Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 12
Claim 1
Independent Claim
240 words
A process for dyeing or printing of a given shade by color matching, which comprises a) defining a given shade in a FTa*b* color space, where FT is a depth of shade value which, irrespective of hue, defines positions of equal color strength which by definition lie in a plane of the FTa*b* color space, and a* and b* are values of the CIELab color coordinate system; b) determining a* and b* values at a given depth of shade for each dye to be used for color matching; c) determining a* and b* values at a given depth of shade for mixtures of two dyes to be used for color matching; d) segmenting the FTa*b* color space for each depth of shade plane into triangular levels by means of the a* and b* values of the dyes to be used for color matching, wherein the corner points of triangular levels correspond to the dyes to be used for color matching and the connecting line segment between two corner points corresponds to mixtures of the two dyes represented by the two corner points; e) determining a ratio of dyes to be used in a dyeing or printing step by interpolation in a suitable segment from the known a* and b* values of the desired color at the desired depth of shade; and f) carrying out the dyeing or printing step with the ratio of the dyes obtained according to step e).
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
240 words
A process for dyeing or printing of a given shade by color matching, which comprises a) defining a given shade in a FTa*b* color space, where FT is a depth of shade value which, irrespective of hue, defines positions of equal color strength which by definition lie in a plane of the FTa*b* color space, and a* and b* are values of the CIELab color coordinate system; b) determining a* and b* values at a given depth of shade for each dye to be used for color matching; c) determining a* and b* values at a given depth of shade for mixtures of two dyes to be used for color matching; d) segmenting the FTa*b* color space for each depth of shade plane into triangular levels by means of the a* and b* values of the dyes to be used for color matching, wherein the corner points of triangular levels correspond to the dyes to be used for color matching and the connecting line segment between two corner points corresponds to mixtures of the two dyes represented by the two corner points; e) determining a ratio of dyes to be used in a dyeing or printing step by interpolation in a suitable segment from the known a* and b* values of the desired color at the desired depth of shade; and f) carrying out the dyeing or printing step with the ratio of the dyes obtained according to step e).
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
79 words
A process according to claim 1, which comprises recording a given colour and/or a given pattern electronically, preferably digitally, using a scanner or a video camera, displaying said colour or said pattern on a monitor and correcting it, as required, with respect to form and colour, and then printing it on any substrate by means of a printer, by means of which the colour position in the FTa*b* colour space is defined, and is stored and can be matched.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
23 words
A process according to claim 1, wherein all calibration data, FT a*b* data, used for matching a colour are stored in a computer.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
23 words
A process according to claim 1, wherein the desired ratio of the dyes of the segment is obtained by a computer-controlled iteration method.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
26 words
A process according to claim 1, wherein dyes are used as corner points of a segment which meet defined criteria, especially in respect of application properties.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
10 words
A process according to claim 1 for formulating printing recipes.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
42 words
A process according to claim 1, wherein the dyes used for matching the given shade are selected from the group consisting of disperse, acid, metal complex, reactive, vat, sulfur, direct and pigment dyes, cationic dyes, natural dyes, development dyes and food dyes.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
17 words
A process according to claim 1, wherein the dyeing and printing recipes are used on all substrates.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
21 words
Use of the process as claimed in claim 1 for obtaining a dyeing or a print according to a reference shade.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
20 words
Method of use of the process according to claim 1 in a computer-controlled dyeing procedure or a computer-controlled printing procedure.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
109 words
A system for competing a dyeing or printing recipe according to a given shade according to claim 1, comprising a) a scanner or a video camera for digitalising a reference shade, b) a computer-aided design apparatus for displaying and correcting the reference shade on a monitor, c) a colour printer, for example an ink-jet printer, for displaying the reference shade or the corrected shade on any substrate and for calculating the coordinates for each shade or each corrected shade in the FT-a*b* colour space, d) a computer which stores the FTa*b* data of the dyes to be used and and computes the recipe by means of an iteration method.