Hitting the bullseye

In general, refinish painters are a pretty world-weary, sceptical bunch. Faced with ‘another’ new technology that is going to change their lives, they can often be indifferent or even hostile. This is exactly the scenario the PPG technical team often walked into when rolling out the new DigiMatch and VisualizID technologies to the company’s largest global refinish customer. Comprising over 800 shops across the U.S. and Canada, the Boyd Gerber Group has enjoyed a strong partnership with PPG since around 2004. Despite the Gerber management team being blown away when they saw DigiMatch and VisualizID in action, individual painters on the shopfloor were not prepared to cut the PPG team any slack, according to Elson Dolliver, PPG’s Boyd Gerber Assured Account Manager.

threw all the worst-case situations and colours at us. DigiMatch and VisualizID nailed it and he switched to loving the process. Once the other painters saw that, the news spread quickly. These painters have been around the block and they know what is real and what isn’t and these technologies have definitely caught their imagination. You can’t fake it!”

Perfect partners

Combining the DigiMatch spectrophotometer with VisualizID 3D visualisation software creates something truly special. As well as being compact, lightweight and intuitive to use, the DigiMatch spectro features an inbuilt digital camera allowing it to gather an unprecedented amount of data from six imaging angles, as well as

This highly detailed information from the target colour is seamlessly transferred to the VisualizID function in PAINTMANAGER® XI by WiFi or via the docking station. This is where it makes the jump from physical sprayout to 3D digital spray-out. On one side of the screen, VisualizID displays a digital rendering of the vehicle colour, created from DigiMatch spectro data. The operator then selects any of the colour formulations from the vehicle paint code search which generates a digital spray-out right next to the target vehicle colour. Technicians can then make comparisons as if they were holding a conventional spray-out against the vehicle and, with a click, they can select and compare any of the colour variants on the list. The 3D spray-outs can be rotated to any viewing direct and the light source direction can be moved around to help view different effects. Other options, include ‘blend view’ (representing a blend situation) and ‘edge view’ (representing an edge-to-edge finish), as well as different angles to assess the flash, flop and face of the colour and the ability to zoom into the images to help pick up potentially subtle differences.

Game-changer

As the number of Gerber shops using the technology continues to grow, the success of the program just keeps gathering momentum, says Elson Dolliver. “We are way past the days of having just five to the 3D renderings as a flat or a curved panel, they can use different light sources and from different directions.

One of the tricks they quickly picked up on is the ‘formula compare’ option. It lets you compare up to four variants at a time and it lists the tinters used in each mix. VisualizID will also renders two variants at a time so you can compare them side-by-side. That has become super popular!”

Other clever DigiMatch features have also contributed to the positive shopfloor feedback. For example, when measuring a vehicle’s paintwork, it’s easy to use the touchscreen to enter the paint code and a reference, such as the last four digits of the job number, so it’s there when the reading is downloaded. An ‘automatic’ mode adds even more convenience. Once the spectro’s three sensor pins are activated to indicate a good seal on the target panel, the device can be programmed to automatically

0 seconds and 5 seconds without the operator having

From strength to strength

With the number of North American DigiMatch and VisualizID growing rapidly, Elson rates it as one of the most successful PPG implementations ever. “New technology doesn’t necessarily live up to the hype but, in this case, people are actually blown away because DigiMatch and VisualizID really works. The confidence of the painters is way up and we see them nail colours a heck of a lot faster, without having to do a spray-out.