Test and Measurement Product of the Year
Company Name: Apexchroma Limited
Product Name: OPIX
Supporting Statement:
The Problem No Instrument Has Solved
The visual appearance of a physical surface is governed by multiple optical attributes — among the most analytically significant being colour, gloss, surface texture, and translucency. Each attribute is determined by distinct physical mechanisms. Each influences how a product is perceived by the human eye. And until now, each has required a separate instrument to measure.
In practice, this means a formulation scientist developing a new cosmetic product, a coatings engineer qualifying a batch of automotive paint, or a materials researcher characterising surface finish must operate three or four different instruments, transfer samples between them, and reconcile datasets that were never designed to align. The measurement is slow, the process is prone to human error, and the results are inherently incomplete — because appearance is a holistic phenomenon that no single instrument has previously been able to capture in its entirety.
OPIX changes that.
What OPIX Does
OPIX is a non-contact laboratory instrument that simultaneously measures colour, gloss, texture, and translucency in a single measurement. Developed by ApexChroma Limited, a deep-tech instrumentation company based in Richmond, Surrey, OPIX captures all four appearance attributes from a single measurement of the sample surface, with no contact and no sample damage.
The result is a complete, internally consistent appearance dataset — generated in seconds, from one instrument, by one operator, in one measurement.
This is not an incremental improvement to existing technology. Colour spectrophotometers measure colour but are blind to gloss and translucency. Glossmeters measure gloss but cannot distinguish colour shifts or surface texture. Profilometers quantify texture but provide no colour or optical transmission data. No instrument on the market combines all four. OPIX does.
The Technical Innovation
At the core of OPIX is a proprietary optical architecture that simultaneously illuminates the sample surface with carefully controlled light geometries and captures reflected, scattered, and transmitted signals across multiple detector arrays. The measurement geometry is designed to decouple the four appearance attributes — preventing cross-talk between colour and gloss signals, for example — while the measurement software reconstructs a unified appearance profile in real time.
The instrument operates without contact, making it suitable for delicate, soft, or irregularly surfaced samples that would be damaged or distorted by conventional contact probes. This capability opens measurement applications that have previously been impractical: freshly applied coatings, soft cosmetic formulations, textile surfaces, and dental ceramic restorations can all be characterised accurately without alteration to the sample.
OPIX is protected by UK patent application GB2520009.8, filed in November 2025, covering the core multi-attribute optical measurement method.
Market Applications and Impact
The gap that OPIX fills has real commercial consequences across multiple industries.
In personal care and cosmetics, formulation scientists developing foundations, lip products, and skincare formulations need to quantify colour consistency, surface gloss, and product texture. Current workflows require multiple instruments and subjective judgement to bridge the gaps between them. OPIX replaces this entire workflow with a single, objective, repeatable measurement.
In coatings and surface finishing, the simultaneous characterisation of colour, gloss, and texture is directly relevant to automotive OEM paint approval, industrial protective coatings qualification, and architectural coatings development — where batch-to-batch variation in any one attribute constitutes a quality failure. The ability to capture all three from a single measurement eliminates inter-instrument inconsistency and substantially reduces characterisation time.
In dental materials science, the translucency of ceramic restorations is a critical parameter — one that existing chairside and laboratory instruments do not measure alongside colour and gloss. OPIX addresses this measurement gap directly, providing dental materials researchers with a tool to characterise all relevant appearance attributes of ceramic specimens within a single non-contact measurement.
In academic colour science and materials research, OPIX provides a unified measurement platform for appearance studies that previously required combining data from multiple instruments with incompatible calibration references. The ability to generate a complete appearance profile from a single measurement simplifies experimental design and improves data integrity across a wide range of research applications.
The Company and Team
ApexChroma Limited was incorporated in August 2024 and is based in Richmond, Surrey. The company was founded with a specific focus on closing the multi-attribute appearance measurement gap that has persisted across instrumentation, materials science, and consumer goods sectors.
The founding team brings together the technical and commercial disciplines required to develop and commercialise a precision optical instrument. CEO Cheng Li holds a PhD in Colour Science from the University of Leeds and brings a decade of investment experience. CTO Dr. Wen Luo brings specialist expertise in optical measurement system design and development. OPIX is positioned as a laboratory instrument for R&D, quality control sampling, and appearance standards development.
Why OPIX Deserves to Win
The Test & Measurement Product of the Year recognises instruments that make a significant impact on the market through exceptional performance and innovation. OPIX meets both criteria with a direct claim: it measures attributes that no other single instrument measures, in a way that no other instrument can.
The simultaneous, non-contact measurement of colour, gloss, texture, and translucency in a single measurement is not a feature improvement — it is a capability that did not previously exist in a single instrument. OPIX does not compete with existing instruments by doing what they do slightly better. It does what none of them can do in combination.
For industries where surface appearance is a product specification, a regulatory requirement, or a research variable, OPIX represents a genuine step change in measurement capability. That is what this award exists to recognise.
Entry ID: 7463