Industrial Applications of Microprobe Analysis

Abstract

Electron probe X-ray microanalysis has revealed a new realm of analytical investigations on a microscopic scale. But while the microprobe permits high precision in strictly quantitative analysis, such precision may not be pertinent in many commercial problems, where the microconstituent to be analyzed is itself compositionally nonhomogeneous. In those cases, where better precision is warranted, precise quantitative measurements may be applied, or synthetic empirical reference standards may be used. But in many important industrial problems, a rapid semiquantitative approach plus electron and X-ray scanning photographs provide important compositional insight to light metallography.

Therefore some typical industrial applications of the scanning microanalyzer to the analysis of multiphase structures and of compositional heterogeneity in commercial materials are discussed, along with some considerations of instrumental factors in the scanning microanalyzer, which improve image quality, increase speed of semiquantitative analysis, and permit analysis of rough surfaces, such as fractured metal specimens.