ColorView Lighting System lightbooth has three
distinguishing characteristics that make it superior to other
light booths:
1) high quality daylight source
2) quickly and easily calibrated
3) provide a continuous range of color temperatures.
Lightbooths, or "light boxes" as they are frequently
called, are devices
used within the industrial paint, paper, textile, graphic arts,
and
automotive industries to provide a standardized source of light
for
performing visual color evaluations and assessing levels of
metamerism.
Metamerism is an effect created when objects having different
spectral
distributions look alike under one light source but appear
different when
viewed with a dissimilar light source. Standardized lighting
provides
employees in different plant locations the ability to compare
color samples
under identical light sources so they can determine whether or
not they have
color matches. The ColorView LightBooth provides this capability.
The two quantities that characterize a light source are:
1) light intensity
2) color temperature
Although light booths have been used in many applications, in
many markets, none
of the past products could be easily calibrated. This resulted in
a lack of standardization.
Without calibration capability, color temperatures have been
shown to vary from light
source to light source. This caused problems and errors, reduced
productivity, and
wasted money.
TLI's ColorView technology solves the calibration issue. With a
ColorView
LightBooth, users can quickly and easily adjust its color
temperature. This
ability insures that a ColorView LightBooth in one location is
operating at
the same color temperature as that in another location (ColorView
LightBooths
can be referenced to internationally accepted, NIST-traceable
standards.)
Employees can talk over the phone and not have to worry about
potential
differences in samples due to the use of separate light booths.
ISO 9000 and Lightbooths
Currently, there is a significant demand in the industrial
sector for
improved quality and standardization. "ISO 9000
Certification" requirements
have helped fuel this demand. The first rule of thumb in
Certification is:
"If you can measure it, calibrate it." The calibration
capability of
ColorView technology addresses this. TLI has the jump on the
entire light
booth industry since its light booths can be easily calibrated.
Metamerism and Color Memory
As mentioned, metamerism is the second issue that light booths
address for
users. An industrial application where metamerism has an impact
is when
suppliers are trying to match a customer's color master. By
checking the
color match under a variety of lighting conditions, the suppliers
can be
confident in the color quality of the matches they are sending to
customers.
ColorView LightBooths are the best devices on the market for
observing
metamerism. The reason is that ColorView technology provides the
ability to
observe metamerism across a continuous range of color
temperatures instead of
just two or three points as offered by competitors.
Color memory is a subtle aspect of metamerism that ColorView
technology
addresses. With competitors' light booths, the change in light
sources is
drastic and the user must remember what the material looked like
under the
previous condition. With ColorView technology, gradual
transitions in color
temperature occur thus eliminating the "color memory"
problem. TLI's current
customers frequently comment that this unique aspect of the light
booth is
what they like the most about the product.Over the past four
decades, the
inability to calibrate the color temperature and resultant
booth-to-booth
variations has lead to strained relationships between OEM
suppliers and
buyers because often buyers reject a color match when it appears
not to
match under their SpectraLight. Until now, no one has offered the
industrial
market a light booth that could be easily calibrated. And, until
ColorView
technology, there has been no easy way to make sure that all
light booths
were working at the same color temperature.
Products
that provide calibrated Daylight
TLI offers two light booth products:
1) the ColorView Lighting System 6500K
2) the ColorView SPLICE.
The ColorView Lighting System has the principle lighting
conditions
crucial for critical color evaluation in the laboratory: 6500K
& 5000K
daylight,and incandescent light. Its patented ColorView
technology
provides the user with the ability to calibrate the color
temperature of the booth.
No other light booth on the market has this ability. The unit
measures
14" X 14" X 14", weighs approximately 12 lb., does
not require any
special wiring, and is priced at only
$795.
TLI's newest innovation is named ColorView SPLICE. The SPLICE is
an
upgrade for Macbeth SpectraLights. Essentially, it inserts color
temperature
scanning technology into a SpectraLight and allows the user to do
quick and
easy color temperature calibrations, just like a ColorView
LightBooth. With
the SPLICEx, booth-to-booth color temperature consistency and
NIST-tractability is quickly and easily achievable. The ColorView
SPLICEx
costs $2500 for a single booth and $4500 for a dual-luminaire.
When price, performance and capabilities are all considered, the
choice is
obvious: Tailored Lighting makes the best light booths products
in the world.