Lab Dip Color Approval for Sofa Fabric
Use a lab dip to approve color on a named sofa fabric, under a light you name, before bulk is colored to that target. The dip answers a color question. It does not approve a later production lot, a flammability file, or a finish that was never on the dip. Write the construction, the color standard, and the viewing light in the same request so the swatch has a job.
What decision does a lab dip support?
The dip supports one decision: whether this color on this construction is close enough to your standard to proceed to the next step you named. The next step might be a larger sample, a first bulk lot, or a hold. Say which. A dip with no next step becomes a swatch that sits in a drawer.
Name the construction the way the order will name it: quality, face, backing, and finish if the finish changes the color. Backing belongs in that identity because a face dyed over a different backing can read as a different cloth even when the recipe is familiar. The wider backing comparison is in the face and backing article. On the dip request, write the backing you expect so the swatch is made for that cloth.
A stain-finish request is a different form. Use the stain-finish article when the open question is the finish. Keep the dip thread on color unless you deliberately ask for a dipped sample that already carries the finish, and then say so in the first line.
Send your standard as a physical chip or as a retained swatch with a code. A screen capture can start the conversation. The approval still needs a physical comparison under the light you named, because the same file shifts between monitors.
Which references should travel with the dip request?
Travel with four references: the standard you want matched, the construction, the light, and the decision you will make if the dip is accepted. Add the quantity context so color work is not confused with a tiny keep-sample. For standard upholstery fabric the published quantity on this site is 1200 meters per color. Exceptions are confirmed by item. The dip itself can be a small swatch. The order it points toward should still be stated.
| Reference | What good looks like | What it leaves open |
|---|---|---|
| Color standard | A chip or retained swatch with a code you use internally | How far the dip may sit from that standard |
| Construction | Quality name, face, backing, finish | Any later change of yarn or finish |
| Light | The lamp or daylight condition of the showroom or the lab you use | Other lights you did not name |
| Decision | Proceed to sample, proceed to first lot, or hold | Commercial terms of that next step |
| Quantity line | The meters the accepted color is meant to serve | A different colorway |
Write the tolerance in your own words if you have one: “close enough for the hero sofa under the showroom lamp,” or a method your team already uses. We will not invent a store-wide color distance and call it your rule. If you have no written tolerance, say that the judgment is visual and name the person who will sign.
How does a hypothetical light mismatch get resolved?
Imagine a hypothetical dip that looks right under the mill’s daylight lamp and warm under the buyer’s showroom spots. Both people are looking at the same swatch. They are not looking in the same light. The request was incomplete because the light line was blank.
| View | Hypothetical light | Comment | Resolution in the example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mill bench | Daylight lamp used for dipping | Close to the chip | Keep as the dipping record |
| Showroom | Warm spot lamps | Looks warmer than the chip | Name this light if it is the approval light |
| Next dip | The showroom light, now written on the request | Judged again against the same chip | Approve or adjust under that named light |
Resolve it by choosing the approval light and repeating the comparison. Keep the first lamp in the record so the mill can still see how the dip was made. Approving under an unnamed light makes the next lot impossible to audit.
Does an approved dip approve the bulk lot?
An approved dip sets the color target for the construction and light you named. The bulk lot still needs its own check against that approved swatch, because lot size, heat, and finishing can move the color. Write “dip approved” and “lot approved” as separate lines in the file. A shipment can then be compared with the dip you signed, not with a memory of it.
The dip also leaves flammability documents untouched. A color approval is not a named-standard file. If the spec carries a flammability line, ask for that document in its own request, with the part, source, substrate, date, and holder. We keep those results off the public page until an in-scope current report is on file, and we do not treat the dip card as that report.
On pile cloth, view the dip and the later lot with the same arrow. A direction change can look like a color miss. The pile-direction article covers that cutting rule. Here, the point is smaller: the dip comment should say which way the pile was brushed when the color was accepted.
What should the enquiry include?
Include the chip or retained swatch, the construction with face and backing, the approval light, the decision the dip is allowed to trigger, and the quantity the color is meant to serve. If a finish must already be on the dip, name the finish. If a flammability document is also required, put it in a second list so the two approvals cannot be merged by accident.
You will get a swatch path and a statement of what that swatch is allowed to decide. Commercial terms for the meters remain on the enquiry. Start from fabric solutions when you are still choosing the cloth, then send the dip package through the quote page or Request With WhatsApp.
