All About Colorimeter – Testronix’s TP 60 CP

Colour measuring devices are gaining importance is different industries to eliminate the colour disparity of the products. Be it solid, liquid, powder, print material or what so ever, for manufacturers colour consistency is very important. Let’s take an example of candies. Before solidification, the colour of the sweet liquid is checked so that colour consistency can be achieved throughout the product line. Similarly, for plastic products, it becomes very important to check the colour of plastic before and after extrusion. 

Colour Measuring Instruments

For the accurate colour quantification, colourimeter can be used very efficiently. The devices are used to measure the intensity of the colour used in a material. Colorimeters are categorised as follows;

• Colour photometers to measure the reflectance of the colour along with the transmission.
• Colour densitometer is used to measure the density of the primary colours in the combination of colours in a material.

Working Principle

A colourimeter is made to work on the principle of Beer-Lambert’s Law. According to the law, the light absorbed when passing through a medium is directly proportional to the concentration of the medium. A colourimeter, primarily has an incident light source, detector and sensor. To quantify the light, it is equipped with a microprocessor. The incident light is made to fall on the test sample. When the light is travelling, it is passing through a series of different lenses. These lenses direct the light to fall concentratedly on the medium. A Certain intensity of the light is absorbed by the sample. The light reflected back is sensed by the detectors or sensors. Further to this, the microprocessor calculates the reflected light detected by the sensors. The microprocessor processes the signal into electrical form and display the values on the screen to be easily comprehended by the humans. 

Applications of Colorimeter

As compared to other colour measuring devices, a colourimeter is the best instrument to take a precise observation. Also, it is a budget-friendly instrument and comes in a portable form. It is used in quality control process and other application like colour strength determination, shades determination, colour sorting, measuring colour disparity, colour fastness measurement, etc. The aperture of the instrument is designed in a way so that external light does not interfere with the incident light. However, the principle of colourimeter should not be confused with metamerism. In this phenomenon, the colour appears different in different light sources. Even in such cases, the instruments capture perfect colours.