Many factors impact an individual’s color perception, so not all humans see color the same way. Read more about how humans see color and what can affect the ways that we perceive color.

How Humans See Color

When light hits an object, the item absorbs some light and reflects the rest. This reflected light penetrates the human eye and the lens focuses it into the retina. The retina has cones and rods that process the light into nerve impulses. This transmits a signal to the brain, resulting in seeing a color. Color is powerful, even influencing how we see certain businesses because of their branding styles.

Objects do not have an inherent color — we perceive the reflected color that the object’s surface does not absorb. A red delicious apple isn’t really red because the apple reflects the wavelengths we perceive as red and absorbs the rest. When all the wavelengths are reflected, the object appears white. When the object’s surface absorbs all the wavelengths, the object appears black.

Understanding color codings in business is important for safety, disaster preparedness, and adherence to safety agency guidelines. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have standards for safety color codings for industrial environments. This guide to industrial color-coding explains what each color means and where to use it.

Purpose and Benefits of Industrial Business Color Codings

Color coding in industrial settings is used as an essential safety measure. Different risks, dangers and safety hazards are assigned a certain color. Colors are better than verbiage because colors are universal and easier to identify from a distance. Workers immediately recognize colors and their meaning concerning different safety hazards. You can implement these colors anywhere you think is necessary for your facility.

The benefits of safety color codings include:

• Increase your employees’ productivity and safety by reducing the likelihood of accidents and errors.
• Standardize visual communication to eliminate speculation.
• Protect your assets from environmental factors.
• Simplify tasks.
• Enhance your facility’s appearance.

What is DDGS?

Distillers dry grains with solubles (DDGS) is a feed ingredient substitute widely used for its high nutritional content and low production cost in the feed industry. It is a significant co-product of dry-milled ethanol production from corn. For every bushel of corn, dry-grind ethanol extraction yields ~10.22 L of ethanol and 8.16 kg DDGS.

When blended into the animal feed, DDGS provides a high-protein meal. It is also a good source of calcium, phosphorus, and sulfur and most commonly feeds cattle, dairy cows, swine, and some poultry. DDGS substitute roughly 1-to-1 for corn grain in feed rations.

The DDGS industry is booming.

According to the US Grains Council, high ethanol production across the country has led to the export of 11 million tons of DDGS to 69 countries in 2020/21 when compared to 5 million tons in 2009. Mexico is the biggest buyer, with over 18 percent of the export market. Vietnam, South Korea, Turkey, and Indonesia are the other top importers.

The future looks bright too. Data Bridge, a leading market research organization, projected the demand for organic DDGS to grow at a rate of 7.00% in the 2020 to 2027 forecast period and expected to reach USD 20.95 billion by 2029.

Since color influences product quality, safety and costs, consistency is important, establishing the need for international color standards. Certified color standards are composed of electrophotographic reflectance data that combines a master electronic standard and visual reference to ensure consistent colors across materials.

International Color Standards

There are several color standard charts for reference:

• RGB: The red, green, blue (RGB) color standard is the color display for LCD screens, CRT monitors and plasma displays.
• CMYK: The cyan, magenta, yellow, key (CMYK) color standards are used for printing since the RGB standard cannot create black.
• Pantone: Pantone color standards are vibrant, solid colors that can be converted to RGB or CMYK when necessary.
• USDA: USDA color standards help agriculture professionals decide when produce should be picked and how it should be graded. Food processors also use these standards for food processing and packaging.

Spectrophotometers are invaluable to many industries, delivering the color consistency necessary to streamline supply chain efficiencies and maximize product quality. The key to ensuring optimal instrument performance and color measurement quality is knowing how to properly maintain a spectrophotometer.

Best Practices for Taking Care of Your Spectrophotometer

Spectrophotometers must undergo the proper routine maintenance to deliver the most precise and accurate measurements. With the right calibration and care, you can ensure that your color spectrophotometer performs at its best.

If you work in the clothing industry, you know the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest clothing trends. You want to produce garments in the most eye-catching colors of the season to attract consumers looking to stay in style with the most recent fashions and keep your company credible and relevant.

You can learn about the most current and fashionable summertime clothing colors to incorporate into your designs through our comprehensive guide.

Accuracy and efficiency are crucial in the realm of color measurement. With non-contact spectrophotometry, you can optimize instrument performance and precision, leading to accurate results for even the most challenging samples.

What Is Non-Contact Spectrophotometry?

Non-contact spectrophotometry combines spectrophotometry with color imaging procedures to characterize highly complex materials. Like standard spectrophotometry, non-contact spectrophotometry facilitates the quantitative measurement of light absorption over a range of wavelengths to measure the color of a sample. However, this particular technique accomplishes this task without touching the sample surface, facilitating irregular sample measurement with greater accuracy and efficiency.