The development of the technology platform underlying the formation of HueMetrix was started in the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. The research group’s vision was to develop (1) a real-time monitoring system to measure the existing state of a dyeing system, and (2) a control strategy to produce 100% right-first-time dyeings with 98+% shade consistency.

Over a decade of research involving over 40 faculty, graduate students, technicians and staff and nearly $4.4 million dollars contributed to the successful development and demonstration of a technology designed to accomplish their vision, a feat often considered impossible by industry insiders.

They developed new analytical fluidics processes, mathematical algorithms, and instrumentation to overcome previous unsuccessful industry attempts to monitor dye exhaustion in real-time.

Once the technologies were validated as “mature,” NC State’s technology transfer office allowed the High Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (HiTEC) program in the College of Management to make them the focus of a class project. Over the course of six months, a team of four graduate level students worked to build and validate a business case for the technologies. Their hard work paid off, and they placed second in the 10th Annual Carroll Joyner $10,000 Business Plan Competition.

The competition ignited discussions between the faculty of HiTEC and the NC State faculty who developed the technologies. Plans were soon set in motion to create a start-up company and HueMetrix, Inc. was founded. HueMetrix combined the NC State technologies with other internally developed technologies and capabilities to produce Dye-It-Right Systems.

HueMetrix is located in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A. and is dedicated to making ‘Right First Time’ dyeing a reality through the development, production, and service of real-time dye exhaustion optimization and adaptive color control systems for textile laboratory and production environments.