UltraScan PRO

Below is a picture of the USPRO instrument and the standard accessories that ship with the instrument.

Please check the attached document for more information
If you have any questions contact HunterLab at support@hunterlab.com

Please check the attached document for more information
If you have any questions contact HunterLab at support@hunterlab.com

Please check the attached document for more information
If you have any questions contact HunterLab at support@hunterlab.com

Please check the attached document for more information

If you have any questions contact HunterLab at support@hunterlab.com

Please check the attached document for more information

If you have any questions contact HunterLab at support@hunterlab.com

HunterLab uses the term "peak to peak" (P-P) to represent the maximum range for a consecutive group of 20 readings of the Instrument Standard White tile for a Reflectance Specular-Included test or an empty transmittance compartment for a Transmittance test.  To simulate this testing Configure EasyMatch QC to take 20 timed readings at 10 second interval. When the readings are complete then for each wavelength between calculate the peak to peak by subtracting the minimum %R or %T reading from the group of 20 from the Maximum %R or %T reading from the group of twenty and report the difference.  The maximum allowable P-P for a given wavelength range is shown in the table below.

Maximum P-P per λ

385nm-405nm 0.5 %T
410nm-430nm 0.3 %T
435nm-695nm 0.2 %T
700nm-765nm 0.3 %T
770nm-815nm 0.4 %T
820nm-840nm 0.5 %T
845nm-955nm 1.0 %T
960nm-970nm 2.0 %T
975nm-995nm 3.0 %T

Do you still need more information? Submit a ticket and our support team member will reach out to you soon!

A sensor reading 0 at 350nm can usually only be remedied by increasing signal levels or replacing the sphere, this is a different issue than reading 0 at any other wavelength. Technically 350nm and 355nm have no weighting in all the Observer tables so your Tristimulus and Scale and Index results are not affected by this issue.

If you notice an unexpected 0 %R or %T at any wavelength above 420nm then suspect a communication error between the LSUP and SPSP boards in the sensor.

If you notice a long string of 0's from 350nm to 400nm or up to 420nm then check the UV Filter position as it may be inserted into the light path.

Question: In the past I have seen UltraScan Pro with Flash settings 2/5/8 and now see settings Flashes 4 / 5 / 8, what do those settings mean and why are they different?

Answer: As of April 2017 the typical settings are 

# Flashes 4 / 5 / 8

Frequency (Hz) 5 / 5 / 5

Bursts/Flash 1 / 1 / 2

A Burst is the process that ignites the Xenon gas in the lamp. A Flash is a pulse of already ignited gas. For the UltraScan Pro for Large Area of View (LAV) there is one Burst which consists of 4 Flashes. It is difficult for the human eye to visually see the individual flashes, but one can audibly hear a "click" for each flash. In the setting above for LAV the lamp would come on, you would hear 4 clicks and the lamp would go off. In the setting above for Small Area of View (SAV) the lamp would come on and you would hear 8 clicks. The lamp would go off then the lamp would come on again and you would hear 8 clicks and the lamp would go off . Frequency is the rate at which the capacitor charges between the Bursts.

HunterLab believes that due to ROHs the glass composition of the xenon flash tubes has changed which has reduced the UltraViolet (UV) output of the lamp. To compensate for the reduced UV output and still be able to perform a Ganz Whiteness UV Calibration the number of flashes per burst has been increased for LAV.

If you install a new lamp (XPLM) into an older UltraScan Pro you may need to increase the number of Flashes for LAV in order to UV calibrate.

Do you still need more information? Submit a ticket and our support team member will reach out to you soon!

Question: What does it mean maximum peak to peak 0.20 between 435nm and 695nm on the UltraScan Pro specifications?

Answer:

HunterLab uses the term "peak-to-peak" to represent the maximum range for a consecutive group of 20 readings of the Instrument Standard White tile.  Configure EasyMatch QC to take 20 timed readings at 10 second intervals. When the readings are complete then for each wavelength between from 435nm to 695nm calculate the peak-to-peak.  Using the group of 20 readings, subtract the minimum %R or %T reading from the Maximum %R or %T reading and report the difference. If the difference is above 0.20 then the instrument may need adjustment.

Do you still need more information? Submit a ticket and our support team member will reach out to you soon!

Question: The User's Manual shows the didymium tolerance to one decimal point and the EasyMatch QC Diagnostics program shows to two decimal points. For example, @430nm the manual says by no more than 1.2 %T and the QC Diagnostics shows +/- 1.25 %T . Which of these values are correct?

Answer:

Significant digits are important. The UltraScan Pro has fixed reporting using double precision floating point. This means that every measurement is calculated to 64 decimal points. EasyMatch QC then rounds those readings to report from 0 to 4 decimals places based on user preference.

The manual states the acceptable tolerance with the words "by no more than". This is equivalent to saying "less than or equal to". Taking the 430nm tolerance, we specify 1.2 %T as the tolerance. Mathematically this means all of the following possibly results from EasyMatch QC would produce a Pass +/- 1.2, +/- 1.24, +/- 1.249, +/- 1.2499.

The author of the report felt that a tolerance of 1.24 was not as pleasing as 1.25, so three thousands of a nanometer acceptance to the tolerance at each test point was added when the Didymium Filter report was modified. For an average filter curve, remember the tolerance width does vary slightly by the actual filter being used. There is a nominal thickness variation from filter to filter.  A 1.249 %T shift equates to a 0.898 nm shift and a 1.254 %T shift equates to a 0.901 nm shift. I would humbly suggest that this difference is quite a bit less than the measurement to measurement variance. This amount isn't causing any significant change in determining the wavelength performance of the instrument.

We may need to either make a change to EasyMatch QC or to the User's Manual if the explanation above does not satisfy the customer.

FAQ: "For the UltraScan PRO, if I change the display of the “spectral data” to a shorter range, or change the nm resolution, does that change the color calculation data in any way? Does this only change the displayed output, or is this also changing the way L*, a*, b* color values are calculated?

The UltraScan PRO reports spectral data at 5 nm intervals for an extended wavelength range of 350 nm to 1050 nm as a normal measurement.

Spectral data for the full CIE visible range of 360 nm to 780 nm in 5 nm intervals is used for the calculation of color values per CIE protocols as described in ASTM, ISO and JIS industrial color methods. The extended wavelength below 360 nm and above 780 nm is available for product characterization but is not used in the calculation of color values.

If you change the wavelength range or interval in the Spectral Data or Spectral Plot views for a different range or reporting interval, it only affects the display of those views you changed, not the calculation of color values which uses the underlying measurement data above.

Do you still need more information? Submit a ticket and our support team member will reach out to you soon!