Axalta recently announced that it has sold its 60,000th spectrophotometer.
According to the company, 10,000 units of the product were sold within the last 15-month period. Axalta considers the reason for the current increase in sales to be due to a trend of growing global digitalization. Handheld digital tools like these are designed to aid collision repair shops to increase their efficiency by quickly and accurately matching colours. Axalta’s spectrophotometers are available worldwide.
“Adopting a digital approach to color matching and retrieval is a global trend that started 25 years ago when Axalta was one of the first coatings companies to offer a digital device and software to refinish customers,” says Dr Martin Wulf, Axalta’s Colour and Technical Manager for Refinish Systems in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”Today, we encourage all of our users to future-proof themselves and optimize their efficiency by moving to digital colour measurement.”
The company explains in a release that the latest generation of spectrophotometers, as well as the accompanying cloud-based colour software, are easy to use. Automotive refinish technicians may use the spectrophotometer to take colour readings of the paintwork of a vehicle. The device transmits these readings to Axalta’s online global colour database wirelessly. Axalta’s colour matching software sifts through over 200,000 updated formulas to look for the correct match. When required, it also makes necessary adjustments to the closest available formula. This enables the refinish technicians to receive the best match possible for the vehicle they are working on. The refinisher can then select the formula identified on a smartphone or a tablet and send it using WIFI to an IP scale to mix the colour formula. Axalta states that this complete process is more accurate, more efficient and more profitable.
“The future is now,” adds Wulf. “The spectrophotometer is clearly a valuable part of modern refinish work. We expect to see continued and significant growth globally as bodyshops adopt a completely digital way of working. For customers who are looking at going digital, we will support and help them make a seamless transition to a fully digital colour management process.”
