February 24, 2003, New Windsor, NY – GretagMacbeth today announced the new Color i 5, a sphere-based laboratory spectrophotometer that sets a new standard in the mid-range instrument class. The Color i 5, with an array of advanced features, offers unprecedented ease and flexibility for accurately measuring the widest variety of sample shapes, sizes, textures and opacity. It also adds value throughout the enterprise and extended enterprise by enabling supply chain color management between legacy systems and today’s high precision spectrophotometers. The Color i 5 is the first in a series of new color measurement technologies released under GretagMacbeth’s new Enterprise Color Management (ECM) program. Designed with industry-leading price/performance features, the Color i 5 is ideally suited for busy labs requiring speed and throughput. The Color i 5 feature set includes: - Tri-Beam technology that simultaneously measures specular component included and excluded for simplified gloss assessment. - Multiple areas of view in both reflectance and transmittance for the most versatility in measuring non-uniform and variable size samples. - Self-adjusting, dual zoom lens eliminates configuration errors between aperture plates and lens position. - Video preview or sample drop door for precision targeting and measurement accuracy. - Automated ultraviolet adjustment for speed and convenience when measuring fluorescent or optically brightened samples. - Versatile vertical and horizontal measurement orientation in a single instrument. - USB and RS-232 interfaces eliminate connectivity issues. - Built-in user selectable profiles for 7000A and 3100, offering optimal agreement across models. When implemented with GretagMacbeth’s NetProfiler, the bridges the gap between legacy color data and data obtained through more recent higher precision instruments. This makes the Color i 5 a seamless addition to existing color measurement networks and ensures compliance with supply chain color management programs. Part of the ECM Communication program, NetProfiler is a Web service that remotely monitors, calibrates, adjusts and certifies a network of spectrophotometers. It ensures measurement accuracy and consistency. According to Mike Beering, product marketing manager, Enterprise Color Management Measurement products, for GretagMacbeth, “Until now, customers with older, yet perfectly working systems, were precluded from upgrading to newer instruments due to data incompatibility between existing instruments and newer technology. With the Color i 5, they can upgrade to newer technology and still utilize their historic data, plus network instruments within their own organization or throughout their supply chain.” He adds, “That’s good news for early adopters of spectrophotometers, many of whom are still using GretagMacbeth 2020+ and 3000 series instruments.”