The Gabriel-Chemie Group, a leading masterbatch manufacturer in Europe, has partnered with X-Rite Pantone to provide their customers with an innovative solution to improve daily color requests, expanding their existing product portfolio to include solutions that keep pace with the move towards digitization and industry 4.0.
The Challenge
As a leader in masterbatch manufacturing, Gabriel-Chemie is always looking for ways to sharpen their customers’ experiences and solve production challenges.
A frequent challenge they often face is a lack of a color reference for the product their customers are working to produce. Since color is very subjective, “light blue” doesn’t always translate the same way – in fact, it can be translated into hundreds of variations of blue. When the color of the masterbatch is off, it can lead to delays in project timelines, costly rework, and frustrations from all parties.
The Solution
Gabriel-Chemie looked to X-Rite Pantone to see how they could partner to solve this critical color challenge, guiding customers through the product discovery process faster and more efficiently.
Through a strong partnership, X-Rite Pantone and Gabriel-Chemie decided that a browser-based, mobile application would be the best solution for their customers. X-Rite Pantone’s Color-Eye® was just the fit.
Becoming the first tool to be released as part of the Master of Batch platform, this digital tool enables accurate color measurement from Apple iOS and Android smart phones. Allowing users to easily take a picture of a prototype sample, Color-Eye® technology allows app users to get an accurate color reference of the color.
“X-Rite Pantone has been a leader in the color industry for decades, so they were at the top of our list but we were particularly excited about their Color-Eye® offering because of accuracy that the calibration card enables. Other solutions on the market don’t offer this level of color accuracy.” – Lukas Houska, Product Manager, Gabriel-Chemie
Solution Components:
- Smart Color Search Algorithm with Pantone & RAL Reference
- Color measurement with your phone
- Access to the Gabriel-Chemie color library with one click
How The Solution Works:
- Choose your color reference (*Don’t know the color reference? With the help of X-Rite’s Color-Eye® technology, users can measure the color with their phone camera and the color card that comes with the app!)
- Step 1: Place the card on the object
- Step 2: Fit the card in the frame and tilt your phone to the side
- Step 3: Fitting products will be shown
- Once the color reference is selected and they’ve typed in their color, users need to select the following:
- Polymer
- Processing Parameters
- Desired Product
- Order Quantity
- Once selected, Gabriel-Chemie will provide technical documentation as well as a quote to the customer.
X-Rite’s Color-Eye® solution comes with a Software Development Kit that makes it easy for developers to integrate into their own solutions and is suitable for many markets such as paint, décor, fashion that need to offer their customers an accurate way to select colors from their range of offerings.
Future-Focused
With the launch of their new solution, Gabriel-Chemie expects that customers will be able to get through their product discovery process faster, reducing waste and rework that is required when the color is not right. Also there are future updates for the app and other projects planned in order to be prepared for future digital developments.
“This has been a very positive experience and roll-out, and we look forward to partnering with X-Rite on future innovations as we take further steps toward digitization and Industry 4.0…” –Lukas Houska, Product Manager, Gabriel-Chemie
Looking for More?
Interested in learning more about Gabriel-Chemie or X-Rite Color Matching applications? Browse the links below to learn more!
- X-Rite Color-Eye®: https://www.xrite.com/categories/color-matching-apps/coloreye
- X-Rite Blog Consumer Use of Color-Eye®: https://www.xrite.com/blog/shopping-with-color-eye
- Gabriel-Chemie Master of Batch platform: https://gabriel-chemie.com/en/master-of-batch
