Description
The Hanna Instruments HI96785 is a state-of-the-art portable photometer specifically designed for accurately determining honey color through light transmittance measurements. This advanced instrument combines exceptional accuracy with user-friendly operation in a durable, portable design, finally eliminating the subjective and often inconsistent method of judging honey color by eye. Hanna’s portable photometers incorporate a sophisticated optical system featuring a specialized tungsten lamp, a narrow band interference filter, and a precise silicon photodetector to guarantee consistent and accurate photometric readings every time. Furthermore, the exclusive cuvette locking system ensures that your sample cuvette is always inserted into the measurement cell in the exact same position, maintaining a consistent 10 mm path length for reliable results.
Intuitive Features for Reliable Operation:
The HI96785 is engineered with smart features to enhance usability and ensure consistent performance.
Automatic Shut-Off for Battery Preservation
To conserve battery life and prevent accidental power drain, the HI96785 features an automatic shut-off function. The meter will power down automatically after 10 minutes of inactivity while in measurement mode. This smart feature helps to extend the lifespan of your batteries, even if the device is inadvertently left on after use.
Clear Battery Status Indicator
Keep track of your power levels with the convenient battery status indicator. This clear display provides real-time information on the remaining battery life, ensuring you’re never caught off guard in the middle of a critical measurement.
Advanced Diagnostics and Performance:
Benefit from built-in alerts and optimized optical components for superior accuracy.
Comprehensive Error Messages
The HI96785 provides clear and concise error messages directly on the display to alert users to potential issues. These alerts include warnings for conditions such as a missing cuvette cap, a high zero reading, or a calibration standard that is too low, ensuring accurate and reliable measurements.
Cooling Lamp Indicator for Optical Stability
Maintaining precise wavelength stability is crucial for accurate absorbance readings. The tungsten lamp within the photometer generates heat, which can affect optical components. The HI96785 features a cooling lamp indicator that prompts a brief cool-down period before a reading is taken. This ensures the optical components remain at an optimal temperature, guaranteeing the desirable wavelength and the highest level of accuracy for your honey color measurements.
Understanding Honey Color and its Commercial Importance
The color of honey is a critical characteristic for its commercial classification and grading within the industry. This color is typically expressed in millimeters (mm) Pfund, a standardized unit that compares the honey sample to an analytical grade glycerol standard reference.
Naturally, honey exhibits a wide spectrum of colors, ranging from very pale straw yellow to deep amber, and even almost black with reddish undertones. The natural coloration of untreated honey is primarily derived from the specific botanical varieties from which the bees collect nectar. Therefore, its color serves as an important indicator for commercially identifying the honey’s original floral source.
It’s important to note that honey’s color can also darken over time due to aging or change based on various conservation and production methods employed by beekeepers. Factors such as the use of older beehives, contact with metals, the storage temperature, and exposure to light can all influence the final color of the honey.
The HI96785 photometer provides a direct and objective method to determine honey coloration within a range of 0 to 150 mm Pfund. This instrument utilizes a precisely calibrated tungsten lamp coupled with a narrow band interference filter to isolate specific wavelengths at 420 nm and 525 nm, which are crucial for accurate color measurement. All samples are measured within a standard square cuvette with a 10 mm light path and are compared against a glycerol standard. The resulting percent light transmittance readings are directly converted and displayed as mm Pfund values. Thanks to its advanced optical system, the HI96785 eliminates human subjectivity, delivering highly precise and repeatable honey color readings essential for quality control and adherence to market standards.
For further reference on classification, the table below outlines the USDA classification standards for honey samples and their corresponding mm Pfund values. For detailed information, you can refer to the official USDA classification document.
| USDA Color Standards Designations | Color Range Pfund Scales (mm) |
|---|---|
| Water White | 8 or less |
| Extra White | Over 8 to 17 (including) |
| White | Over 17 to 34 (including) |
| Extra Light Amber | Over 34 to 50 (including) |
| Light Amber | Over 50 to 85 (including) |
| Amber | Over 85 to 114 (including) |
| Dark Amber | Over 114 |
