Special effects in paints and coatings continue to gain in popularity in the automotive industry and elsewhere. Unlike conventional solid colors, effect finishes change their appearance with viewing angle and lighting conditions. The visual appearance of a special effect finish can change from uniform gray under a cloudy sky to colorful sparkles in bright sunlight. Such coatings have a vivid, lively effect and emphasize the styling lines of the car body. However, they also present a new challenge for achieving color harmony between car body and add-on parts.

With BYK’s unique, portable measuring instrument, the BYK-mac, users obtain consistently reliable measurement results for effect color, sparkle, and graininess – results that provide an objective basis for evaluating paints and finishes. In addition to color evaluation from the traditional five angles “in front of the gloss,” this new measuring system also evaluates color from a sixth angle “behind the gloss.” In particular, this makes it possible to characterize the color flops of interference pigments better. In addition, an image analysis system quantifies changes in the sparkle effect under different lighting conditions. In this way, special effects, such as sparkle under direct illumination and graininess under diffused illumination, can be analyzed. And BYK-mac can be used to study not only test panels, but also curved parts. The instrument’s patented illumination system provides measurement results that are temperature-independent and stable over the long term. If the unit is improperly positioned – when measuring curved parts, for example – special sensors on the bottom plate trigger an alarm. With its ease of operation, the BYK-mac can be used both in the analysis of test panels and on site in the quality control of end products.