Metal analysis to achieve the needed mechanical or electrical properties

Metals are widely used due to their wide range of different properties that can be tailored for each specific application. The individual properties of metals are strongly influenced by the non-metallic trace elements such as carbon, sulfur, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen, but also by metallic alloying elements. Even small changes in concentration can lead to significant changes in the mechanical or electrical properties. Depending on the elements to be determined, elemental analysis or optical emission spectrometry (OES)is the method of choice if a highly precise and fast metal analysis of the elemental concentrations is required.

The iron-carbon phase diagram shows at first glance the importance of the carbon concentration for steels. In addition, sulfur, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen concentrations as well as metallic alloying elements such as copper and chromium determine the mechanical properties of steels. Therefore, metal analysis of raw materials for steel production such as pig iron, recycled steel and ferroalloys is essential. The combustion or hot gas extraction analysis with our inductar® series metal analyzers is the method of choice to control the element concentrations for superior steel properties during production. The spectrometer for metal analysis, ferro.lyte®, is ideally suited for sorting and identifying unknown alloys, e.g. during the recycling of non-ferrous metals, since multi-element determination can also be used to determine and classify unknown metals at first glance.

Precisely defined, certified metal powders are required for powder metallurgy processing and additive manufacturing. The often very fine powders react quickly with the environment and thus change their mechanical and thermal properties. In general, additive manufacturing techniques and other powder metallurgical manufacturing processes enable complicated product geometries and novel product properties. Certified metal powders are essential for reliable and stable production and a flawless end product. The innovative and reliable induction furnace of our inductar series ensures fast and accurate analysis results. This makes our metal analyzers just as flexible and fast as the advanced production processes themselves.

Iron, aluminum, cobalt or titanium alloys are used for everyday products such as ladles, but also for high-tech products in the aerospace and medical technology industries. The control of the chemical composition throughout the entire process chain ensures efficient production and best product quality. The analysis of the elements carbon, sulfur, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen in metals contributes to the development of new high-performance components and ensures stable production of cast parts. Quality control also has the highest priority in the routine inspection of pipes already produced or other metallic semi-finished products. The mobile metal spectrometer ferro.lyte is the perfect solution for this kind of analyses in environments that are difficult to access.

Positive material identification is used to analyze and identify metals or their alloy composition for quality and process control. Optical Emission Spectrometry (OES) offers by far the most complete analysis and is therefore the most established technology on the market. Not only the main alloying elements can be determined by OES, but also trace elements with detection limits in the ppm range. OES is the first choice whenever elements with low atomic numbers such as C, P, S, B, Li, Be, Ca, Si, Mg, Al are to be measured and fast, precise and simultaneous determination of nitrogen in duplex is required. The innovative and reliable OES metal analyzer ferro.lyte is optimized for fast on-site metal analysis. The analytical quality of ferro.lyte corresponds to that of a stationary metal spectrometer - with maximum mobility at the same time.