In which industries XRF analyzer is a must-have tool

Today, XRF analyzers are very popular tools in the field of elemental composition analysis of materials, finding more and more applications in various fields of science and industry. In certain fields, such as the recycling of autocatalysts, metallurgy or the jewelry industry, XRF takes the place of the main method of quality control of raw materials and finished products, as well as the price estimation of materials. XRF spectrometers have become an indispensable attribute of any large enterprise in these areas.

Metallurgy

The demand for portable XRF spectrometers in the above-mentioned areas, especially in the metallurgical industry, is primarily due to the advantages of the XRF method over the alternatives. XRF is a non-destructive method and therefore can be used to analyze end products without any risk of damaging them. This approach gives 100% confidence in the quality of the products delivered to customers, and the speed of analysis, which allows accurate chemical composition of the sample in less than a minute, allows samples to be analyzed in industrial scales. These advantages, combined with the method's high accuracy and good sensitivity to the presence of impurities in the sample, make it possible to detect the smallest deviations in the composition of materials or finished products from the standards set in production, thus minimizing the number of defective products at the production output, which in turn saves the company a significant amount of time and resources.

Scrap metal sorting

Particularly useful are XRF analyzers for sorting scrap metal for sale or further recycling. Portable XRF spectrometers, having high autonomy and small dimensions, are capable of analyzing a wide class of metal alloys, including ferrous and stainless steels, copper, aluminum, nickel, and other types of alloys. This, combined with built-in alloy libraries and automatic alloy grade determination function, allows fast and reliable determination of elemental composition of almost any type of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap.

Precious Metals

XRF analyzers are also essential when purchasing or selling precious metals and jewelry. XRF spectrometers are capable of determining the composition of a precious alloy with high accuracy (about 0.1%), as well as identifying gilding or other types of coatings, making it easy to identify fakes. The integrated precious alloy evaluation function can quickly assess the value of a precious metal sample based on its chemical content and the market price of the precious metals present in the sample. The fact that the XRF, being a non-destructive method, does not damage the analyzed sample, as well as the possibility of analyzing samples of any shape and size, makes the XRF the most convenient and universal method for analyzing the elemental composition of a jewelry.

Autocatalyst analysis

The XRF method is becoming increasingly popular in the area of recycling spent autocatalysts. Since there are many types of autocatalysts with very different precious metal content of platinum, palladium and rhodium, analyzing the composition of the autocatalyst for further evaluation is the main task in this field. The XRF method has a high accuracy for medium and heavy elements, and allows to determine the concentrations of precious metals with an accuracy of about some tens of ppm ( parts per million), with a measurement time of less than a minute. Similar to precious metals analysis, XRF spectrometers are also capable of automatically determining the value of the analyzed catalyst based on the current market price of platinum, palladium and rhodium.

Thus, in the above-mentioned areas, XRF analyzers have become the primary tool for elemental analysis due to their versatility and reliability, as well as their speed, which greatly saves users time and resources for material analysis. The ease of use and the almost total absence of maintenance costs for XRF analyzers, combined with their high accuracy and speed, have led to a steady increase in the demand for XRF analysis in these and many other areas of modern industry.