ANALYSIS AND SORTING
Olympus’ latest Vanta pXRF instrument design is focused on superior ruggedisation, ultra lownoise electronics for faster test times and improved accuracy and repeatability with software features and a user interface designed for greater productivity
Thermo Scientific mini test stand, which is lightweight, collapsible and designed to improve portability, and the Thermo Scientific soil guard and backscatter shield.”
“ The mining and soil analysis industries are increasingly challenged to determine the content of materials quickly and onsite in order to decrease the need for costly, time-consuming lab analysis,” said Julie Planchet, Vice President / General Manager, Field and Safety Instruments for Thermo Fisher.“ Adding mining and soil modes brings the power and accuracy of the Niton XL5 analyser to new potential users while increasing its flexibility for our existing customers.”
The Niton XL5 is designed to improve upon the capabilities of the Thermo Scientific Niton XL3 handheld XRF analyser. Weighing only 1.3 kg with a compact, ergonomic design, the Niton XL5 analyser is intended to reduce operator fatigue, while providing fast and accurate results. In addition to embedded GPS, the newest software update to the Niton XL5 will also include Bluetooth GPS. The added Bluetooth GPS functionality will enable users to record coordinates with high precision by leveraging external Bluetooth GPS devices. Additionally, the new update is designed to allow users to adjust the analyser based on results of reference samples, and enter their own calfactors in order to increase the accuracy of analysis.
Olympus XRD and XRF innovations
Olympus has also recently launched its 6th generation portable XRF( pXRF) instrument, the Vanta Handheld XRF. Olympus believes it to be a further step change for pXRF, claiming it as the most rugged, revolutionary and productive pXRF on the market. The ruggedness features include drop testing to US military standards, an
IP64 / 65 rating giving it unprecedented protection against dust and water ingress, an eyelid shutter for greater detector protection and a capability to cope with 50 ° C temperatures while operating at full duty cycle. This focus on design for durability makes the Vanta increasingly resistant to damage in harsh geological settings for greater uptime and a lower cost of ownership. The revolutionary features are provided by ultra-low noise electronics developed as part of Olympus’ Axon™ technology. Combined with new quad core processors, this provides faster test times than previous generation analysers and outstanding instrument to instrument and test to test repeatability. Productivity features are delivered via the Vanta’ s new, intuitive on board software featuring smartphone style touch / swipe operations and application specific features. This is designed to improve ease of use, minimise user training time to enable increased sample throughput, and gave a faster return on investment. Improved data management on the Vanta has been a particular focus with export options via USB, Wireless LAN and Bluetooth and the unit cloud-enabled. An embedded GPS, aiming and panoramic cameras and beam collimation are also available on the Vanta. Todd Houlahan, Director of Olympus’ International Mining Group said:“ Its been very satisfying to get such positive feedback on the Vanta from our existing customers and to receive orders from competitor’ s customers based on the new features we’ ve built into it.”
Olympus also has a point of difference with their X-ray diffraction( XRD) offering, the BTX II and Terra. The technology developed by NASA is currently being used in space on the Curiosity Rover measuring the mineralogy of Mars. XRD is a technology used to identify and quantify minerals that have a crystalline structure. Olympus XRD analysers have some important differences from conventional, lab-based XRD instruments that result in greater portability and faster results. Conventional XRD instruments use a goniometer, a large device that rotates the X- ray tube and detector around a stationary sample. Goniometers are cumbersome and need to be calibrated. Jose Brum, XRD Product Manager at Olympus OSSA explains:“ Olympus XRD analysers use a charge coupled device( CCD) area detector that captures the entire practical scanning range simultaneously, eliminating the need for a goniometer. Our XRD analysers work by encapsulating 15 mg of powdered sample between two film windows. Next, the device applies a constant frequency using a piezoelectric generator, and this frequency has the effect of convecting the powder in what ' s known as powder liquefaction. The technique convects the sample from bottom to top and rotates each particle on its axes, providing 100 % randomisation, something essential for producing high-quality mineralogy data”. He adds,“ because the instrument’ s X-ray tube and detector are very close to the sample, the power of the analyser’ s X-ray tube can be reduced without sacrificing the number of available photons compared to the long optical pathways of large, conventional XRD instruments. Lowering the power of our instruments’ X-ray tubes minimises the need for and the expense and maintenance associated with external cooling and results in overall lower power consumption. The result of these novel technologies is small benchtop systems, like the BTX II™ analyser and the portable TERRA ® XRD analyser that runs on batteries and can be used right in the field.”
Olympus XRD instruments only need about 15 mg of sample per analysis. In comparison, some conventional XRD systems require a full 1 to 2 grams of sample. In addition, many conventional XRD analysers require users to grind their sample to an ultra-fine powder of less than 20 μ.“ Because of our convective transmission technology, specimen particle size is less critical than with traditional goniometer-based systems; our optimum particle size is between 90 and 120 μ, something easily achieved with a mortar and pestle.”
Finally, Brum points out that conventional 2 kW instruments take a few seconds to collect each 2-theta measurement, and scanning the entire 2-theta range can take as long as several hours.“ The CCD detector used in our instruments collects the entire 2-theta range simultaneously, so the complete diffraction pattern is visible almost immediately.”
More lab analysis options
Bruker last year announced the launch of its new S8 TIGER™ Series 2, a next-generation Wavelength Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence( WDXRF) spectrometer.“ The S8 TIGER Series 2 is the most versatile WDXRF tool available for advanced quantitative elemental analysis in industrial and academic materials research, as well as in industrial quality control( QC) of materials.”
The new S8 TIGER Series 2 introduces novel
14 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2018