KCC Develops 'Paint-Free Color Matching System' Predicting Colors with AI

KCC Anseong Plant Application, Color Mixing Process Reduced by One-Third

KCC is accelerating digital transformation by applying technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to the industry.

On the 23rd, KCC announced that it has developed the industry's first AI-based ‘Wet Paint-Free Color Matching System,’ registered a patent for it, and applied it to mass production.

This system is an AI-based production and color matching process platform that can predict the color needed for color matching without actually mixing or painting the paint ordered by customers.

The KCC Central Research Institute is using an AI-based unmanned paint mixing system to measure the color of liquid paint in a non-contact manner. (Photo by KCC)

Until now, before mass-producing paint, the process of 'color matching-painting-drying-inspection' had to be repeated to achieve the exact color ordered. This is because there is a slight color difference between the paint in liquid form and when it is dried.

KCC developed this wet paint-free color matching system after researching ways to innovate the existing method.

The ‘Wet Paint-Free Color Matching System’ incorporates big data and AI technologies. KCC accumulated data on the color of paint in liquid form and the color of the dried film after painting over several years and studied their correlation to design a database.

Based on this, KCC developed an algorithm and a target color matching function using AI technology that can predict the desired color, establishing a production-color matching process platform that can predict and match colors without actually painting the paint.

In particular, the core technology includes the 'Wet color measurement' technique that can reliably measure the color value of liquid paint and a technology that predicts the color value of the dried film after painting and suggests an AI-based color matching method if correction is needed. The patent for this technology was completed in 2024.

The newly developed platform has innovatively improved this process. When the wet paint-free color matching system was applied to the architectural paint color matching process at KCC’s Anseong plant, the color matching process, which previously took about 10 hours on average, was reduced by 72% to 2.8 hours. With the significant increase in color matching process efficiency, KCC expects the overall productivity of architectural paint at the Anseong plant to increase by more than 11%.

Having confirmed successful results at the Anseong plant, KCC plans to expand the application of this system to domestic plants such as Ulsan and Jeonju, as well as overseas subsidiaries in China and India. Additionally, by expanding the target paint types from architectural and automotive paints to other types, KCC aims to enhance the productivity of its entire paint business division.

While productivity and work efficiency increase, the high-temperature drying process is expected to be reduced from 5 hours to 2 hours, significantly lowering energy consumption.

Youngsoo Kim, Executive Director of KCC’s Automotive Paint Research Team, stated, “This technology is an innovative production and color matching process technology utilizing AI. Even after mass production application, we expect to continuously improve the accuracy and precision of this technology through the continuously accumulated data, further enhancing productivity. We also plan to expand this data-based work platform, which can realize environmental pollution reduction, not only for KCC but also for our customers.”