Colour Measurement for Powdered Raw Materials

For products including cement, concrete, mortar, sand, plaster, etc.

Colour Measurement for Powdered Construction Materials


Spectrophotometers and colorimeters for colour control of powdered construction raw materials

Building materials come in many forms: one of them being in powder form, such as grey materials like cement, mortar, or plaster. The colour of these products depends on the raw materials used to manufacture them. In order to maintain consistency and colour uniformity, it is important to control these raw materials. This is especially true for concrete, where it is necessary to control the aggregates used to obtain the desired colour using a colorimeter or spectrophotometer.
 
Konica Minolta colorimeters are widely used in the production of cement, aggregates, and related products, offering a comparatively rugged and straightforward solution for colour and colour difference measurement that can be used either for colour control and process control for drying/curing.

Colour difference is more perceptible over larger areas, and this is commonly experienced within building materials.


Colour control can help businesses to control processes and offer competitive advantage through improved consistency of finished product.


Konica Minolta offers robust, high-performance colour measurement instruments and quality control software used to establish and maintain colour quality standards in the building materials industry. These solutions enable users to accurately assess and control the quality of raw materials and finished products in production.

A portable tristimulus colorimeter will offer a simple and mobile solution for measuring traceable L*a*b* colour data that can be stored, analysed or shared with customers or supply partners. A benchtop colorimeter or spectrophotometer provides a more static solution that may offer additional flexibility and additional data for the development lab.

By measuring and communicating traceable colour data, organisations in the building materials industry can build supply relationships based on quality, consistency and clear communication, reducing subjectivity from specification through to approval.

The product specialists from Konica Minolta can offer the expertise from hundreds of installations within this field, supported by a network of authorised service facilities in order to offer swift repairs, and to maintain the accuracy and traceability of these instruments year-round.

Benefits

  • Improve production efficiency with traceable data driven process control and quality control whether on powdered wet or curing product.
  • Expedite QC and improve consistency by delivering a consistent colour product to customer specification.
  • Reduce waste and save time in development and manufacturing.
  • Establish a consistent product colour that can be measured and reproduced anywhere in the world.
  • Improve perceived quality.
  • Simplify quality control.

Instruments

Instruments

CR-410 Colorimeter

Simple, portable tristimulus colorimeter with a large measuring aperture of 50mm for pass/fail QC, for colour difference measurements against a target or colour indices. Recommended solution for structured or uneven samples surfaces such as granulates, stones, powder, etc.

CR-5 Benchtop Colorimeter

Top-port benchtop tristimulus colorimeter with a built-in display, an operator wizard, and small, medium and large aperture sizes. Ideal for measurement of powdered cement or aggregates in petri dishes. 

CM-5 Benchtop Spectrophotometer

Top-port benchtop spectrophotometer offering lab operators spectral data and added accuracy over the CR-5. Operation via built-in display or connection to colour data software for analysis, reporting and communication of colour.  

CM-25d Portable Spectrophotometer

Single aperture portable spectrophotometer with user friendly UI, designed for simple, accurate and repeatable measurement of colour on flat surfaces or large samples. 

CM-23d Portable Spectrophotometer

Entry-level sinle aperture spectrophotometer with user friendly UI. Includes a Simple Mode that can measure colour differences with minimal setup . 

SpectraMagix NX Software

SpectraMagic NX is a colour measurement software package that can be used to interface with Konica Minolta instruments. It provides extended reporting and analysis of colour and colour difference. The user has full control of customisation of templates and reports.

Applications

Applications

Aggregate Measurement in the Mass

The CR-410 colorimeter and its CR-A33e glass cone allow the direct measurement of powdery products in the mass. With its 50mm measuring aperture, it is the ideal instrument for measuring structured or uneven surfaces such as sand, stone, etc. The objective is to qualify the quality and colour of raw materials according to the deposits. 

Benchtop Spectrophotometer CM-5 to measure the colour of solid, pasty granular and liquid samples either in reflectance or transmittance (right view)

Clinker Control

Cement is mainly composed of 90% clinker, which is made of 80% limestone and 20% clay. The CM-5 spectrophotometer or the CR-5 colorimeter, two benchtop instruments used in laboratories, allow the whiteness/colour of the limestone and the general colour of the clinker to be measured using a petri dish. The aim is to obtain a cement that is always the same colour. The colour of the cement powder is a guarantee of quality in the eyes of construction professionals.

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