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materials testing | Colour monitoring


The CPAT system includes a spectropho- tometer and a colour control PLC with touch- screen display


Equitech system (ColVisTec in Europe) that uses a fi bre-optic probe in the melt stream and ROC Rapid Optical Control’s system that uses a remote measure- ment unit to monitor pellets. For more information on these systems, see the detailed report in the July 2013 edition of Compounding World at http://bit.ly/OnlineCM. HunterLab, in partnership with Plastore recently


introduced Color Process Automation Technology (CPAT) to provide real-time colour monitoring, closed- loop automated colour control, and downstream defect containment in plastics extrusion and compounding processing.


Equitech’s online colour measurement system places spectrometers in the melt stream


Automatic colour control “CPAT was originally developed to help plastics extruders control the fl ow of colour concentrate from the feeder into the extruder to automatically adjust for colour issues associated with variations such as bulk density and to fully automate the colour control process,” explains Phillips. CPAT consists of a Spec- traTrend HT (STHT) industrial colour spectrophotometer


and a closed-loop colour control PLC solution with touch-screen display designed for industrial factory fl oor operation. The system can also be used for colour monitoring


and control in compound manufacturing. The STHT is mounted in the process stream for precise colour monitoring and real-time data collection and analysis of the colour process. “In compounding processes where recycled material is used as the base, it is often necessary to use a secondary colorant (typically yellow) to adjust for swings in the blue range since recycled material is not controlled very well in terms of colour consistency,” says Phillips. “CPAT provides an accurate self-correcting colour dosing and monitoring system for this application.” D25NC is a laboratory version of CPAT for colour


analytics, consisting of the SpectraTrend HT mounted on a sophisticated turntable for one-step sample colour measurements of compounds. “The D25NC is useful in simplifying and speeding up the lab measurement process, while considerably improving accuracy and correlation from the laboratory values to the production line,” says Phillips.


Click on the links for more information:  www.americhem.comwww.byk.com/instrumentswww.colvistec.dewww.cyberchromeusa.comwww.datacolor.comwww.equitechintl.comwww.hunterlab.comwww.plastore.comwww.roc-gmbh.infowww.variableinc.comwww.vinylsiding.orgwww.xrite.com


44 COMPOUNDING WORLD | July 2014 www.compoundingworld.com


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