Real-time measurement of sugar colour

The ICUMSA lab procedure requires samples taken from the production flow and takes time. When the result from the lab is available, the sugar may already be packed, shipped, or in the silo.
The Neltec ColourQ instruments for sugar colour measure in real-time without any sampling or other preparations. The results are presented in the moment things happen, so the process may be corrected, before it gets out of hand. At sudden larger deviations the instrument may switch the sugar to remelt.
All of the steps in the laboratory method are not possible to do in real-time. The ColourQ instruments are based on indirect measurement techniques working with a calibration and with reflectance instead of absorbance. Due to the proprietary techniques applied, it is not possible to explain in detail why the ColourQ instruments can do the job. However, all tests show a very good correlation between the laboratory results and the ColourQ results. The best example is the two ColourQ 2100 instruments tested against three laboratories in the development of the ICUMSA “General Guidelines for Validating Indirect Measurement Techniques”.