S
Paint
If we are going to paint the interior of our condo, we buy all the paint at same time, picking our color from the charts and having it all mixed by the same person. Most paint dealers have machines that mix the colors based on formulas. If you get it all at same time, your chances of getting cans that are the same are quite good.
paint
if they use a compuer to make the color it should be the same. Apparently they are doing the mixing by eye andformula. All paint medium are standard. Get some information from the manufacturer in oder tp solve your color problems.
if they use a compuer to make the color it should be the same. Apparently they are doing the mixing by eye andformula. All paint medium are standard. Get some information from the manufacturer in oder tp solve your color problems.
Q is correct in theory, but in practice, even the manufacturer has difficulty reproducing specific colors, and that's under ideal conditions. It is as much art and craft as it is science and recipe. And of course, the suppliers of the pigments also have trouble with consistency from batch to batch. That's the nature of "batch" production.
All paint medium are standard? I beg to differ. As one who personally created the paint forumlas, I adjusted our formulas sometimes daily, and our color standards were developed new every year. Paint formulas are even changed based on the weather, the type of application equipment, the intended thickness of the individaul coats, the number of coats, the substrate over which they will be applied, and yes, that includes adjustments in pigment ratios and pigment levels. Remember, as one can of paint differs from the next, one scoop of pigment used to make the tint paste varies from the next.
In fact, you can take some of the paint you used to paint your house and had stored in the back for a couple years, shake it up and it will NOT match perfectly. Just the degree of agitation can affect the shade, so you can imagine how difficult it is to get it to match at the point of application. Even if the color matched a standard at the store, paints can match perfectly at one time of the day and not at all another time of the day. They type if light used to determine the color, the angle of the light (9am vs. noon), and the angle at which the applied paint is viewed can all produce different shades.
In the car paint business, we call that the difference between the flop and the face, and in production, we match panels in light booths that have a wide variety of different types of lights to get the best average match. A computer cannot match paint as well as a trained color matcher, but perhaps better than a paint store manager. But it may not be the fault of the store at all.
Also, it depends how picky you are. I can show you 5 black panels and you will declare them to be perfect matches. Then I lay then next to eachother, one against the other, and they will appear to run the gammit from a dirty brown-black to the deepest jet black. Color match is very subjective and very contextual.
Paint that matches at noon might not match well at 7pm, and paint that matches when looking straight down at it might not match the SAME paint when viewed from an angle. We see this all the time, where if you don't consider this, a fender will not match the hood, even if it is the SAME paint.
If you've ever bought separate cans on different weeks or months, and they matched very well, consider yourself lucky. Of course, some colors are much easier to match than others.
In the business, we spend quite a bit of time making adjustments to get it just right, and we have far more resources to pull from at the plant. The stores can't just forever keep mixing combinations of tints until they get it right.
I know this is way more than you ever wanted to know about paint, but how often do I get to talk about it. I was one of the key developers of the color plus clear acrylic paint systems that is standard on most cars today, back in the 80's. Prior, most cars were basecoat only (no clear).
Ken is correct. The most important point is to get it from the same batch. The colors of the tints themselves will shift and it can shift, oxydize, decompise, or otherwise change to the point that no combination will product the desired color.
Jim Hinsch
ex-chemical engineer
Paint manufacturing and development
PPG
All paint medium are standard? I beg to differ. As one who personally created the paint forumlas, I adjusted our formulas sometimes daily, and our color standards were developed new every year. Paint formulas are even changed based on the weather, the type of application equipment, the intended thickness of the individaul coats, the number of coats, the substrate over which they will be applied, and yes, that includes adjustments in pigment ratios and pigment levels. Remember, as one can of paint differs from the next, one scoop of pigment used to make the tint paste varies from the next.
In fact, you can take some of the paint you used to paint your house and had stored in the back for a couple years, shake it up and it will NOT match perfectly. Just the degree of agitation can affect the shade, so you can imagine how difficult it is to get it to match at the point of application. Even if the color matched a standard at the store, paints can match perfectly at one time of the day and not at all another time of the day. They type if light used to determine the color, the angle of the light (9am vs. noon), and the angle at which the applied paint is viewed can all produce different shades.
