Architectural and decorative QUEUED
Architectural and decorative
Tint bases, in-plant tinting and endless color variety. Starting wedge: Tintra on one tint line or Dispex on one mill.
Customers
Coatings makers that decided craft alone would not scale.
Tinteon has no customer logos to show and will not invent any. It is recruiting three to five design partners: paints and coatings manufacturers with one line where a single color-match, fineness, viscosity or contamination failure creates real rework or complaint exposure, and the mandate to fix it.
Illustrative scenario: Plant run · one architectural deep tint base from dosing to pallet · bead mill, let-down tank, tint station, filling line. Not a measured run.
Built for
Architectural and decorative
Automotive OEM and refinish
Industrial
Coil
Powder
Marine and specialty
Coatings types, not customers. Tinteon has no plant connected yet and is recruiting its first design partners.
Design partners wanted
Six coatings types, six starting points
Tinteon is recruiting three to five design partners for the first cohort. These are the coatings types the products were designed around and where each would start.
Automotive OEM and refinish QUEUED
Automotive OEM and refinish
Tight Delta-E against customer standards and premium finishes. Starting wedge: Tintra, with Specton on gloss and color.
Industrial QUEUED
Industrial
High-solids and waterborne systems where rheology decides application. Starting wedge: Rheon on a let-down line, Dispex on the mill.
Coil QUEUED
Coil
Continuous color consistency across long runs. Starting wedge: Specton inline with Tintra on the tint station.
Powder QUEUED
Powder
Dispersion and fineness without solvent. Starting wedge: Dispex, with Specton on fineness and color.
Marine and specialty QUEUED
Marine and specialty
Frequent grade changes and demanding specs. Starting wedge: Coatwin for color and grade changes, Palleon on filling and handling.
From the plant floor
Who this is built for
The three people in a coatings plant whose week changes when the process runs itself, and what each of them needs from Tinteon.
Plant or Operations Director
Owns production rate, quality, rework and yield, waste, solvent and energy, and compliance. Wants a plant that holds color and spec at higher rate with fewer interventions, and a number that justifies the spend.
Formulation or Process Engineer and Color-Matcher
Owns formulas, dispersion, tint and color-match process windows and yield. Approves and corrects the agents in assist mode; those corrections train the models.
Quality or Compliance Manager
Owns product quality under ISO 9001 and customer color standards, color and contamination conformance, VOC and REACH compliance, and batch genealogy. Needs every action grounded, cited and written to an immutable record.
IT/OT and EHS leads approve the deployment. There are no customer quotes on this site yet; design partners will speak for themselves when they choose to.
Run timeline
The run a design partner would see
Every Tinteon run is an ordered, inspectable sequence. This is run_scn_01, an illustrative scenario: Plant run · one architectural deep tint base from dosing to pallet · bead mill, let-down tank, tint station, filling line. Scenario complete · batch inside spec · one human approval at the tint station.
run_scn_01
scenario · not measured
SUCCEEDED
-
01
order.receive
SUCCEEDED
0.8 s
Plant Orchestrator · Pulled the formula, the customer color standard and its tolerance, the viscosity and solids spec, the raw-material lot records and the product's VOC limit from the coatings MES and the lab system; locked the target envelope for the run.
-
02
twin.simulate
SUCCEEDED
41 s
Plant Orchestrator · Simulated 24 candidate dispersion, let-down and tint paths on the Coatwin as-made twin; ranked them on predicted Delta-E, fineness margin, viscosity, solvent use, energy and takt, and discarded every candidate that moved outside the customer tolerance or the VOC limit.
-
03
disperse.mill
SUCCEEDED
1 h 48 m
Dose-and-Disperse · Held mill energy, media temperature and residence to the predicted fineness curve from mill power and spectral reflectance, trimming inside the formula window instead of grinding to a fixed time and checking the Hegman gauge afterward.
-
04
letdown.thin
SUCCEEDED
26 m
Letdown-and-Thin · Predicted viscosity from inline rheology, temperature and solids during let-down and converged on spec with two resin additions and one solvent addition instead of the standing four, inside the formula window; no stability risk was flagged.
-
05
tint.match
SUCCEEDED
14 m
Tint-and-Color · Read the batch's spectral curve against the customer standard, predicted the colorant additions and dosed the first pass; the draw-down read inside tolerance on Delta-E after one addition, with one retint still available under the declared limit.
-
06
inspect.spectral
SUCCEEDED
continuous
Defect-and-Inspect · 12 camera and spectral streams at the plant edge: color, gloss, hiding power, fineness and seed checks on the batch, fill-weight and label checks on every pail; two seeds were attributed to one filter cartridge and Filter-and-Fill scheduled the change.
