Method and system for adapting to specific target paint application processes

A method for providing application adaption parameters to compensate for an influence of a given target paint application process on a color matching method and/or to consider an influence of a given target paint application process within a color predicting method which use a database which comprises specific optical data of individual color components, the specific optical data of the individual color components being determined on the basis of known reference paint coatings with known reference color formulations and known measured reference colors, the reference paint coatings being applied on a substrate using a reference paint application process, respectively, the method comprising:

• A. applying a sample paint coating on a substrate using the given target paint application process,
• B. receiving, via at least one interface of at least one computer processor, data of a color formulation of the sample paint coating,
• C. retrieving, from the database, specific optical data of individual color components used in the color formulation of the sample paint coating,
• D. receiving, via the at least one interface, a measured color of the sample paint coating applied on the substrate using the given target paint application process,
• E. providing a numerical method and a physical model wherein the numerical method is configured to optimize application adaption parameters by minimizing a given cost function starting from a given set of initial application adaption parameters, the given cost function being particularly chosen as a color distance between the measured color and a predicted color of the sample paint coating and the physical model is configured to predict the color of the sample paint coating by using as input parameters the color formulation of the sample paint coating and the retrieved specific optical data of the individual color components used in the color formulation of the sample paint coating and respective preliminary application adaption parameters resulting in the course of optimization, and
• F. calculating, using the at least one computer processor and using the numerical method and the physical model implemented and running on the processor, the application adaption parameters by comparing the recursively predicted color of the sample paint coating with the measured color of the sample paint coating until the given cost function falls below a given threshold, wherein the calculated application adaption parameters are retrievably stored in a repository and assigned to the given target paint application process as process-specific application adaption parameters that can then be retrieved from the repository at any time on request.