Compact spectrophotometer launched to manage colour accurately and affordably

Earlier this year, X-Rite, Incorporated and its wholly owned subsidiary Pantone launched its Ci4200 compact spectrophotometer as a precise and affordable way to establish or improve colour control programs in industrial settings.

The Ci4200 is an easy-to-use, 31-point spherical spectrophotometer that manufacturers can harness quickly to measure the colours of coatings, textiles, plastics and other materials to reduce rejection rates and scrap, improve speed to market and enhance their positions within supply chains. With its attractive price point, the new instrument is particularly well suited for companies that want to improve on existing colour measurement programs that currently rely on non-spectral devices or only visual inspection pass/fail methods.

"We're very pleased with the Ci4200," said Dennis Herman, technical service specialist for the Graphic Systems Division of FUJIFILM North America Corp. "It demonstrates very good repeatability and is much easier to load than other machines, especially for small and hard-to-handle samples. The measurement button adds to the ease of use of the spectro, and the plug-and-play features that X-Rite included with the instrument made it easy to install the drivers and connect with its InkFormulation 6 software."

The Ci4200 is X-Rite's response to customers' needs for a small, easy-to-use and flexible benchtop spectrophotometer that serves as a solid foundation for tighter controls of colour for incoming materials, in-process parts and finished goods. In addition to providing accurate colour measurement for gloss and non-gloss surfaces, the Ci4200 is also available with UV (Ci4200UV) for accurate colour measurement of textiles and other materials that contain optical brightening agents.

The Ci4200 is NetProfiler 3 enabled and supports embedded profiling.  Using NetProfiler, companies can profile their Ci4200s to ensure accuracy and consistency across measurement devices within a single facility or across geographies. NetProfiler enables the accurate exchange of spectral colour data in applications where colour tolerances are tight and there is little room for error.  The Ci4200 and NetProfiler 3 can lower the cost of colour programs by helping to eliminate colour measurement problems before they result in costly rework.

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