Color dispensing (often referred to as color blending, dosing or tinting) is divided into two main technologies – volumetric and gravimetric.
Formulations or Recipes contain individual base colors and addtives which are dosed into a can, bucket or drum in the required quantities under the control of the system software. These addtions of base colors and additives are either measured volumetrically or gravimetrically:
- Volumetric dispensers dose a volume of product, by priming a discharge chamber or measuring pump cycles. This method delivers an assumed quantity of product into the can. Volumetic systems are typically used for point-of-sale tinting systems for decorative paints where lower accuracy and lower repeatability levels are needed.
- Gravimetric dispensers weigh the precise amount of each ingredient using precision dispense valves above a highly accurate weighing platform, thus adding an exact known quantity into the dispense vessel. Gravimetric systems are typically used by customers requiring a fast turnaround of high quality, repeatable paint batches - often across a wide range of sizes, i.e. 1L, 5L, 20L, 200L, etc.
Therefor, gravimetric dispensing is commonly regarded as the most reliable, accurate, flexible and robust method to produce high quality product batches. Rexson only manufacture gravimetric systems.
Find out more about Gravimetric versus Volumetric dispensing.