Understanding CMC and its importance in Textile Industry

 

Introduction

In textiles and particularly Merchandising work, achieving shade in contrast to the standard shade (Swatch Provided or approved by the buyer) is very crucial, meaning matching the shade of different lots with the provided or approved standard of the buyer is very much important. Otherwise, the chances of your shipment getting claimed or disapproved at the final audit stage get very prominent, which is not something any company and particularly a merchandising team would want.

There are two methods through which shades are matched and approved according to standard shade.

• Manual Shade Matching

• CMC shade approval

Manual Shade Matching 

This process is the oldest yet very common approach in the textile industry where the shade is matched under a standard lightbox. The merchandiser place standard shade with the shade that needs to be approved and through his naked eye, and through his experience he decides and declares whether the shade is in accordance with the standard shade or not.

Bear in mind that this type of approval is very critical and an experienced person is recommended to do so, a first-timer might approve the wrong shade. Although this process is not something that will require years of experience, rather it's more with practice, the more you practice the more fluent you would become at approving and matching the shade.

What is meant by CMC?

The actual abbreviation of CMC is "Color Matching Cabinet" It is simply a lightbox shown above which is use to match the shade of the lot in comparison to the provided standard. This light box has different light sources that is used to analyze the shade.

There are different light sources namely,

• Artificial Daylight (D-65)

• Cool White Fluorescent Light (CWF)

• Ultra Violet Black Light

• Tungsten Filament Light

• TL-84 Light-Trosposphere Fluorescent

In general, only a D-65 light source is used to approve or disapprove shades. Others are not used much, rather it depends on the type of fabric and if the buyer has demanded to check shades under a specific light source.

Data Color Report

One way to approve shades we have already discussed, the other way or rather a more scientific way to do so is the data color report a.k.a CMC report. This report is generally generated by analyzing the intensity of the shade through a machine called “Spectrophotometer”. This device analyzes five important aspects of shade or color that is,

ΔL = Lightness of the shade

Δa = Redder/Greener side of the shade

Δb = Yellower/Blueish side of the shade

ΔH = Hue

ΔC = Chroma

Where,

L* indicates Lightness

(ΔL*, + = Lighter, - = Darker)

a* indicates the Red/Green

(Δa* , + = Redder, - = Greener)

b* indicates the Yellow/Blue

(Δb* , + = Yellower, - = Bluer)

Hue: (H)

When asked to identify the color of an object, you will most likely speak first of its Hue. Quite simply, hue is how we perceive an object’s color —--- Red, Orange, Green, Blue etc.

H is the Hue 

(ΔH*, difference in hue)

Chroma: ( C )

Chroma describes the brightness or Dullness of a color —--- in other words, how close the color is to either gray or the pure hue. 

C* represents Chroma

(ΔC*, + = Brighter, - = Duller)

For Example: 

Think of the appearance of a Tomato and a Carrot. The red of the Tomato is Vivid, while the Carrot appears duller.

Sample of CMC Data Color Report

DE(CMC)

This metric is the overall and cumulative score of the data color, this metric shows three aspects of the shade as final verdict

• Pass

• Warn (Warning)

• Fail

The CMC data color report score has to be under 0.70 in order to Pass. If the score is under 0.70 then the CMC will declare the shade as Fail.

That's all for this week, I'll see you the next week with new topic. Till then, this was Usama Raza signing off.