From our experience and from dealing with companies that have these machines (Andy has dealt extensively with these in the states and in the UK) they cannot work on todays finishes on leather.
Machines that scan leather cannot read the sheen (matt or gloss) level on leathers and they certainly cannot read 2 tone leathers, therefore the colour will always be wrong.
There are many companies who have invested in these machines and the results have been very poor.
We have a file of examples at LTT from machine mixed pigments which came out the wrong colour and when I say wrong I mean they are a completely different colour.
Also as the base pigments change with different dye batches the machine has to be reprogrammed for each batch which takes a long time. It also is a real pain swapping from one type of colour to another (ie. pigment touch up to restoration product)
Mixing pigment colours for restoration is far better done by eye. We would have invested in one of these a long time ago if we had been convinced they work. They usually end up standing in a corner, redundant.
LTT match colour by eye to any swatch sent to them, either for touch up or restoration and can do two, three and four tone leathers and aniline leathers
As Mike rightly says the colour mixing is the crucial part of the work and if it is wrong it will look worse than before.
There is a large market for this work if you learn it well and are dedicated to what you do.
Doug, we have a good system for teaching yourself to colour mix which is very rewarding and also produces colour cards to carry with you as you work. Colour cards are a good reference point when you are trying to colour mix on site.
