Question: What do VCR users and microfiche readers have in common?
Answer: They’re both destined to go the way of disco dancing and double-knit leisure suits.
And the microfiche reader is likely to achieve that obsolete status sooner than the VCR user. In fact, many paint manufacturers that supply color formula information have either ceased to supply those formulas on microfiche or soon will. Meanwhile, most of the country’s top collision repair shops are moving toward computerized color retrieval systems and for good reason.
Compared to traditional methods, the computer software on which formulas are supplied today is like DVD players compared to VCRs, with an even wider technology gap. Just ask Tom Madal Jr.
He remembers the bad old days of working with microfiche. “First of all, keeping the fiche clean was a problem,” says Madal, general manager and co-owner of Damage, Inc. in Brook Park, Ohio. “Then you had to read them through a monitor—which was generally dirty—and write down the formula.” After that, the painter would take his or her slip of paper to the scale and mix the ingredients.
Mistakes Happen
At this point, the chances of producing a bad mix were fairly high. The painter could make a mistake reading or writing down the formula, or could misread his own writing at the scale. The result? Once he mixed the paint and discovered his error, he had to go back to the microfiche reader and go through the steps again.
The whole process is like a nearly forgotten nightmare to Madal. Compared to the computer system he now uses, “It’s like night and day,” he says. “Now, I just punch in the paint code and I get everything I need. I can look up five formulas now in the time it took me to look up one microfiche formula.”
Once the formula is found, it’s sent electronically to the shop’s computerized “intelligent” scale, where it appears on the computer screen and the quantities—in grams, of toner, binder, etc.—are spelled out. The scale measures the pour, and the screen tells the technician when the specified amount of ingredient has been added. This virtually eliminates human error.
Once a formula for a hard-to-match color is achieved, it can be stored in the system’s color library for easy recall.
Auto Impact in Atlanta, has been using its paint supplier’s software for the past four years. “Before, our biggest issue was repainting, but this computer system and the intelligent scale have made color match problems just go away,” says Daniel Schweizer, Auto Impact’s shop manager. “It’s made my job a whole lot easier.”