-
07
approve.human
APPROVAL
2 m 10 s
Plant Orchestrator · The lowest-solvent candidate wanted a second colorant addition beyond the declared retint limit to tighten Delta-E further. Held for the shift color-matcher, who kept the customer tolerance untouched and approved one bounded addition with a tighter draw-down check.
-
08
filter.fill
SUCCEEDED
continuous
Filter-and-Fill · Filtered through the fresh cartridge and filled pails to exact weight using fill-weight and foam feedback from inspection; the filler corrected upstream instead of rejecting downstream.
-
09
handle.palletize
SUCCEEDED
continuous
Robot-and-Handling · Moved filled pails to the pallet inside the declared safety zone with a simulation-validated handling policy; one pallet-pattern change was executed after the zone check cleared.
-
10
release.genealogy
SUCCEEDED
58 s
Quality-and-Conformance · Batch released: raw-material lots, grind profile, let-down moves, colorant additions and spectral curves, inspection outcomes, VOC and solvent use and every human decision written to the batch genealogy and checked against spec.
Qualification
Who qualifies
The criteria we use before proposing a pilot, and who we do not target.
A good fit
- Enough production volume or product value to make one line's ROI unambiguous; re-tint and re-mill rework is costly at scale.
- Existing dispersion or tinting, spectrophotometry and color-management, inspection and MES systems with API or OT access for integration.
- An executive mandate to raise yield or cut rework, waste, solvent or energy, and to automate consistency.
- Willingness to run a paid pilot with a defined re-tint, re-mill or waste success metric.
Not a fit
- Tiny custom and artisan paint shops with no repeatable production scope.
- Sites unwilling to integrate dispersion, tinting, color or inspection systems under IP and security controls.
- Buyers looking for a generic horizontal dashboard rather than a system that acts.
Tool calls
The agent shows its work
Every tool invocation, argument and result is written to an immutable, human-readable log, and every reasoning step is expandable. Nothing about a run is hidden from the plant. The log below is the scenario run, not a measured one.
- 05:40:02mes.read_order({ batch: "B-4471", product: "TB-DEEP-07", standard: "STD-2210" })
- 05:40:02ok formula locked · tolerance Delta-E v4 · VOC limit on product
- 05:40:03lab.read_results({ lot: "PIG-8831", test: "incoming pigment" })
- 05:40:03ok lot inside spec · accepted for dosing
- 05:40:04twin.simulate({ candidates: 24, horizon: "batch" })
- 05:40:45ok best path #9 · tolerance held · lowest solvent and energy per batch
- 05:40:46policy.evaluate({ plan: 9, stage: "bounded" })
- 05:40:46ok 7 writes permitted · 1 write requires human approval
- 05:40:47plc.write_setpoint({ tag: "MILL2.ENERGY", basis: "power+spectral" })
- 07:28:30ok Hegman on target · color strength on target · no re-mill
- 07:29:00viscosity.predict({ tank: "LD-3", basis: "inline rheology+solids" })
- 07:29:00ok two resin and one solvent addition predicted · stability clear
- 07:29:01plc.write_setpoint({ tag: "LD3.SOLVENT_DOSE", window: "formula" })
- 07:55:10ok viscosity on spec · no overshoot
- 07:56:00spectro.read_curve({ station: "TINT-2", standard: "STD-2210" })
- 07:56:01dispenser.write({ colorant: "B", basis: "spectral prediction", retint_limit: 1 })
- 08:10:12ok draw-down inside Delta-E tolerance · one retint remaining
- 08:10:13vision.stream({ cameras: 12, models: ["color_gloss", "hiding_power", "seed_foam", "fill_label"] })
- 08:21:48flag: seed · pail 0417 · attributed to filter cartridge F-2 loading
- 08:21:49defect.attribute({ event: "seed", cause: "filter.cartridge_F2" })
- 08:21:49ok filter_fill notified · cartridge change scheduled · fill held 40 s
- 08:21:52approval.request({ action: "retint.beyond_limit", reason: "tighter Delta-E on lowest-solvent path" })
- 08:24:02ok approved by the shift color-matcher · tolerance untouched · one bounded addition
- 08:24:03plc.write_setpoint({ tag: "FIL1.TARGET_WEIGHT", basis: "fill-weight+foam feedback" })
- 09:48:40ok pails on weight · no spills · labels verified
- 09:49:38mes.release_batch({ batch: "B-4471", genealogy: "full" })
- 09:50:36ok batch released · scenario complete
Reasoning trace
Goal, plan, thought, action, observation, exactly as the orchestrator would record it.
