AkzoNobel A&AC launches new colour tools

AkzoNobel’s Automotive & Aerospace Coatings (A&AC) division has introduced Color on Display and Color Variant Descriptor, two powerful new colour tools that give repair professionals by far the most accurate on-screen representation and description of both standard colours and variants ever available. With the launch of the two tools, A&AC is delivering greater performance, colour accuracy, and efficiency to its customers.

Instead of colour codes, Color on Display (CoD) puts the vivid representations of standard colours and an array of variants on screen, so repair specialists can make a visual check of the best possible colour match. And Color Variant Descriptor provides detailed information to the user in a multitude of languages – or with a set of easy to understand icons – on how a range of variants will differ in comparison to the reference colour in terms of lightness, intensity/saturation, colour direction and texture.

While digital colour chips on computer screens have been available in the past, these were not derived from the high level analysis used by A&AC with its six angle AM6i spectrophotometer, which includes an on-board digital camera to measure texture.
With CoD, the user can use the “spotlight” button to see how a more intense light source alters the appearance, and to represent subtle effects like sparkle and texture. CoD also shows the surface as a curve, so the viewer sees how color and effect change with different viewing angles. By adding essential information from A&AC’s extensive database, the ColorManager software is able with CVD to precisely describe color variants. That means far less work with spray-outs, saving time, money, and materials, and delivering greater colour accuracy.