Car manufacturing
Today, more than ever, advanced materials and new regulations such as ELV compliance (End of Life Vehicles) place ever greater demands on the car manufacturing industry and it's production processes.
Supported by a network of subcontractors, who operate at all levels within manufacturing process, the car industry is under constant pressure to lower costs. The network, now very much a global supply chain, seeks to make cost and efficiency savings through improved materials verification. The high volume nature of car production requires materials verification to be a highly accurate process conducted in just seconds.
X-MET5100, our newest hand-held XRF analyser takes the analytical performance of XRF to a completely new level. The combination of a groundbreaking Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) and powerful 45kV X-ray tube enable the analysis of light elements, such as Mg, AI and Si without the need for complex vacuum or helium attachments. Alloy analysis as low as 200 ppm of Nb in low alloy steels can be completed in less than 5 seconds. This same instrument will also analyse restricted elements in plastics (Cd, Pb Hg, Cl and Cr and Br content in restricted compounds) in less than 10 seconds.
X-MET5000 a hand-held XRF analyser is the ideal tool for ELV applications, where hazardous or restricted elements are to be detected or where material verification is to be conducted. Both are now possible using this single point-and-shoot instrument.
TEST-MASTER PRO is a mobile Optical Emission analyser with extremely high measurement capacity for metallic material, especially when Carbon needs to be detected. This analyser is highly robust for 24/7 operation.
For decorative finishing, chrome is often coated onto Nickel. The chrome gives both corrosion resistance and a decorative finish and is widely used for automotive trims, e.g. car badges, and bathroom accessories such as taps, shower fittings etc. For wear resistance titanium is coated on steel and examples include high speed tool drills.
CMI900 and X-Strata980 are both simple to use, compact, field proven, benchtop Energy Dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) systems tailored to measure a range of metallic coatings. Coating thickness measurements using EDXRF offers many benefits including simple or no sample preparation, no potentially hazardous chemicals, no weighting or volumetric measurements and fast analysis. The sample is simply placed on the tray, aligned using the in-built camera (allowing the measurement of small areas of the sample), and pressing the 'Go' button. Simplicity itself. Results appear in seconds offering simple quality control analysis and cost savings. The instrument can be operated by production staff on a 24/7 basis maximising the return on the investment.
Body damage inflicted on a vehicle requires a paint job performed by professionals who match the factory paint so closely that the new paint is undetectable to the human eye. However, the thickness of the paint will vary between factory coatings and areas on the body that were re-painted by about a factor of two. The ability to measure the consistency and adequacy of paint thickness over a vehicle’s entirety supplies a great deal of information regarding the history and integrity of the vehicle’s body. This information can provide confidence to potential buyers that the body is safe, in good shape and will last for years.
Paint thickness measurement devices typically utilize the magnetic properties of ferrous steel or the conductive properties of aluminium automobile chassis frames to measure the response of a signal through non-magnetic, non-conductive paint coatings. The standard technique utilizes Magnetic Induction or Eddy Current technology to measure the thickness of the Paint Coatings. The auto-painter, auto-dealer and consumer can utilize the CMI153, CMI233, CMI 250 instruments to quality control factory paint jobs, inspect the vehicle body for evidence of re-worked panels or to hunt for confirmation of retouched factory paint.
Manufacturers of rubber seals for the automotive industry need to know the coating thickness on the seal in order for them to supply their customers with a consistent quality product. Approximately, half of the manufacturers use Silicon (Si) as the coating material, the alternative coating is an organic material. Lab-X3500 can determine the silicon (Si) coating directly, offering a fast, simple, accurate, low-cost analysis. It also can determine an organic coating thickness indirectly, by measuring the decrease in the sulphur (S). Due to its’ ease of use and its compact design, the Lab-X3500 can be located either in a laboratory or at the manufacturing site and operated by production staff whenever required.