lightSORBER: The modern hybrid engine for various “light fuels”

The surface color of your stage curtain corresponds figuratively to the engine and your light to the fuel for your color perception.

To function perfectly, the engine and the fuel have to match.

This applies especially to curtains on stages, since black is a special “load case” for the human eye.  In recent years, the “fuel” or light has been significantly changed by LED technology. This has caused some engines or black surfaces to run “a bit rough” and appear bright, silvery, greyish, creased or in any case not quite as black as before.

TÜCHLER measures at these light temperatures

What is hybrid about lightSORBER velour?

The perceived surface color can be influenced by both the structure of the surface and chemical dyes. In most cases it is a random combination of both. 

The lightSORBER velour development team has for the first time specifically developed textile constructions that already absorb a great deal of light energy due to their surface structure. In addition, new dye combinations have been developed that absorb the highest amount of energy over the entire spectrum of visible light.

The result is the uniquely strong hybrid effect of the lightSORBER velour and the deepest black velour.

Black Velour “light”: 450 g/m2 for the deepest black

Until now, the rule has been: The higher the basis weight the blacker the velvet. 

The TÜCHLER lightSORBER velour development shows that the structure of the velour surface is a significant factor for light absorption. 

The basis weight is thus merely a result and not the cause of a high color depth. The velour with the deepest black is TÜCHLER lightSORBER velour DD25 with a practical light weight of just 450 g/m².

Therefore, velour weights do not play a decisive role in the color depth of black.

However, there are other reasons why stage designers like to use heavy velours. In particular to create a heavy drape for moving curtains or to meet acoustic requirements.

That is why we also offer lightSORBER as a 600 g/m² heavy velour D18 with only a slightly reduced color depth for black.

Farbdifferenzmessung

Color difference measurement in accordance with DIN6174*

lightSORBER velours stand out with reflectance values that are 35% lower in the range of 400-500Nm (blue) and even more than 70% lower in the range of 500-700Nm (yellow to red) than comparable high-end velours from our competitors.

Technical Features:

lightsorber Samte

lightSORBER DD25

  • Weight 450 g/m2
  • Material 100% CO
  • Tensile strength warp 80 kg
  • Tensile strength weft 60 kg
  • Elongation warp 9%
  • Elongation weft 11%
  • Shrinkage when dry cleaned -2%
  • Rub fastness 3%
  • Light fastness 4
  • Care: do not wash, dry clean only with perchlorethylene
  • Sound absorption level with drape 0%
    • 0.5
  • Class
    • D
  • with drape 100%
    • 0.65
  • Class
    • C

lightSORBER DD18

  • Weight 600 g/m2
  • Material 100% CO
  • Tensile strength warp 70 kg
  • Tensile strength weft 100 kg
  • Elongation warp 13%
  • Elongation weft 10%
  • Shrinkage when dry cleaned -2%
  • Rub fastness 3%
  • Light fastness 4
  • Care: do not wash, dry clean only with perchlorethylene
  • Sound absorption level with drape 0%
    • 0.35
  • Class
    • D
  • with drape 100%
    • 0.60
  • Class
    • C

Color temperature and light spectrum are not the same thing!

If a convex lens captures a blue and a yellow beam of light, white light is created again. Two colors that together produce white light are known as complementary colors. A mixture of red, green and blue light also produces white light.

The spectral distribution of the light from spotlights with the same color temperature can therefore be very different. One speaks of so-called metameric light sources. Metameric light can have a continuous spectrum, as is the case for incandescent light bulbs, or it can be limited to several narrow spectral bands like it is for energy saving bulbs and flat screens.

TIP: Light colors below 4700 Kelvin provide deeper blacks

Although the spectral distribution of light from spotlights with the same color temperature may be different, in practice, black is perceived to be deeper at color temperatures below 4700K. Thanks to their special weave structure and the use of special dyes and dyeing techniques, TÜCHER lightSORBER velours are more light-absorbing across the entire visible light spectrum than any other textile we know. However, in most cases you will experience even deeper blacks when the light temperature is below 4700 Kelvin.

CRI nach DIN6169
Grafik: Von Chris828 - Eigenes Werk, Gemeinfrei, Link

There is no black in the CRI color rendering index

The color of an object depends on the light in which you look at it, more specifically on the colors (spectrum) that make up “white” light. While the range of incandescent light bulbs only depends on their wattage, LED bulbs and other replacement bulbs require color rendering. This is done by specifying the CRI or Ra value as the color rendering index.

In accordance with DIN 6169, 14 test colors are specified. For these, one measures the secondary spectra with the reference and the test light source. The deviations give 14 reference values (Ri).

LEDs can be adjusted to a certain extent to a specific spectrum. Using several different colored LEDs makes it possible to create a light source that has a completely different spectrum than daylight but still achieves a color rendering index of 90 or more.

The number of reference colors used in the color rendering index was increased to 15. The more colors used in the calculation of the index, the more accurately the quality of the light is described. Since the different Ri values are determined as an average, even a high quality light source may display weaknesses in rendering individual colors.

In our opinion, this is especially true of black. Not a single test color is a dark color, let alone a color that is anything close to black. Therefore, based on our observation the CRI does not provide any information about how well, or more precisely how deep and color-neutral the most common color, namely black, appears on stage.

Only with the new manufacturing and color technique used in TÜCHLER lightSORBERvelours, is it possible to once again bring “good old” black back to the stage.