Appearance measurement is a way of putting numbers to characteristics of surfaces that we see. The ability to independently quantify appearance allows for products to be similar whenever and wherever the product is manufactured or coated.
Elcometer provide a comprehensive range of hand held instruments to measure most of the individual characteristics that generate the overall appearance of a material or coating - including gloss, haze, shade, opacity & color.
Shad - This is the measurement of darkness or lightness of a surface. Only shading is measured, irrespective of color, and is referred to as "whiteness". The test surface is illuminated at an angle of 45° and the intensity of scattered light at the perpendicular (O°), is measured on a grey scale, where black is 0% and white is 100%.
Opacit - This is the degree to which a coating will obscure the surface to which it has been applied. Opacity is measured in a similar way to shade, however opacity, or hiding power, as defined by ISO 2814 involves measuring whiteness of a known film of test material on both a black (less than 5%) and a white (greater than 75%, less than 85%) substrate. A full range of opacity test charts are available.
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