently, in the automotive sector, color quality of auto- hence it is necessary to use a commercial directional motive coatings with gonioapparent pigments is performed lighting booth such as the gonio-vision box from Merck by characterizing the color under different measurement or the byko-spectra effect cabinet from BYK-Gardner. geometries.5,7–10 For this, commercial devices, called mul- The purpose of this study is to study the correlation of tiangle spectrophotometers, are able to characterize the the visual and instrumental assessment of the color differ- color in different geometries, such as BYK-mac, or X-Rite ences between pairs of similar samples. The instrumental MA98, which satisfy ASTM and DIN standards.11–14 measurements were made with two different measurement Although multiangle spectrophotometers are commonly devices: BYK-mac multiangle spectrophotometer and PR- used in the automotive industry, there are few studies 650 telespectroradiometer. In addition, a psychophysical focused on the correlation between instrumental measure- experiment that included a directional lighting booth was ments and visual assessments by using rightly directional designed to obtain the visual assessments to quantify the
2 COLOR research and application
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