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Color, Light & Display and Machine Vision Solutions for the Automotive Industry

From interior surfaces to exterior lighting, Konica Minolta Sensing Americas offers integrated measurement and inspection solutions that help automotive manufacturers and suppliers achieve consistent quality across the entire vehicle.

We offer highly accurate light and color measurement solutions for lighting and color applications. Our lighting solutions are capable to measure interior lighting, displays, gauges, headlights & taillights.

Color and appearance can significantly influence product quality, especially when managing metallic, pearlescent, gloss, and other complex finishes. Our high-quality color measurement instruments help maintain consistent color and finish quality throughout the manufacturing process. For reflective color applications, our best-in-class instruments can measure of a wide range of surfaces, coatings, textiles, plastics, and vinyl, helping ensure that each vehicle meets or exceeds your specifications.

Our machine vision solutions support quality inspection and measurement across the mobility and automotive industries. Eines, a division of Konica Minolta Sensing Americas, combines advanced vision technologies, artificial intelligence, and industrial automation to deliver reliable, scalable inspection solutions. These capabilities help manufacturers improve quality, increase efficiency, and maintain full process traceability.

Click Here to View the Automotive Color and Light Measuring Instruments Brochure

Color and Appearance Frequently Asked Questions

How is color measured in the automotive industry ?

Automotive interior color is measured with spectrophotometers that capture spectral reflectance and calculate colorimetric data (typical CIELab or L*a*b*), then compare them to a standard using delta E* (DE*) tolerances to obtain an overall color difference. Because interiors combine plastics, leather, fabric/textiles, and painted trim (often with a textured finish) instruments with diffused illumination are used to ensure consistency. Measurements are typically done using multiple illuminants to guard against metamerism, where components can match under one light source but mismatch under another.

How do you measure metallic and pearlescent automotive paint?

Metallic and pearlescent automotive paint is measured with a multi-angle spectrophotometer-like the CM-M6-, which captures color as several aspecular angles since these finishes shift in color and brightness depending on the viewing angle. The instrument illuminates the sample and records the spectral reflectance at each angle, generating a full angular profile that’s compared against a determined standard using delta E* (DE*) tolerances to obtain color differences at each angle rather than a single reading.

How do automotive manufacturers ensure color consistency between body panels, bumpers and trim?

Manufacturers ensure consistency by measuring each component against the same color standard using spectrophotometers, since each substrate reflects and reacts to light differently even when formulated to the same target color. Suppliers and OEMs typically share color data digitally and set tight delta E* (DE*) tolerances so each of these different samples from different production lines and suppliers match when installed on the finished vehicle.

How do I choose a color measurement instrument for an automotive application?

Choosing the right instrument depends on what you are measuring and where: exterior automotive paint with metallic or pearlescent finishes should use a multi-angle spectrophotometer due to the shifting of color and brightness dependent on the viewing angle. For most other applications, a diffused illumination (d/8 sphere) instrument works well. However, users should always verify against specifications from the manufacturer or other OEMs to ensure consistency with the instruments’ illumination, aperture size, tolerances, and illuminants.

Light and Display Frequently Asked Questions

How is automotive lighting measured?

Automotive lighting is measured photometrically and calorimetrically across several dimensions:

Intensity distribution – how much light a headlamp, taillamp, or turn signal throws in different directions, mapped in candela across a grid of horizontal/vertical angles (this is what regulatory beam-pattern testing checks).
Luminous flux – total light output of a lamp or module, in lumens.
Luminance – the brightness of a light-emitting or reflecting surface as it would appear to an observer ( how bright a taillight lens or dashboard icon looks).
Illuminance – how much light lands on a surface, such as the light thrown onto a roadway or test screen by a headlamp beam.
Color/chromaticity – making sure red taillights, amber turn signals, and white headlights fall within legally defined color boundaries(CIE), and that white LED/display light is a consistent color temperature.
Uniformity and glare – checking for hot spots, dark patches, and glare thresholds (important for adaptive/matrix LED headlights so they don’t blind oncoming drivers).

