Wood, a material that provides a comfortable, cozy feeling in the home, is becoming more and more popular, and colored woods are increasingly being used in living areas. Architects, interior designers and furniture designers are increasingly using color and the natural appearance of woods in combination with other materials. What’s more, customers as well as designers want to have total freedom in terms of color selection, in order to allow their creativity free rein. In line with this trend, colorful stained woods have become highly popular as design elements, for both interior and exterior areas. Up until now, however, the development of colored wood stains involved an enormous amount of time and high material costs.
The different types of wood, with their own specific characteristics such as age, density and tannin content, pose a challenge for all colorists. The tight cell structure of latewood can, for example, store more tannic acid and is therefore stain more intensely than earlywood. The varying levels of penetration depth of the color pigments with their differing thickness, as well as numerous other factors, also have an effect on the staining result. The technological requirements for the dyeing of wood 1 thus do not apply for wood 2. As a result of this, individual concentration series are required for each surface (with its specific properties) when calculating the stain color recipes, meaning the colorist must generate a large number of samples and possess a great deal of expertise. In addition, for each new wood that appears on the market, the color development process must be repeated, as it is not possible to use existing calibration series.
