After helping to finetune PPG’s game changing DIGIMATCH and VISUALIZID technologies, the local development team is excited about what this combination means for customers across the region.
New technology doesn’t always live up to the hype but, when members of PPG’s local development team first saw the next generation DigiMatch spectrophotometer and the innovative VisualizID colour visualisation software in action, they knew this was something very special. In early 2022, they were given the crucial task of thoroughly testing the technologies under local conditions and providing feedback to the global team as they prepared to launch this incredible double act.
Although DigiMatch and VisualizID are outstanding technologies in their own right, when you put them together the potential was obvious from day-one, according to Richard Jeffs, PPG Territory Manager New Zealand. “Back then, I trialled the initial version ‘live’ in a shop for a week and it was just amazing. Now the launch version is even better – it’s a real game changer.” It’s a similar story with Trevor Duke, PPG Training Manager NSW. “It was a very impressive concept to begin with but now it’s ‘next level’. This digital method of colour matching is easy to use and it provides massive benefits.”
PPG’s ground-breaking colour matching concept starts with the market leading DigiMatch spectro. Thanks to an inbuilt digital colour camera, this compact, lightweight device actually takes readings from six angles of reflectance and six camera angles. In particular, the six colour camera images provide crucial data on texture, pigment particle size, etc. Once the target vehicle has been measured, the highly detailed colour and texture information is seamlessly transferred to the VisualizID function in PAINTMANAGER XI. After performing a search against the target vehicle’s colour code, it’s just a matter of utilising the digital tools within VisualizID to choose the best colour formulation match. And it doesn’t use a drop of tinter, says Richard Jeffs. “I refer to it as a digital spray out process. During the trials, the painters found the process very easy to learn. Instead of all the traditional manual steps, they could just skip straight to going through the digitally rendered spray outs on screen and comparing the different variant options to find the correct one.”
When today’s OEM colours can have 200 or more variant formulations listed against them, the combination of DigiMatch and VisualizID takes colour matching to a whole new dimension, says Trevor Duke. “You have a 3D digital spray out right in front of you on screen and, just like a manual spray out, you can do comparisons using different light sources and at different angles to check the face, flop and flip, etc. You can also zoom right in to see how the colour and texture of the pigment particles compare. It’s like having your own spray out cards on screen. The customers we trialled it with loved the concept and they quickly became confident in choosing the right colour formulation and moving onto the next step.” According to Richard Jeffs, all of the shops where he held trials have since asked for DigiMatch and VisualizID to be installed as soon as possible. “After taking a couple of days to familiarise themselves with the technology, the painters quickly realised the accuracy is excellent and that made it easy to trust. It not only saves them the labour time of going through a manual spray out process, it also saves times in avoiding rework.”