Reviewed by Anurag Mishra (Sr. Technical Consultant)
The military, army and other services offering uniform get their textiles designed and stitched on the basis of strict rules. As per these laws, it is defined in details exactly what fabrics and colors are suitable, for many factors they have to inhibit including camouflage and dress uniforms to tarps and vehicle coverings etc. For textile manufacturers who design this category of fabrics, this type of contracts is an opportunity to lock down, as in this fabric field the designs and requirements don’t change with time. The rules are followed religiously on the uniforms throughout the time. But, as big chance it appears to be, it also possesses some difficulties. Manufacturers of army uniform must meet similar legal requirements which are presented to them. Not a minor deflection will be taken in to account. In this blog section, we will read about utilization of color light box to check the consistency of uniform color in different light conditions.
Why is it important?
Just relying upon the manufacturing process to assure that the exact same color is put in each piece of uniform, may be not a good idea. When you are talking about the army you must understand that your one mistake can be risky enough to get them killed in absence of right camouflage. Moreover, one must take care of the color consistency throughout the process as the military uses a wide range of speciality materials, such as flame retardant or somethings which safeguard them from chemical and biological attacks. These type of numerous modification and advancements can alter the shade of the color within the stages of manufacture. Hence, to make sure you got the right color from start till the end, a color consistency test using textile color measurement tools is very important.
The solution
The best way for manufacturers to meet color specifications is to test fabric samples with a master standard patch of cloth under distinct lighting condition. It will help you in objectively assessing the color of the fabric against the master cloth and assure that it matches or not. In a quality control laboratory, a technician simply places the sample fabric and the masterpiece together in the box, presses a button on the instrument, and can conduct a visual inspection.
The color light box assists in matching the products under different lighting conditions for color consistency. It is used for eliminating the effect of the phenomenon called metamerism due to which a colorful product appears different in different lighting conditions.