NO HIDING FROM THE LIGHT

NO HIDING FROM THE LIGHT
Automotive leather upholstery experts Eagle Ottawa have installed new GretagMacbeth SpectraLight III viewing booths to ensure the perfect colour matching of hides. Leather is a traditional material that is very much in vogue for modern cars. Tanners and processors Eagle Ottawa have been involved in the industry for over 130 years and supply hides to prestige marques such as Mercedes, Land Rover, Honda and Renault. Achieving colour consistency is a critical issue.
    At Warrington Eagle Ottawa take hides from the abattoir and produce fully finished components for car seating and trim. Hides are first washed, limed to break down the fibres, split to remove the inner surface, chromed to bind the fibres, and finally coloured and lacquered.
    Colours are blended by an automated process that is fine tuned by skilled operators who adjust the coatings to achieve the final finish. A single hide will then be coloured and compared to the manufacturer's reference sample, before the whole batch is processed. Samples from each batch are also compared to the reference sample and also to samples from each of the previous three batches before hides are released. In this way the company ensures perfect colour consistency.
    Only the human eye is able to make the final colour judgement. However, colour perception can vary under different lighting conditions and so Eagle Ottawa have adopted standardised light sources from GretagMacbeth. Hides are viewed and matched in the SpectraLight III viewing booths. These offer a choice of six illuminants including simulated natural and artificial light sources.
    Eagle Ottawa view hides under D65, a simulated natural daylight and under TL84 and cool white fluorescent - two artificial light sources that are common in car showrooms. This avoids the problem of metamerism - the fact that samples viewed under one form of lighting may match, but may mismatch under another.
    Eagle Ottawa have been using GretagMacbeth light sources as a company standard since 1992. Many car manufacturers also use this equipment as do suppliers of plastic, textile and painted metal components. This ensures that cars, comprising thousands of components, supplied by multiple manufacturers based in many locations, are consistent in colour and presentation.



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