SciAps True Demo Stories, Episode 7: Getting Into the Swing

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A: Neither one is affected by wind.

A breezy round of golf got us thinking about some demo stories we’ve been hearing from the road. One of the questions we keep getting is “does the handheld LIBS work in the wind?” We get this question all the time, and couldn’t understand why wind is a problem.

Then we found ourselves delivering several Z-200 C+ units to some refineries in north Texas. There was a 20 mph wind blowing that day (we’re told it blows like that pretty much every day) when we went into the field to do some carbon testing. That's when our customers told us that when they use spark OES on windy locations like this, the wind blows away the argon purge, thus degrading the results. Our LIBS analyzer fires a pulsed laser at the material to create a plasma, instead of a continuous electric spark like spark OES. With the combination of fast laser and reduced argon, wind is no problem.

In the field in north Texas, the Z-200 C+ worked like a charm. On carbon steels and L-grades, we got our repeatability, right on par.So, if you can’t use your OES because of the wind, give us a call. We’ll get your new, reliable PMI testing up and running.

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Need help interpreting your results? While travel and visitor restrictions persist, SciAps is making Paul Lawrence of PMI Concepts available for 1-2 hour FREE consulting slots. He will provide web-based video support to answer your PMI application and analyzer questions.

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