Using the Q8 MAGELLAN - Bruker Elemental’s optical emission spectrometer, in conjunction with our MCI software package - to determine the purity of materials at incoming inspection enables accurate assessment and classification of suppliers and their delivery quality, leading to optimized margins. For critical products, such as those in the aerospace or wind energy business, the selection of the right materials and material grades is of utmost importance. Defective materials associated with critical components that fail can cause entire plant production lines to halt. Selecting the proper materials and ensuring their delivery is crucial. To reduce these critical failures, high quality materials with excellent purity levels are required, and a company’s ability to reject substandard materials is essential for success.
Quality and safety are maximized with proper materials. However, this is in contrast to the economic analysis where the margin is always in the foreground. Striking a balance between optimal quality and margin is necessary in every industry: use as much as necessary – but use as little as possible. Especially in a world where globalized goods traffic is the norm, the assessment of suppliers and their delivery quality is difficult,
but making an accurate analysis of supply sources and grades of material is required. Knowing which supplier consistently provides a particular grade of material demonstrates a supplier’s reliability and a classification is possible: material suppliers can be ranked A, B or C, and purchasing costs are reduced. A sampling of materials during incoming inspection will give approximate values, but in order to achieve a robust classification with regard to delivered quality and purity, it is necessary to perform a comprehensive examination of the material. Ideally, a complete examination of the materials should be performed when the material is received.
Using a detailed analysis and the knowledge of who can provide that quality at what price, the optimization of margins is ultimately possible. Previously, the method for evaluating the degree of purity was by using a microscope or scanning electron microscope (SEM -EDX ). This method required a significant effort, was costly, and was time consuming, allowing for only partial sample reviews. But now, Bruker Elemental offers a tool to expedite the process. The Q8 MAGELLAN can give information about the purity level and the oxygen content of a material, in addition to determining its chemical composition. The review of the optical spark emission spectrometry can be done along with the usual element analysis. The time required is negligible (a few seconds), sample preparation is very simple, and the evaluation can be performed on the same equipment.
