E-Mail: shop@torso.de Phone: +49 9342-9339-70 (Mo.-Th. 09am - 12am) Contact
Settings
Shipping country
Languages
Your inquiry list is empty.
You do not have any products in your shopping cart yet.

Color cards - how are they made?

Basically, a distinction is made between color fans, color cards, color sample folders and displays as well as plaster, wood and textile pattern cards. The possible manufacturing processes are just as diverse: lacquer, paint drawing, chip mounting, spray application, powder coating and screen printing. Depending on the purpose, material and design of the card, these methods are used for the production of an individual color sample card. In the following, the most important production methods are explained.

Lacquer
The paint-drawing process uses special machines that, at first sight, are similar to those in the paper industry. The backing paper passes from large supply rolls under a squeegee device. With the help of the squeegee, the varnish is applied in one or more strips to the paper, which continues to run over many meters of drying distance up to a cutting knife. There, the endless webs are cut into large sheets and stacked.
These monochrome or multicolored striped sheets are cut to a smaller size to eventually be further processed into color fans or cards.
The lacquer method allows the highest color fidelity. The color variations throughout the production process are minimal. The design of the color surfaces is limited by the type of application to individual widths of the color strips. Especially color fans can be produced very effectively and in high quality with this method.
 
Paint printing
In addition to conventional printing processes such as offset and screen printing, lacquer printing is a proprietary technique for applying enamel paint to paper substrates. In this process, paint that has been dyed to customer specifications is applied directly to the paper with the help of metal printing plates. Up to 400 different shades can be applied in one print run.
Since a special printing form has to be produced for the most individual design of the color areas, the lacquer printing method is suitable above all for large runs. The advantage of greater color accuracy and light stability outweighs the price disadvantage over standard offset printing by the higher quality. The color surfaces can be designed freely and, for example, also have shapes such as stars, clouds or blots.
 
Chip Mounting
Chip mounting means that patterns - of whatever kind - are glued to a carrier card. These may be varnished lacquered patterns that are cut to size, as well as varnished veneers, leather or textile patterns. Together with the individual design of the carrier card, inspiring product information is created for a wide variety of industries, enabling customers to feel the fascination of the materials.
 
Quality control
In addition to the design and the clean craftsmanship, the most important thing about a color sample card is the accuracy of color reproduction. In order to keep these as high as possible, state-of-the-art technology is used: spectrophotometers for color measurement, hardware and software for the calculation and management of data, and standard light booths for visual matching.
 
After the template provided by the customer, the colors for the color cards and compartments are adjusted. For this, the originals are measured with a spectrophotometer and the color and paint formulations are calculated on the basis of the determined values. The varnishes mixed on this basis are applied to paper in the laboratory, dried and again checked with the spectrophotometer. If the result is correct, the samples are sent to the customer for release. The color formulas are stored and available for post-production.