Instrument Spotlight: Barbieri LFP
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[[File:50309.jpg|right|400px|The Barbieri LFPqb]] | [[File:50309.jpg|right|400px|The Barbieri LFPqb]] | ||
+ | In CHROMiX’s Maxwell cloud-based color tracking system, we account for every kind of measuring condition that goes with the measurements that are collected. With all the instruments on the market, these variables can be quite numerous, including: | ||
+ | * Filters like M0, M1, M2, M3, | ||
+ | * Apertures like 2mm, 6mm, 8mm, | ||
+ | * Scan modes like reflective and transmissive, | ||
+ | * Whether a scan is done patch-by-patch or in a continuous swipe, | ||
+ | * How many measurements the instrument will take per patch, | ||
+ | * Environmental factors like temperature and humidity at time of measuring, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The reason I bring this up here is that the LFPqb can be set to any of the variables above. This is an instrument that can do just about *everything* and does it very well. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Here are some of the features unique to the LFPqb: | ||
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This reserved article originally appeared in CHROMiX ColorNews Issue 69 on September 26th, 2019.
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Instrument Spotlight: The Barbieri LFP
Vvvaarrooooom!
This issue’s Instrument Spotlight features the Italian racecar of spectrophotometers: The Barbieri LFP.
History
Hailing from a small town in the Italian Alps, the Barbieri company has been making instruments for many decades. The first LFP was introduced in 2004. They came out with the LFP Series 3 in 2010, and today’s top-of-the-line model is the LFPqb. Naturally,their products have a robust following in Europe, but the addition of a corporate office in New York and a service center in Utah has made them more readily available to the North American market; accordingly, they recently have sparked more interest in the US. Located a mere 100 kilometers from the famed Italian “Motor Valley,” I can’t help but wonder if the folks at Barbieri have been inspired by the precision engineering that goes on down the road at Ferrari, Maserati, and Lamborghini. The company creed has always been about quality: Barbieri wants their customers to always be able to measure color in the most accurate way.
The LFP is a table-based spectrophotometer, which means there is a bed or table on which the media to be measured lies, and this table is moved underneath the measuring head to measure each patch. This makes for automated measuring: once you set the chart up to be measured, you can walk away and do other things while measurement occurs. This will naturally leave less room for human error than the hand-held devices we have spotlighted earlier. If you have been in the industry long enough to remember the old Gretag Macbeth SpectroScan tables, you have a general idea of how this works.
Any further comparison between the two is valueless when looking at the modern LFP. These units are very robust, accurate, and fast - they are capable of finishing a 960-patch chart in as few as 8 minutes using scan mode, a typical aperture, and no filter in the measurement. (Patch by patch measuring and the use of a polarizer will make measurements take longer.) The new LFPqb model is even faster.
This Spotlight will feature both the LFP Series 3 and the LFPqb because they both continue to be actively sold and supported. To continue my sports car analogy, the LFPqb is more of an ultra-high-performance Lamborghini, while the LFP 3 is more of an everyday-exotic Italian Alfa Romeo.
Special Features of the LFPqb
In CHROMiX’s Maxwell cloud-based color tracking system, we account for every kind of measuring condition that goes with the measurements that are collected. With all the instruments on the market, these variables can be quite numerous, including:
- Filters like M0, M1, M2, M3,
- Apertures like 2mm, 6mm, 8mm,
- Scan modes like reflective and transmissive,
- Whether a scan is done patch-by-patch or in a continuous swipe,
- How many measurements the instrument will take per patch,
- Environmental factors like temperature and humidity at time of measuring,
The reason I bring this up here is that the LFPqb can be set to any of the variables above. This is an instrument that can do just about *everything* and does it very well.
Here are some of the features unique to the LFPqb:
Thanks for reading,
Patrick Herold
CHROMIX, Inc.