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| Alloy Analysis Tools |
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| awemawson:
I powered #1 up and struck an arc on a piece of galvanised plate. I wish that I could show you the spectral lines, they are really very attractive as well as interesting. But despite my best efforts couldn't capture them on a photo. With a bit of juggling I did manage a shot of the arc. |
| awemawson:
Well I'm pleased, and frankly rather surprised, to be able to report that BOTH Analoy Alloy Analysers worked - I'd left their cases open in the heated workshop to give the innards a chance to dry out having been stored in unheated space. On the first one, the ink had soaked into the paper roll, but unrolling more paper and cleaning up the mess from the printer cured that. I decided to clean the little window that shields the arc from the optics, and forgot how delicate it is and put my tissue covered finger right through it :bang: Then I remember that this wasn't the first time I'd done that, and sure enough tucked away in the box was a carton of microscope 'slide cover slips' - basically a square of very thin glass - that I'd bought last time to replace the window - nine years ago. The foam case padding is all crumbling as it does after a few years, but astoundingly both these testers work fine. Andrew |
| Pete.:
That's pretty cool. How far can it narrow the analysis down - I mean can it tell between 304 and 316 stainless, or can it just identify the material as stainless etc, or a particular series like 300 or 400 etc? |
| awemawson:
I'm not entirely sure Pete. I have a feeling it's meant for aluminium / magnesium / zinc alloys though it does test for: Al - Aluminium Si - Silicon Fe - Iron Cu - Copper Mn - Manganese Mg - Magnesium Cr - Chromium Ni - Nickel Zn - Zinc Pb - Lead Li - Lithium Not at all sure how it does it's analysis once the measurement has been sampled. For instance I struck an arc on a lump of lead, and it came up 'No Base Metal' - so it must be making assumptions on what is likely rather than just a quantitative analysis of what is there. Turns out it has an 8085 microprocessor, so if I ever get a few free weeks I'l see if I can disassemble it's eproms and try and get some clues as to what it's doing. Andrew |
| S. Heslop:
Thanks for showing these. I always wished there was more easily available literature on how scientific instruments are actually constructed, and not just on their theory and operation. |
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