Currently, about 50,000 foundries are operating in the world, of which about 20,000 are producing cast iron. These are achieving the right quality products.
The majority of these foundries depend on optical emission spectrometry, or OES. To achieve an optimized analysis out of your OES, it becomes necessary to combat the “drifting” process, or the gradual change in instrument sensitivity that can start to affect results. This drift has to be managed to keep the analyzer precise and accurate, so how can you achieve that in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible?
The range of OES analyzers from Hitachi High-Tech has been specifically designed to make it easy to keep drifting at bay, enabling you to concentrate on producing high-quality products.
What Causes Drift?
All OES instruments are susceptible to environmental factors that can impact the accuracy of their readings eventually. This kind of drift is mainly caused by fluctuations in air temperature and pressure. Shocks induced by the position of the instrument inside its operational environment are therefore a typical cause, albeit the Hitachi machines have been designed to overcome this.
In addition to environmental factors, contaminated optical planes, aging components, or a change of vacuum or purging gas level can all start to distort your results. It can become a major problem if your surgery depends on the precise chemical composition of products.
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Recalibration Made Simple
Following a period of sustained use, a spark spectrometer can be recalibrated to put it back to its peak performance. The drift is not addressed, bringing with it inaccurate readings. The challenging part of this is that there is no sign to find out if something is really wrong.
At any point in time, the OES has to use control samples. Ideally, these should be as close as possible to the process materials that are actually used.
Your spark spectrometer is doing precisely this to take you out of the recalibration process in terms of time intervals. Earlier, recalibration was easily performed at predefined intervals. In effect, there are some companies that are still doing this. This implies that the OES performance could drift considerably at that time without detection. A high-quality medical record can allow you to monitor the health of your OES. Apart from that, control samples can also be used to validate that your instrument is process-capable for audits.
The Hitachi High-Tech Solution
OES manufacturers attempting to tackle drift can safely examine the pressure and temperature of their operating environment. The issue is that this method will translate to higher operational costs.
OES analyzers from Hitachi High-Tech do not limit operators to having higher operating costs or more costly materials. The company designs its instruments to be cost-effective, smarter, and more efficient than their competitors.
Hitachi High-Tech’s optics have an overall wavelength coverage of 130 and 800 nm, making it easy for operators to detect the initial signs of drift and thus rectify the issue. The company has therefore automated the process of tracking and correcting the spectral positions of all pertinent channels at the time of each analysis. If the OES itself is maintained well, then drift should not lead to increased costs.
Hitachi High Tech has more than 45 years of experience in the metals sector to get the best out of its analyzers. The company’s team can ensure that your OES analyzer continues to operate at the level it is designed to, and also continues to add value to your operations over the long period.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Hitachi High-Tech Analytical Science.
For more information on this source, please visit Hitachi High-Tech Analytical Science.