XRF Analysis of UNS-T11302, High-Speed Tool Steel (M2)
The alloy, UNS-T11302 (M-2 High Speed Tool Steel) is correctly identified by the XRF analyzer at short acquisition times (e.g., 25 seconds, below). However, this example also illustrates how increasing the acquisition time can help with the detection of trace elements (e.g., Co, Cu, Ni), but at the cost of an occasional false positive. In this case the shoulder of one of the minor emission lines in the tungsten spectrum (Lg1 at 11.28 kev: W Spectrum) overlaps the elemental region the instrument uses for the quantitation of platinum (Lb1 at 11.07 keV: 10.95-11.25 keV region: Pt Spectrum). The software settings can be customized to “silence” this type of interference as needed for special applications (e.g., by adjusting the %cutoff reported for the offending element) if one can be reasonably certain, based on the spectrum, that it is indeed a false positive (sometimes called a “tramp element”).
