P.A.Inc. is equipped with two in-house state of the art portable alloy analyzers. P.A.Inc. owns a X-Met 880 (Elemental Analyzer) and an ARC-MET 900 (OES Alloy Analyzer).

With the X-MET 880 portable alloy analysis system, measurements are totally non-destructive and can be made under extremes of environmental conditions ranging from high dust indoor environments to very cold, hot or wet outdoor environments.

The portable, microprocessor-based X-MET offers a real breakthrough by relieving the operator from decision-making. All that is necessary for analysis is to expose the sample to the instrument for a few seconds, and then read the final identification from the display or printout. Search-match technology is employed which eliminates the need for analysis and judgment procedures. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry is a comparative analytical technique, which utilizes the physical principles of the interaction of x-rays or gamma rays with matter. When a sample is exposed to a beam of low energy (1 to about 100 KeV) x-rays or gamma rays, the main result is excitation in the sample both qualitatively (recognition of element in the sample is proportional to the intensity of its characteristic x-rays).

ARC-MET analyzers incorporate state of the art technology to give them capabilities never before possible in mobile optical emission spectrometers.

Older approaches use “measurement channels”, which limit analysis to pre-selected elements. ARC-MET uses a 2048 element photodiode array detector to measure the entire spectrum even from 178 to 340 nm. This eliminates the need for changing costly hardware when analytical requirements change. The result is greater analytical flexibility. There is also no interruption in the use of the analyzer.

Since ARC-MET measures a complete spectrum, selection of optimum analytical lines is easily controlled by the user via software.

The combination of complete spectral measurement and powerful proprietary software eliminates the need for line profiling, a task once considered unavoidable.

Utilizing the ARC-MET 900, P.A.Inc. can provide carbon content analysis with precision of 0.001% at 0.04% and positive identification of steel grades based on 0.02% difference in carbon concentration.