Benchtop vs. Portable Spectrophotometer: Which One Should You Buy?

For many years now, people have been stuck at the same point in the conversation involving color measurement tools. When managers need to buy a spectrophotometer, they ask the same question: Do we get a benchtop or a portable one? For many years, the answer was clear. The benchtop was for the clean, controlled lab, and the portable one was for the messy factory. This way of thinking has not been valid for a long time.

In order for color quality control to improve, that thinking must change. We need to view benchtop and portable spectrophotometers as technologies fitting into a larger system of color quality control systems. When buying a spectrophotometer, we must change our thinking and see how new tools, such as those from ThreeNH, are allowing us to look at color data in a new way.

The Death of the Accuracy Debate

For a long time, if you wanted to mention one argument in favor of benchtop spectrophotometers, it boiled down to accuracy. Handheld devices just can’t match the sophistication of lab optics systems and large integrating spheres. Hence, the portability of a handheld device is a compromise on spectral accuracy.

This has changed and returned the way you would look at these devices. The gap between mobile and stationary spectrophotometers has closed in the last couple of years. Consider the ultra-modern internal optics of a high-end portable spectrophotometer. When built with the best practices of design, portable spectrophotometers can achieve the same long-term repeatability and spectral accuracy as a lot of benchtop devices.

Because both portable and stationary spectrophotometers can achieve high accuracy, the question of which is more accurate is no longer a viable or logical approach to choose between the two. The paradigms of the industry state that you choose between the two based on the specifics of the environment where the work is being done, the physical configuration of the sample, and the speed with which you require the work to be completed.

Redefining the Benchtop: The Formulation Engine

If accuracy is no longer the only defining component, what is the modern, true purpose of the benchtop spectrophotometer? The benchtop must be viewed as the ultimate Formulation Engine. Benchtop units from ThreeNH, for example, are stationary, high-precision units, and have, in addition to accuracy, an extremely high degree of versatility with the way you can handle and manipulate samples.

Benchtop devices are designed for testing complex materials that portable devices are unable to test. These may include translucent liquids, viscous pastes, loose chemical powders, and transparent films. The benchtop device further combines specialized holding fixtures and optical setups and operates within a climate-controlled, dust-free lab. Therefore, it removes the unpredictable climate variables that may alter sensitive data concerning the formulation. The benchtop device is a cornerstone tool for your color program and the master digital color standard. It builds the definitive standard that is the “source of truth,” requiring all other devices and equipment used in the facility to replicate the standard.

Portable Dimension Redefined: Edge Computing Tool

A relocation of the definition of the portable spectrophotometer is also necessary. In the past, portable spectrophotometers were perceived as no more than basic field testing devices. In today’s manufacturing spectrophotometers design and function as an edge computing tool for color in the field.

Quality control used to require sampling from the production line, having production line employees carry samples to the lab, and physically transporting the samples to the lab. The legacy sampling/transporting/lab testing methods were really slow, disrupted the flow of production, and were error-prone. An entire new model of spectrophotometers has been designed to take control of the situation and easily define the risk in manufacturing.

When you're using a portable spectrophotometer from ThreeNH, you're at the production line sampling where the defect in manufacturing is most likely to occur. Modern lean manufacturing workflows are critically dependent on the speed. The spectrophotometer will let production employees sample and perform a pass-fail assessment of large, heavy, and bulky products in the manufacturing workflow. The spectrophotometer will let employees unobtrusively carry on the assessment and not disrupt the workflow.

Ecosystem Viewpoint

From this perspective, rather than picking an instrument for either portable spectrophotometers or the lab samples, the most efficient and successful companies have implemented an integrated workflow. When used together in a closed-loop quality control system, lab-based spectrophotometers and portable spectrophotometers have a high degree of synergy.

Picture your R&D team using a super powerful ThreeNH benchtop spectrophotometer to create a brand new color of liquid paint used for industrial applications. Once the perfect color is achieved, the spectrophotometer sends that data to a central cloud database. On the busy factory floor, your quality assurance inspectors use the ThreeNH portable spectrophotometer.

The portable spectrophotometer can wirelessly download the digital standard from the lab, and the finished paint products from the assembly line are instantly compared to the lab standard. The standard set by the benchtop is the law, and the portable unit enforces it.

Describing Your Unique Requirements: The Important Questions to Consider

Even though the ecosystem method is the best case scenario, many companies have to start off by using only one unit, mainly due to budget restrictions. If that is your case, you need to ask a different set of questions to understand the one device whose capabilities fit your day to day operational needs.

First, you need to analyze the physical form and condition of the materials that are primarily present in your operations. Do you deal with mostly large, bulky, unmoveable, solid, planar, and flat materials? If that is the case, the greatest advantage will be the portability of the spectrophotometer. If your materials are mostly complex, like the liquids and the powders are loose and thus uncontained, then a benchtop spectrophotometer is a must.

Second, analyze your workflow closely. Is your product line requiring visual checks to avoid wasting materials? In fast production lines, the tool that gives the quickest feedback for adjustments is a must. If your process is based on slow, careful, and thorough analysis of a batch, the benchtop model is much more suitable for your process.

Making the Decision

In the portable vs. benchtop spectrophotometer decision, choosing one vs. the other is becoming very easy. Your analysis of the devices must be conducted from a different perspective, focusing on the integration of the Spectrophotometers into your process, the adjustment of the workflow and the quick transmission of the digital data from place to place.

You've made the right call for your brand by choosing the right Spectrophotometer, and we have an extensive list of ultra-precision benchtops and highly developed portables to help you. By knowing how your workflow goes and taking the best perspective of color management, you can choose the right color management tool and guarantee your product is the best.