Approve lab dips against the brand's tolerance, before you ship.
Hit the target. Every batch. As a dye house or supplier you are measured against a standard you did not define, under conditions you cannot control. DMIx gives you the exact spectral reference, the defined tolerance, and the measurement infrastructure to know whether you have hit it before the brand does.
How do I know my lab dip passes before the brand checks it?
MatchBox gives you the brand's spectral standard and the defined tolerance as soon as the request arrives. You measure your lab dip with a spectrophotometer, and DMIx rates it as pass, borderline or outside tolerance before the brand sees it. Every measurement is logged, so disputes are settled with data.
What digital lab dip approval means for a dye house
Digital lab dip approval means you receive the color standard as spectral measurement data together with the tolerance the brand has set for that specific process, you measure your own dip on your own instrument, and you know the result before the submission leaves your lab.
DMIx MatchBox carries three things a physical sample cannot: the reference as a measurement rather than an ageing swatch, the tolerance window with the direction in which deviation is allowed, and a record of who approved what against which data.
The real cost is the rejection you could not predict
A lab dip comes back rejected with feedback like "too warm" or "slightly off". Nobody in that exchange is being careless. The problem is that there is no shared unit for a color correction, so the instruction cannot carry the information you would need to act on it in one step.
The cost is not the rejected dip. It is the round it triggers: another development cycle, another shipment, another week, and a bulk date that moves while the target has not.
The reference and the tolerance arrive before development starts
DMIx MatchBox gives suppliers a spectral reference value and explicit tolerance windows before development begins.
Not a photo. Not a physical sample with a color name written on it. A spectral value, the precise measurement of the target color, including the ΔE tolerance range within which the submission will be evaluated as a pass.
You develop your lab dip against this reference, measure the result on your spectrophotometer and submit the measurement to DMIx. The system evaluates it against the spectral target automatically (pass, borderline, or outside tolerance) before the brand has seen the sample.
For bulk production, the same logic continues through BulkControl: the approved spectral reference from the lab-dip stage is the standard against which every batch is measured throughout production.
What a lab dip is approved against
Every approval in MatchBox follows the same six elements. The brand sets the values, DMIx applies them to every submission.
| Element | How it works in DMIx |
|---|---|
| Approved reference | One spectral color standard per color, set by the brand. Suppliers can download it as a QTX file at request stage, before the first lab dip. |
| Measurement method | Suppliers measure with a spectrophotometer. The measurement geometry follows the material and viewing situation: 8° (sphere) or 45°/0°. DMIx works with spectral data across the visible range from 400 to 700 nm. |
| Acceptance tolerance | Set by the brand for each process, including the allowed direction of deviation. Each material and end product needs its own tolerance, so one universal threshold is never applied. |
| Result | Each submission is rated automatically as pass, borderline or outside tolerance before the brand sees it. |
| Exception handling | Borderline submissions can be revised and resubmitted. Submissions outside tolerance go through the brand's standard review. With Supplier Self Approval, trusted suppliers release in-tolerance lab dips themselves, and everything outside tolerance still runs through standard review. |
| Decision record | Every measurement and approval is logged with its measurement data, timestamped and role-authenticated, and visible to the brand in real time. The brand approves, or the trusted supplier under Supplier Self Approval. |
Releasing your own in-tolerance lab dips
Where a brand has granted it, a dip that measures inside tolerance can be released by you, immediately, without waiting for a review queue in another time zone. Anything outside tolerance continues through the standard review. Every self-approval is logged with its measurement data and is visible to the brand in real time, which is what makes the permission possible in the first place.
This is Supplier Self Approval. It does not move the decision to you, it moves the confirmation.
Working for several brands in one system
Suppliers rarely work for one customer, and maintaining one platform per brand is the point where most digital color programmes stop. In DMIx each brand keeps its own standards, tolerances and permissions, while you work in a single account across all of them.
Commercially this runs as a supplier flat rate rather than a licence per brand.
Which instruments and geometries you can use
DMIx works with the instruments already in most labs, including devices from X-Rite, Datacolor and Konica Minolta, and supports 8° sphere and 45°/0° geometry as well as multispectral data.
The geometry has to follow the material and the viewing situation rather than a company habit. A textured knit and a coated trim do not measure comparably under the same geometry, which is one of the quieter reasons a dip can pass in one lab and fail in another.
Approve lab dips against the brand's tolerance, before you ship.
What changes measurably in your lab
- ●Fewer development iterations.
When the target is precise and the tolerance is defined, suppliers develop toward a number, not toward a subjective evaluation.
- ●Fewer rejected submissions.
Pre-submission measurement against the spectral reference means rejections are caught internally before they become external disputes.
- ●Faster turnaround.
When the first submission is closer to target, the full approval cycle shortens.
- ●Objective batch documentation.
Every measurement result is logged. Disputes about whether a batch matched the approved reference are resolved with data.
Which modules do what
Brands setting the standards and tolerances behind this workflow will find the brand view under MatchBox.
Frequently asked questions
Show Lab-Dip & Bulk Approval on your data.
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