Inter-instrument agreement refers to how similar two or more spectrophotometers’ measurements are when reading the same color. A close inter-instrument agreement (IIA) signals your instruments are reliable and produce replicable results, while a poor IIA indicates your instruments are not uniform across your supply chain.
IIA has limited useability if you’re only operating one spectrophotometer, but it’s vital if you have many instruments operating in your supply chain. Keep your color measurement instruments consistent by ensuring proper inter-instrument agreement across your chain of equipment.
Why Is Inter-Instrument Agreement Important?
Inter-instrument agreement is essential for ensuring the uniformity of products, test samples and scientific readings across your facilities and supply chain. Without IIA, there is no way to ensure color quality across test samples. Significant inter-instrument agreement also reduces the need for new batches due to color errors and helps you save money in the long run.
Inter-instrument agreement helps you achieve the necessary numerical tolerances for acceptable color differences, known as Delta E tolerances. Delta E tolerances minimize color inconsistencies across a global supply chain by referring to colors using standardized numerical values.
Every spectrophotometer comes with specs that tell you the Delta E tolerance of your equipment. The smaller your equipment’s Delta E tolerance, the higher your rate of inter-instrument agreement. This factor allows you to streamline your global color operation by ensuring color quality at a universal scale.
