"The Leader in Application-Specific CRMs"

The ALCAN Aluminum Standard

ALCAN spectrochemical standards are not derived from production material. They are in fact produced from a direct-chill continuous casting process resulting in bar stock of 75mm in diameter. Each billet is scalped and thereafter cut into 25mm thick slices of 57mm in finished diameter. Although this method of manufacture is expensive, the continuous-cast disk has resulted in the best uniformity leading to reliable results for the analysis of the sample, as well as, the most complex aluminum alloys for over 40 years.

For homogeneity testing, 12 samples are selected from each billet cast and are each sparked 7 times on the spectrometer following a pseudo-random technique. The results obtained are statistically evaluated by an analysis of variance to determine the uniformity of composition within and among the samples tested. Once the series is considered homogenous, chips are prepared for wet chemical analysis. Every element to be certified is then determined using the most widely recognized methods. Each sample is analyzed at least in duplicate by two technicians using two different analytical techniques to include ICAP, AA, X-Ray fluorescence, colorimetric, fluorimetric, and titrimetric methods. The individual values reported are statistically evaluated, and the mean values are compared to the results obtained by Optical Emission Spectrometry.

Finally, the check samples are circulated among other ALCAN laboratories for verification. These laboratories perform their own chemical analysis and report their result to the Arvida Research Center. Worldwide comparison analysis involving top specialists in the field ensures high confidence in the values obtained.

Alcan produces three basic categories of CRMs: Standard Alloys with Certified Trace Elements, Ultra Hi-Purity Alloys without Traces, and Special Alloys. ALPHA CHARACTERS located towards the beginning or end of a part number indicates the alloy category.

2 alpha characters such as “-AC” are alloys in which some 23+ elements including traces are certified.
3 alpha characters such as “-CAD” are alloys produced from ultra hi-purity ingredients without traces.
Special alloys – These alloys are prefixed by an unusual designation such as “1S” and are located in a separate section of the catalog. These alloys include some binaries and special experimental compositions.

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