Shade banding is the practice of sorting finished rolls into groups, usually labelled A, B and C, so that every roll within a group is close enough in shade to be cut together. The bands are built from spectrophotometer readings against the approved standard, checked by eye in a light cabinet, and marked on each roll label and on the packing list. Rolls should be grouped by measured closeness to each other, not by the order in which they came off the machine.
Banding does not make rolls identical. It makes the differences predictable, so the cutting room can keep the pieces of one garment inside one band and never pair a panel from band A with a panel from band C.
How bands are built
The mill reads every roll, usually at the start and end and sometimes in the middle, on a spectrophotometer under the agreed illuminant. Each reading is compared with the standard and with the other rolls. Rolls that sit within a tight tolerance of each other form a band, rolls outside that tolerance but still within the overall commercial tolerance form a second band, and so on. A good shade report lists each roll number with its reading and its band.
Visual checking matters because an instrument can pass two rolls that look different to the eye, particularly on greys, beiges and other sensitive shades. The sealed standard, the band swatches and the rolls should be compared side by side under the light source your customer uses.
What to ask the mill for
- Bands defined by closeness between rolls, with the tolerance agreed in writing before dyeing.
- A shade report with every roll number, its reading, its band and its length.
- Band letters on every roll label, visible without unwrapping.
- Rolls loaded into the container by band so your warehouse can keep them together.
- Continuity cards showing a swatch from each roll in sequence.
- A limit on the number of bands you will accept, since a lot split into five bands is hard to cut efficiently.
Using bands at your end
Plan each garment or each cutting lay from one band only, and keep the band letter on the ticket through sewing. Small components such as pockets and plackets are the usual leak, so ask your cutting room to keep them within the band of the body panels. If a style uses the same fabric in a contrast piece, a slight shade step between bands can be acceptable, but that should be a decision you make, not an accident.
How we check banding before loading
We check the shade report against the rolls we inspect, compare band swatches with your sealed standard, and confirm the band letters are on the labels before we supervise loading. If the bands look wrong, you hear about it in the weekly update rather than at your warehouse. We also offer a free 20-minute sourcing review for buyers setting up banding for the first time.