GoalDisperse batch B-4471 to Hegman fineness, let it down to visco…
Disperse batch B-4471 to Hegman fineness, let it down to viscosity spec, tint it inside Delta-E of standard STD-2210, filter and fill it to exact weight and release it with full genealogy.
PlanSimulate the whole batch on the twin first. Lead with fineness…
Simulate the whole batch on the twin first. Lead with fineness so the let-down gets the right mill base and the tint station gets the right color strength. Keep the customer tolerance and the VOC limit as hard constraints. Let the dispenser converge only inside the declared retint limit; hold anything beyond it for a human.
ThoughtThe standing practice grinds to a fixed time, lets down by fou…
The standing practice grinds to a fixed time, lets down by four additions and tints by draw-down loops. With live fineness and viscosity prediction and a spectral color-match model the batch can land on the first pass. The saving is rework, colorant and solvent, not tolerance: the customer standard is never a candidate for optimization.
Actiontwin.simulate(candidates=24) → path #9: Hegman on target in on…
twin.simulate(candidates=24) → path #9: Hegman on target in one grind, three let-down additions, one colorant pass, lowest predicted solvent and energy per batch, takt met.
ObservationPath #9 wants a second colorant addition beyond the declared r…
Path #9 wants a second colorant addition beyond the declared retint limit to tighten Delta-E further. The policy engine routes that single move to the shift color-matcher and permits the other seven writes.
ActionExecute path #9 at the bounded stage: mill energy, let-down do…
Execute path #9 at the bounded stage: mill energy, let-down dosing and the first colorant pass proceed; inspection runs continuously; the extra addition waits.
ObservationApproval granted at 08:24:02 with the tolerance untouched and …
Approval granted at 08:24:02 with the tolerance untouched and a tighter draw-down check. Two seeds were attributed to filter cartridge F-2 and Filter-and-Fill scheduled the change with a 40 second hold.
OutcomeScenario complete. The batch is released with raw-material lot…
Scenario complete. The batch is released with raw-material lots, grind profile, let-down moves, colorant additions, spectral curves, inspection outcomes, VOC and solvent use and the human decision in the genealogy. No measured plant result is claimed; this is the run the platform is designed to execute.
Onboarding
What the first phase looks like
Gates, not dates. Each stage starts when the previous one has proven its number against your own baseline.
- Design partners. Three to five coatings makers instrument the wedge workflow in shadow mode. We measure the baseline on re-tints, re-mills, waste and solvent from your own lab, spectrophotometer, QA records and meters.
- Assist mode. The agent recommends dispersion, tint or color moves and predicts Delta-E, fineness and rheology; your color-matcher or process engineer approves. Accuracy and ROI are proven against the baseline.
- Graduated autonomy. Low-risk dispersion, tinting and inspection loops move to bounded automatic control with adaptive setpoints. Exceptions escalate to a person.
- Expansion. Adjacent modules are added within the same plant, then across sites.
Autonomy
Four stages, set per loop
A plant does not go from manual to bounded control in one step. Tinteon makes the stage explicit per loop, auditable and reversible at any time, and some decisions never leave the person.
| Stage | What the agent does | What the person does | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow | Predicts fineness, viscosity, Delta-E, hiding power, contamination and fill faults; writes nothing | Runs the plant as today; compares predictions to the lab, the spectrophotometer and PLC outcomes | First phase with every design partner |
| Assist | Recommends bounded mill, let-down, colorant, filtration and fill moves with the evidence | A formulator, color-matcher or quality manager approves or rejects each one | After accuracy is proven against the baseline |
| Bounded | Writes low-risk dispersion, tinting and inspection setpoints inside documented formula, tolerance, VOC, equipment and rollback limits | Approves anything above the limits; reviews the shift record | After the quality and ROI gates agreed up front |
| Exceptions | Escalates anything outside its envelope, any move against a customer standard or VOC limit, and release decisions | Always decides these; the agent never does | Permanent |
Integrations
It speaks plant, not cloud
Tinteon reads and writes through the systems already on the floor. No parallel historian, no new HMI, no rip-and-replace. Connectors are built against each design partner's stack first; long-tail integrations are out of scope for the first release.
PLC and controls of dispersers, bead, basket and horizontal mills, with mill power, media temperature and residence telemetry
Setpoint reads, guarded writes, interlocks untouched
Tint dispensers and colorant dosing systems
Colorant additions inside declared retint and additive limits
Spectrophotometers, draw-down cameras and color-standard libraries
Spectral curves and Delta-E in; cited matches out
Inline rheometers and viscometers, temperature and solids sensors, LIMS results
Continuous viscosity and stability state
Filtration skids, filling lines, fill-weight scales, labelers
Telemetry in; fill-weight and hold commands inside approved windows
Multi-camera and spectral stations for color, gloss, hiding power, seeds, foam, fill and label faults
Frames, fault events, hold recommendations
Orders, formulas, color standards, product specs, batch genealogy
Targets in, release records out
Plant and asset meters, solvent and VOC accounting; Isaac-driven drum, pail and tote cells
Hard constraints for scheduling; bounded handling
Guardrails
An agent that can move a setpoint needs a leash
Tinteon writes to production equipment in a chemical plant. Every capability is scoped, every write is policy-checked, every output is cited, and every action is written to an append-only audit log the plant owns.
