Rainbow test kit

Peter Fagerstrom - Business unit manager

When, in 1908, Henry Ford launched his then revolutionary Model T, he famously told his customers that they could have it in any colour they liked, as long as it was black. Over the intervening century or so, things have certainly changed in the motoring world and it’s now possible to buy cars in almost any colour including, of course, black.

In the world of test equipment, however, the technology has undoubtedly progressed in leaps and bounds, but the colour choice for today’s instruments remains distinctly limited. In fact it’s fair to say that, in most cases, you can have any colour you want as long as it’s grey. But there’s no overriding reason it has to be that way.

As the photograph accompanying this item shows, test equipment can be produced in almost any colour under the sun. Does this picture mark the beginning of a radical  departure from traditional practice? Is there going to be a new fashion for eye-catchingly colourful test equipment? In truth, probably not.

The instruments shown in the picture are, in fact, beta evaluation samples of an exciting new transformer test product that will soon be introduced to the market. Each sample was sent to a different potential end user to be put through its paces so that any potential problems could be ironed out before the product is launched. But, in order to monitor the results and feedback effectively it was important to be able to distinguish between the samples.

Of course, this could have been done in the traditional way by recording the serial numbers, but a much more effective solution was to paint the various samples different colours, so that it was possible to tell which was which at a glance.

This approach proved not only convenient but also a big time saver for the team working on the development of the instrument. In spite of this, however, there are no plans to offer colour options for the production version of the instrument. Why not? Well, it would complicate production and increase costs if the enclosures used for the instrument had to be stocked in multiple colours. And would also delay delivery if the required colour variant wasn’t in stock.

So ask yourself, would you be prepared to pay more and wait longer for an instrument in the colour of your choice? If you are – we are more than happy to help you brighten up your workshop with rainbow colours. If not, we might just carry on with instruments in grey, grey or grey!