The textile market has seen overwhelming growth in last several decades. With the increasing awareness among people about fashion has been a great factor leading to this growth of textile industry. In today’s world, there is an enormous demand for high-quality textile products, and hence it is important for the manufacturers to make sure that best manufacturing and quality control processes are adopted in their manufacturing units.
A major problem with fabrics is Metamerism. It is the phenomenon due to which fabric appears different in different lighting conditions. This can be a significant problem for consumers as well as the manufacturers of the products as it becomes very difficult to maintain consistency of the products. For elimination of metamerism, it is important that the fabric is matched under different light sources and lighting conditions so that it exhibits uniform appearance regardless of the lighting conditions.
A color matching cabinet is used for matching fabrics under different light sources. A color matching cabinet is a compact box provided with various light sources which replicate the actual lighting conditions. Once a fabric is matched with all the light sources offered in the color matching cabinet; it becomes definite that the fabric will now give a uniform appearance in every lighting condition.
There are three types of color matching cabinets used in industries that are Asia Spectrum, Euro Spectrum, and US Spectrum. Different models of the instrument are incorporated with various light sources that replicate the actual condition of their respective places. Each light source has an individual switch for operation. In this way, the test sample can be viewed in individual lights. Additionally, two or more light sources can also be illuminated to see the combined effect of the light on the test sample. There is also a time totalizer provided with the instrument which depicts the usage of color matching cabinets.
The different lights that are used in the device include D65, IncA, TL84, CWF, TFL and Ultraviolet black light. D65 is used for normal daylight matching of the fabrics. IncA is used where you need reddish light. The Ultraviolet light is used for studying whiteness of fabric. CWF is a cool daylight with green energy emission. TL84 is used where there is a need of white light with a grayish hue.
With proper use of color matching cabinets, it becomes easy to provide good quality of fabrics and product to customers with a uniform appearance in every lighting condition.