THE USE OF NIRA IN DYE QUALITY-CONTROL

In dye manufacturing, the conformance of samples to certain customer t olerances is a special form of quality control in which accurate color measurement is essential. One method widely used to determine color d eviations involves visual comparisons by a trained colorist of dyed an d conditioned fabric swatches of the sample dye to an internal company standard. Inconsistencies that exist in the subjectivity of a coloris t's judgment and the time spent dyeing and conditioning fabric swatche s hinder the efficiency of this quality process. Near infrared reflect ance analysis (NIRA) is a secondary analytical technique which offers rapid and easy sample preparation and measurement once calibration dat a sets have been developed. This paper summarizes the results of an in vestigation into the use of NIRA for evaluating color deviations in di fferent production batches of an acid dye, Tectilon Red 2B.