Mass spectrometer... tips on picking one?

Typically you would be looking for optical emission spectrometer for steel analysis rather than mass spectrometer. XRF is another way to go also, probably better than optical emission for highly alloyed materials.

There are several big manufacturers that can help you design the proper instrument based on your needs (ARL, BAIRD). Your needs will be based on the types of steels you will be working with, nitrogen added will need nitrogen analysis capability and so on.

you are right.... I should be looking for an optical emission spectrometer. Thank you

the xray (xrf) we have looked at, but they are like 30-50k so we are hoping to find a used spectrometer for cheap

Thank you for the brand names. I will check those out to see how much they are going for

wait... I think you were right... which one uses an arc to vaporize a little bit of material and then sucks it up and analyzes whatever it vaporized... I have seen that one used in a foundry on the samples from the heats.... that is the one I am familiar with

is the common method for metal analysis.

A cheap solution will be a portable OES,though not very accurate,it has its merits.

_____________________________________
"The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually." Martin Luther King Jr

Spectro is another major brand name in this area.

30 - 50k will be typical of a new portable xrf or portable OES. The higher accuracy static new units will be several times that with much better capability as well.

Not sure what the used machines cost but you get what you pay for. Take a look at some of the old ARL models out there, maybe you can find a good deal. We have one that is probably 15+ years old and it still runs great. We use it as a second backup.

We have two ARL Optical Emissions Spectrometers and one ARL x-ray…Found the Advant X (x-ray) to be very temperamental and proper sample prep to be time consuming. The two optical emissions (ARL 3460) run 24 hours a day 365 five days a year with very few problems and about an hour of preventive maintenance per week. We normally run around a hundred tests a day on those two machines. The 3460’s do need a room with a controlled atmosphere they are very temperature and humidity sensitive and can only take a plus or minus five degree temperature change per hour. All three machines are pretty much considered destructive testing due to the sample size. The Optical machines use a high voltage power source which vaporizes part of the test to produce light, which the machine converts to a digital reading. The techs that run the machines love the two Optical spectrometers but hate the Advant X due to the sample prep and clean up…hope this helps.