In the car paint business, we call that the difference between the flop and the face, and in production, we match panels in light booths that have a wide variety of different types of lights to get the best average match. A computer cannot match paint as well as a trained color matcher, but perhaps better than a paint store manager. But it may not be the fault of the store at all.
Also, it depends how picky you are. I can show you 5 black panels and you will declare them to be perfect matches. Then I lay then next to eachother, one against the other, and they will appear to run the gammit from a dirty brown-black to the deepest jet black. Color match is very subjective and very contextual.
Paint that matches at noon might not match well at 7pm, and paint that matches when looking straight down at it might not match the SAME paint when viewed from an angle. We see this all the time, where if you don't consider this, a fender will not match the hood, even if it is the SAME paint.
If you've ever bought separate cans on different weeks or months, and they matched very well, consider yourself lucky. Of course, some colors are much easier to match than others.
In the business, we spend quite a bit of time making adjustments to get it just right, and we have far more resources to pull from at the plant. The stores can't just forever keep mixing combinations of tints until they get it right.
I know this is way more than you ever wanted to know about paint, but how often do I get to talk about it. I was one of the key developers of the color plus clear acrylic paint systems that is standard on most cars today, back in the 80's. Prior, most cars were basecoat only (no clear).
Ken is correct. The most important point is to get it from the same batch. The colors of the tints themselves will shift and it can shift, oxydize, decompise, or otherwise change to the point that no combination will product the desired color.
Jim Hinsch
ex-chemical engineer
Paint manufacturing and development
PPG
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Even in upholstery the dyelots vary. No one is good enough to get the color right twice in a row
When I manufactured furniture I would try and match only by dyelot and not color.
When I manufactured furniture I would try and match only by dyelot and not color.
BOXING PAINT
OHHHH LETS SEE, IF YOU GET SEVERAL CANS OF PAINT (QUARTS), OR BETTER YET A 5 GALLON CANS, IF YOU NEED THAT MUCH, GET 5 GAL EMPTY BUCKETS AND MIX THEM BACK AND FORTH SEVERAL TIMES, ITS CALLED BOXING AND WILL GEVE THE SAME SHADE OR COLOR TO ALL THE PAINT. HAVE A HAPPY PAINT PARTY. JIM
OHHHH LETS SEE, IF YOU GET SEVERAL CANS OF PAINT (QUARTS), OR BETTER YET A 5 GALLON CANS, IF YOU NEED THAT MUCH, GET 5 GAL EMPTY BUCKETS AND MIX THEM BACK AND FORTH SEVERAL TIMES, ITS CALLED BOXING AND WILL GEVE THE SAME SHADE OR COLOR TO ALL THE PAINT. HAVE A HAPPY PAINT PARTY. JIM
Thanks Jim
That was very interesting.
I have a question. How about sunlight? Does it affect the colour overtime? I painted my appartment in yellow, I mixed the paint myself, and, since it is not store-customed colour, I saved some pots to re-touch the paint overtime. I've found out that now it is somewhat darker than that on the wall. What's it all about?
That was very interesting.
I have a question. How about sunlight? Does it affect the colour overtime? I painted my appartment in yellow, I mixed the paint myself, and, since it is not store-customed colour, I saved some pots to re-touch the paint overtime. I've found out that now it is somewhat darker than that on the wall. What's it all about?
Jim, I don't mean to be a jerk but bc/cc paint systems have been around since at least the early 70's on european cars and middle to late 70's on some jap models. Started working in a store in 1981 (now owner) and remember acrylic lacq. and acrylic enamel systems were in stock then. 300s lucite and I believe 900s for Centari. Next time I'm down would be glad to talk shop with you. Randy E- Dupont jobber
Randy E said:
I think people have been putting clear over base coats even longer than that.
The paint systems I (as part of a team) developed in the 80'sare high bake acrylic enamels meant to be applied electrostatically with special formulas to achieve superiour reflective depth and high durability and is the same system used to day, but not like the systems prior.
Re: Thanks Jim
Sunlight, water, oxygen all can decompose the pigments in paint, affecting color. Yellow holds up good, second only to white.
Pib said:
Sunlight, water, oxygen all can decompose the pigments in paint, affecting color. Yellow holds up good, second only to white.