New and Innovative Testing Technologies for Effect Finishes

Special effect finishes are used in many applications to create new color impressions pronouncing the design of a product and at the same time making the product appear alive. The color impression of effect finishes can not only change under different viewing angles but also look differently depending on the lighting conditions. Therefore, these new generations of special effect pigments can no longer sufficiently be described with traditional multi-angle color measurement quantifying the diffused light reflection at 3 to 5 angles. This paper presents new technologies which were developed to objectively describe the total impression of color color and effect changes (sparkle - graininess) as well as paint defects such as "cloudiness - mottling".