Today's car owner is more sophisticated and demanding than ever before, as the rising cost of automobiles represents a greater long-term investment. Customers expect each vehicle to look precisely the same after a repair as before; almost always, their first judgment of your work is color match.

Through research in both Europe and North America, BASF has developed some of the most advanced color tools in the industry, to make sure that your customers are satisfied, and to help you achieve that color match quickly and easily.

COLOR-MAX^TM

A highly advanced color tool developed by BASF in Europe, COLOR-MAX provides visual matching of over 7,000 metallic and solid colors on cards large enough to show both the "face" and "flop" of metallic colors. Each card is sprayed with actual refinish paint, not the printer's inks or dyes used by many other systems. The colors were painstakingly developed using actual car parts from around the world.

Within the 78 cabinet-mounted decks you will find not only standard colors, but variation formulas and those difficult-to-match "problem" colors. Each year COLOR-MAX is updated with the latest model year standard colors.

COLOR-MAX technology allows BASF customers to reach a new level in fast, accurate color matching, cutting down dramatically on test panel spraying, while ensuring car owner satisfaction.

COLOR-MAX is available in metallic and solid color versions for both Glasurit and R-M customers.

SmartScan^TM

To use BASF's hand-held SmartScan spectrophotometer simply place it on an area of the car finish to be matched. SmartScan reads the light wavelengths of the color on the car, then finds the color formula in the SmartTrak database which has the same wavelengths. In this way, SmartScan provides an exact formula to match the color actually on the vehicle.

SmartScan is more advanced than other spectrophotometers currently available, featuring more versatile software, easier used interface, non-limited formula search, and the only "four-angle" capturing device in the industry, which provides better matches on pitch.

COLOR-INFO^TM

The new BASF "COLOR-INFO^TM" OEM Color Reference Tool is a deck-based system of large chips which provides visual reference for all domestic and import OEM colors, including exterior paint finishes, cladding colors, interior color combinations, two-tone OEM exterior combinations, ground coat and tintable primer colors, and entries for OEM truck, van, and SUV colors. With COLOR-INFO, a single deck of chip pages contains all of the aforementioned OEM colors for each model year.

The COLOR-INFO deck system will replace BASF's previous OEM color reference binder system. It will be updated annually with a single deck containing both domestic and import colors.

In addition to making it faster and easier to locate OEM color reference, one of COLOR-INFO's key advantages is its durability compared to paper-sheet binders. With the outdated binder system, single pages could be taken out and then put back in the wrong place or lost entirely, and were often torn or damaged; COLOR-INFO's chip pages are bound permanently into a durable plastic case, eliminating those problems.

SmartTrak^TM
At the heart of the BASF color system is the SmartTrak computer, a productivity tool with a broad array of functions which maximize your facility's performance. SmartTrak's database has tens of thousands of color formulas, which can be retrieved by:
.....OEM color number.
.....BASF formula number.
.....Codes from competitive refinish
...........manufacturers.
.....Direct interface with our SmartScan
...........spectrophotometer.
.....Entry of color chip matches achieved using
...........the BASF COLOR-MAX, Color Profi, or Variant.
.....Deck color tools.

In addition, SmartTrak gives you instant access to the ARCtIC worldwide color database.
The SmartTrak system interfaces with an electronic smart scale as well as a variety of color formula sources, allowing pinpoint control of every mix. Pouring errors are immediately noted and adjusted for, allowing completion of the mix to formula specs. In this way, SmartTrak helps increase profitability by cutting down on waste.

VOC Management

SmartTrak also provides a number of functions to make it easy for you to stay within VOC compliance and evaluate your VOC trends. With SmartTrak, you can generate summary or detailed VOC reports by day, week, month, or year.

Product usage and inventory

As with VOC reporting, SmartTrak lets you evaluate product usage data in virtually any configuration or category; this gives you the ability to tightly control inventory, ordering, and product usage.

From one end of your business to the other, SmartTrak puts you in complete command of the data you need to maximize productivity and profitability.

To order SmartScan or SmartTrak, please call the BASF Electronic Products Help Desk at 1-(800)-227-3593.