Measurements are typically taken at a fixed distance (often 10 m or 25 m) onto a goniometric photometer or a flat screen, following standards such as SAE J578 / J1383 (US), ECE Regulation 112/123 (Europe), and related ISO/CIE photometric methods.

What instruments are used to test automotive headlights and exterior lighting?

Instruments used within the KM portfolio are the following:

Goniophotometers – rotate the lamp (or the sensor) through many angles to build a full 3D intensity distribution map; the standard tool for full beam-pattern certification of headlamps.
Illuminance (lux) meters – measure light falling on a screen or roadway to check beam pattern, cutoff line position, and glare limits.
Luminance meters / luminance and Color Meters – measure the brightness (and color) of the lamp lens surface itself, useful for taillights, turn signals, and daytime running lights.
Spectroradiometers – measure the full spectral power distribution, used to verify color coordinates (e.g., correct “red” or “amber”) and correlated color temperature of LED sources.
Imaging luminance/colorimeters (2D imaging photometers) – camera-based systems that capture an entire lamp lens or beam pattern in one shot, showing uniformity, hot spots, and glare across the whole surface rather than single points.
Integrating spheres – measure total luminous flux (lumens) and spectral output of individual LEDs or small lamp modules.
Goniospectroradiometers – combine angular and spectral measurement for full characterization of color and intensity at every angle, increasingly used for complex multi-LED matrix/adaptive headlights.

Why is light measurement important in automotive manufacturing?

Light measurement ensures automotive headlights, taillights, and interior displays meet strict safety and regulatory standards (like ECE/SAE) for intensity, beam pattern, and color, while also enabling consistent quality control so every unit off the production line matches its approved design. It further validates newer technologies like adaptive LED headlights and head-up displays, and confirms lighting won’t degrade over time, reducing safety risks, recalls, and warranty issues.

How do manufacturers verify LED and display brightness in vehicle interiors?

Manufacturers use luminance meters and imaging photometers/colorimeters to measure brightness, color, contrast, and uniformity of displays and backlit symbols (like instrument clusters and illuminated buttons), while also checking for defects such as pixel/line errors, mura, and anti-glare sparkle effects. They evaluate brightness and color consistency across different viewing angles and verify that dimming curves transition smoothly between daytime and nighttime brightness levels.

EINES Vision Systems – Machine Vision

EINES Vision Systems provide specialized vision quality control for the automotive industry.

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EINES Frequently Asked Questions

How does machine vision work? Machine vision involves capturing images of a component or vehicle using industrial cameras and analyzing them with specialized software. The system compares the captured information with predefined quality criteria to detect defects, perform measurements, or verify the correct position and presence of components.

The result is an automated and objective inspection, where every part can be evaluated according to the same criteria. The inspection data can also be stored and integrated into quality and production systems, providing traceability and enabling manufacturers to monitor quality trends and continuously improve their manufacturing processes.

**Figure 1. Machine vision systems example

What kind of inspection solutions does EINES provide?

EINES develops customized machine vision and AI-based inspection solutions for the automotive industry. Our technologies cover different quality control needs, including surface inspection, metrology, error proofing, robot guidance and end-of-line inspection.

Our solutions can be adapted to the customer’s specific production process, inspection requirements and cycle time.

Does EINES provide customized solutions or standard products?

EINES provides customized turnkey solutions rather than off-the-shelf products.

We analyze each customer’s specific application and develop the appropriate combination of hardware, software, cameras, lighting, AI and integration to meet the required inspection criteria.

Can EINES integrate its inspection systems into an existing production line?

Yes. EINES solutions are designed to integrate into existing manufacturing environments and can be connected with PLCs, robots, MES and other factory systems.

Depending on the application, our systems can operate inline, stop-and-go or as semi-automatic stations with an operator.

Does EINES provide after-sales support and maintenance?

Yes. EINES offers technical support, maintenance and after-sales services through our Customer Success Package.

The level of support, maintenance and response times can be adapted to the customer’s requirements and defined in the corresponding service agreement.