- Bounded action space. Each agent can only write to an explicit tag allow-list, inside per-tag rate, magnitude and retint limits, at the autonomy stage the plant has set.
- Standards and limits are read, never written. The customer color standard and its tolerance, the VOC and solvent limits under the plant's permit and the batch release decision stay with the quality system and the people who own it.
- Policy engine before every write. Autonomy stage, interlock state, product, formula, shift and operator presence are evaluated before a setpoint or a colorant addition moves.
- Grounded and cited. Every recommendation carries a citation to the formula, color standard, spec or procedure it relied on. Retrieval is tenant-isolated and permission-aware.
- Immutable audit log. Append-only, exportable and retained on the plant's own storage, aligned to ISO 9001, VOC and REACH and customer color-standard record-keeping.
- Hard fallback. If the edge node, the network or a model stops, the plant keeps running on its existing mill, dispenser and filling-line control and interlocks.
- Tenant and IP isolation. Formulas, color standards, raw-material data and tolerance models never cross a customer boundary. On-prem deployment available.
Assurance posture
| Item | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 Type I | Cloud control plane | QUEUED Roadmap, first 6 months |
| SOC 2 Type II | Cloud control plane | QUEUED Roadmap, 6 to 12 months |
| ISO 9001 · VOC and REACH · customer color standards | Grounding and record-keeping | RUNNING Design basis for retrieval and the audit log |
| Per-tenant isolation | Data, memory, models | RUNNING Design rule |
| On-prem deployment | Formula-sensitive producers | RUNNING Design option |
Tinteon supports your quality and VOC records. It is not a certification and it does not replace your quality system or your permit.
FAQ
Straight answers
The questions plant directors, formulators, color-matchers and quality managers ask in the first meeting.
Only at the autonomy stage your plant has set, and only to an explicit allow-list of low-risk loops inside documented limits. Every design partner starts in shadow mode, where Tinteon predicts and writes nothing. Assist mode follows, where a formulator or color-matcher approves each recommendation. Bounded autonomy on dispersion, tinting and inspection loops comes after the quality and ROI gates agreed up front.
They are not optimization variables. The customer standard and its tolerance, the VOC and solvent limits under your permit and the batch release decision stay with your quality procedures and your people. Tinteon reads them, cites them and writes every reading to an immutable audit log attached to the batch genealogy. It is grounded in ISO 9001, VOC and REACH and customer color standards; it is not a certification and does not replace your quality system.
Tinteon sits above your existing automation as a supervisory layer. If it stops, the plant keeps running on its current mill, dispenser and filling-line control and the interlocks it already has. A Tinteon outage degrades the plant to the way it runs today, not to a stop.
The first phase is shadow mode on one line: Tinteon reads your spectrophotometer, mill and dispenser history, inline rheology, lab results and MES while you run the plant as usual, and we measure its predictions against your lab, your draw-downs and PLC outcomes. Recommendations start when accuracy is proven against that baseline, and improve as plant-specific history and color-matcher corrections accumulate.
Formulas, color standards, tolerance models and raw-material data are tenant-scoped and never used to train another customer's models. Retrieval is multi-tenant isolated and permission-aware. Cross-plant learning, where a customer opts in, is federated and IP-isolated. On-prem deployment is available for producers protecting sensitive formulas.
You are, the same as with any control strategy. That is why every write is policy-checked, bounded, logged and reversible, every output carries a citation to the formula, standard or procedure it relied on, and anything above your threshold waits for a named approver. The audit log records the request, the reasoning, the limits applied and the human decision.
As a design partner, on one line, with one hard metric: Delta-E first-time-right rate and retints, re-mills and mill energy, solvent per batch and viscosity variance, or contamination and fill rejects. We instrument the line in shadow mode, measure the baseline, move to assist mode when accuracy is proven, and expand only when the number holds.
Full multi-module autonomy across the whole plant, long-tail integrations beyond the design partners' stacks, and self-serve onboarding. The first release is one wedge workflow, its connectors, the agent loop with human checkpoints, the review console and the assurance-grade quality and VOC audit log.
Get started
Become a design partner
One line, one baseline, a seat at the table while the product is shaped. Tell us about the line.