Québec City, Canada – Malvern Panalytical, a global leader in analytical characterization technology development, is proud to announce that a ribbon cutting ceremony marking the successful installation of the Claisse® rFusion system for Albemarle Corporation was held on May 2, 2018 in Bayport, TX (USA). This event celebrates the achievement of a major project that will provide customers with efficiencies and higher levels of productivity.
The ceremony marks the successful culmination of months of effort and strong collaboration among different experts at Malvern Panalytical. These experts worked together, and with the customer’s team, to smoothly integrate the rFusion system, SamTracs software, and two Axios XRF systems to optimize the customer’s global analytical process. When asked to give his opinion regarding the entire project and installation of the rFusion, Jeff Mason, Director of Analytical Research and Quality at Albemarle, said: "I’m proud of the installation and, more importantly, the benefits it will bring to our customers. I would do it again." Christian Marcoux, General Manager of the Québec supply center explains "The Bayport laboratory serves many departments within Albemarle and processes many types of samples. We were able to develop a versatile solution that can fulfill all their needs, and I’m very happy about that."
With the global solution provided by Malvern Panalytical experts, productivity and capacity in the Bayport laboratory increases without adding any additional work force or operating costs, with a less-than-3-year payback period. The SamTracs software optimizes the flow of samples to each XRF system with the priority indicated for better efficiency. Accuracy from consistent sample preparation and improved safety for workers are additional benefits as to why Albemarle decided to buy the rFusion.
Albemarle is a global specialty chemicals company with leading positions in lithium, bromine, and refining catalysts. The Bayport facility supports a throughput of well over 100 XRF samples per day, in a 24/7 operation. Their Claisse rFusion system was installed at the end of 2017 and has been working since with good acceptance by the lab technician and supervisory team.
About the rFusion
The Claisse rFusion doses, mixes and fuses samples to prepare a homogeneous sample free of mineralogical effects for XRF analysis. This automated station provides customers a great ROI by maximizing productivity, improving analytical results and having a flexible workflow able to accommodate high priority samples and even liquid samples requiring XRF analysis. Besides catalyst production, other industries such as mining and metals have benefited from the rFusion automation technology.
The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on May 2
In the photo are left to right: Dan Snyder, Sales Engineer, Malvern Panalytical; Adondria Parker, Lab Supervisor Bayport site analytical - south lab, Albemarle; Jeff Mason, Director, Analytical Research & Quality Bayport Site, Albemarle; Christian Marcoux, General Manager of the Québec supply center, Malvern Panalytical; Darius Morris, XRF scientist, Analytical Projects – Bayport site, Albemarle; Katherine Macchiarola, Marketing Director, Malvern Panalytical
