Iron and Steel

Nowadays, when molding the properties of steels for certain applications, the choice of suitable alloy compounds is only of secondary importance because the properties of steels are prevailingly tailored by heat treatment processes. Frequently applied methods of thermal heat treatment comprise hardening and tempering. Among the thermochemical heat treatments, carburizing, nitriding, carbonitriding, nitrocarburizing, and boriding are most common.

In heat treatment, the control over the thickness of the compound layer and the concentration of the introduced elements as well as the chemical compositions of the surface and the bulk play an important role. Using the Glow Discharge Analyzer GDA-Alpha by Spectruma Analytik, all these parameters can easily be analyzed at once!

Nearly all elements of the periodic table including H, Li, Na, C, N, P and O can be detected. The detection limits range from 0.1 to 10 ppm. The GDA-Alpha is capable of determining layer thicknesses between few nanometers and several hundreds of micrometers with a relative depth resolution of 5-10 % of the detected depth.

One measurement takes only several minutes and no laborious and time-consuming sample preparation is required. Samples can be directly analyzed as received from the production.

Furthermore, the GDA-Alpha can be programmed to iden­tify certain desired conditions (e.g. maximum/minimum concentration or layer thickness) automatically. So measurements can be conducted quickly and effortlessly even by untrained operators.

In summary, the Glow Discharge Analyzer GDA-Alpha by Spectruma Analytik is the perfect instrument for fast and reliable measurements for production and quality controls.

For further information on the Glow Discharge Analyzers please follow the link.