Try a synthetic CRM for cement sampling

by Murielle Goubard, Tuesday, 20th February 2024

Reduce sample preparation costs in XRF analyses by using WROXI Certified Reference Materials (CRM)

X-ray fluorescence spectrometry has many advantages – simple sample preparation, high accuracy, and good detection limits across much of the periodic table. It also has a wide range of applications – it can analyze a wide range of oxide materials and concentrations. This makes it a great tool for quality control and regulatory compliance in the cement industry.

Despite its versatility, XRF spectrometry still requires careful calibration to accurately quantify elements. Ideally, you’ll want clean net peak intensities, accurate corrections for inter-element matrix effects, and reliable standards over a wide range of concentrations. Whether you use energy dispersive (ED) or wavelength dispersive (WD) XRF, the challenge is to find suitable materials that can calibrate the spectrometer.

How can Malvern Panalytical help? We developed WROXI to solve the problem of finding suitable calibration materials for both WDXRF and EDXRF. It can determine oxides in a wide range of materials. And because it is synthetic, its standards are available forever.

Malvern Panalytical WROXI is a dual solution. You no longer need to worry about the limited elemental ranges of Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) or the limited availability of Reference Materials (RMs) made from natural materials. Its precision facilitates the production of higher-quality cement samples. What’s more, the synthetic nature of WROXI means that there is no risk of the required CRM being out of stock or otherwise unavailable.

Is a reliable and compliant CRM what you’ve been waiting for? Read on to learn more about the benefits of WROXI.

The advantages of WROXI CRM

In short, WROXI CRM is a synthetic, high-quality CRM kit that covers a wide range of oxide materials such as ores, rocks, and geological materials. Commonly used in mining, raw materials (cement, steel, metals), slags, service laboratories, research and development facilities, and geological surveys.

Useful in cement production

WROXI has outstanding performance in cement production – it could make a concrete difference to your compliance efforts.

Cement plants are faced with many decisions regarding raw materials, fuel composition, raw mix, clinker and cement composition, and adjustments. These decisions are guided by the quantitative measurement of elements in raw materials, clinkers, and cements using XRF spectrometry.

To make the right operational decisions on a day-to-day basis, the accuracy and reproducibility of XRF cement analysis is critical. Therefore, there are several standards that the cement industry needs to adhere to: ASTM C114-15, ISO 29581-2, and EN 196-2.

Synthetic CRMs such as WROXI can greatly assist the cement industry in providing accurate and reproducible XRF analyses, time after time.

Reliable

WROXI CRM is reliable. Malvern Panalytical’s Nottingham facility holds the prestigious accreditation of Reference Material Producer, accredited to ISO 17034 for both synthetic and natural materials by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (U K AS).

But why does UKAS matter? It’s the gold standard: UKAS accreditation confirms that international guidelines are followed in the production, labeling, and assignment of property values to reference materials, including stability and homogeneity determinations. This applies to both CRMs and Reference Materials (RMs).

Traceable

WROXI CRM is manufactured according to the ISO 17034 standard, which means that its elemental traceability is guaranteed. You can trace synthetic CRMs back to pure compounds. Malvern Panalytical further enhances the inherent reliability of WROXI kits with included certificates that state certified values and their uncertainties.

How WROXI helps with cement compliance

And if you’re using fused bead pellet samples, WROXI can take your efforts to demonstrate sample compliance to a new level…

Fused beads can be used for routine analysis when reasonable accuracy cannot be achieved with pressed pellets. This method is more suitable for production sites with varying sources of alternative materials. Fused beads are prepared using fused bead machines such as the Claisse LeNeO and Claisse Eagon2.

Fused bead analysis has become the preferred method in many cement plants, replacing wet chemistry as the reference method for major elements. It allows analysis to be performed in accordance with the above standards, even with varying raw materials of different matrices and crystallinity.

For accurate quantification of fused beads, reference samples are required. This is where WROXI CRMs can help: they are objective, reliable, and traceable to international standards.

What comes in the WROXI kit?

WROXI comes in not one, but two versions! WROXI CRM Base and WROXI CRM Cement provide a uniquely durable, cost-effective, and reliable solution for quantitative analysis in the cement process.

WROXI CRM Base includes 15 multi-element standards:

Analyzes the 11 most common oxides in a wide range of materials
Compatible with ores, minerals, slags, and geological materials

The WROXI CRM Cement set is an extension of WROXI Base:

Covers nine multi-element standards
Allows the analysis of ten additional compounds in a variety of cements, as well as the raw materials used in their production
Compatible with limestone, clay, shale, gypsum clinker, fly ash, slag, and iron ore

Want to know more?

You need the very best CRMs to test your cement samples, so why not try WROXI synthetic CRMs? Comprehensive, readily available, and traceably manufactured, Malvern Panalytical WROXI CRMs can save you money, speed up sampling, and help you comply with regulations.

And if you require a wider range of WROXI oxides, our dedicated team of CRM manufacturing experts is here to create synthetic CRMs to suit your requirements – reach out to us today!

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