Ausmon Drift Monitors for XRF

Establishing an accurate calibration for a series of elements in a product is a tedious and costly exercise. The use of a stable monitor means that the calibration procedure need only be carried out at long intervals.

The monitors listed below have been formulated so that they have appropriate count rates when analyzing the different ores and products. The monitors contain little flux and should have good long term stability. Most monitor types have been in use for many years and have given excellent stability.

The monitor discs are 40mm diameter. They can be supplied as 32mm diameter discs, but these are not kept in stock and so delivery will be slower. Note that in most commercial spectrometers that can accommodate a 40mm disc, this can be used when analyzing smaller discs. The monitors are polished flat so that they can be mounted precisely and are easily cleaned. The following types are available:

Ausmon for Silicates and General Use - These monitors were designed for the analysis of rocks, soils and related materials. They can also be used as general purpose monitors for analyzing a wide range of materials, e.g. Vegetables, etc. They contain the following elements as majors: Fe, Mn, Ti, Ca, K, Cl, S, P, Si, Al, Mg, Na and F. In addition about 2000ppm of each of the following are present: Sc (1000ppm), V, Cr, Co, Cu, Ni, Zn, Ga, Ge, Se, As, Rb, Sr, Br, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Te, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Pr, Gd, Sm, Yb, Hf, Ta, W, Bi, Tl, Pb, Th, and U (53 elements).

Iron Ores - These are formulated for use in the analysis of iron ores and related materials. The following elements are present: Fe, Si, Al, Ca, F, Na, Mg, P, S, Cl, K, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Br, Sn, Cd, Sb, Bi, Mo, Ba, and Pb (28 elements).

Bauxites - This is used when analyzing bauxites and high Al products. The following elements are present: Fe, Si, Al, Ca, F, Na, Mg, P, S, Cl, K, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Br, Sn, and Ga (24 elements).

Mineral Sands - These monitors have been prepared for use when analyzing mineral sand products, e.g. ilmenite, rutile, zircon, monazite and xenotime. The following elements are present: Ti, Fe, Zr, Si, Y, La, Ce, Nd, Pr , Yb, P, F, Na, Mg, Al, S, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, V, Mn, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, As, Sr, Nb, Mo, Cd, Sn, Ba, Hf, Pb, Th, and U (39 elements).

Cement (A) - This monitor is suitable when making detailed analyses of cements or other high Ca products. Monitors prepared for analyzing cement and related materials contain: Ca, Si, Al, Mg, Fe, Na, Cl, S, F, P, K, Ti, Cr, Mn, Zn, Sr, Br, Ba, and Pb (19 elements).

Cement (B) - This monitor has fewer trace elements, is designed for on line analysis using wavelength or energy dispersive spectrometers, and contains Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, Cl, K, Ca, and Fe (9 elements).

Ni Products - These monitors are for use with nickel ores and related materials. The following elements are present: Ni, Fe, S, Si, F, Na, Mg, Al, P, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Cr, Co, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Br, Mo, Ag, Pb, and Bi (25 elements).

Manganese Ores - These monitors are for use when analyzing manganese ores. They contain: Mn, Fe, Si, Na, Mg, Al, P, K, Ca, Ti, V, Sr, Br, Ba, and Pb (15 elements).

Lead, Zinc, Iron, and Copper Sulfides - These monitors are for use with lead, zinc, iron and copper sulfides, as ores, concentrates and related products. They contain: Pb, Zn, Fe, Cu, S, F, Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, K, Ca, Cl, Ti, Co, Ni, Cr, Mn, As, Sr, Se, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Ba, Te, Tl, Mo, U, and Bi (32 elements).

Rare Earths - These monitors are to be used when analyzing monazite, xenotime and other rare earth minerals for the rare earth oxides. They contain: La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Y, P, F, Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, Mn, Fe, Ni, Br, Sr, Zr, Nb, Ba, Hf, Pb, Th, and U (39 elements).

All the above monitors are aimed at laboratories using wavelength dispersive spectrometers. The following are made for use with energy dispersive instruments. Normally these are supplied as 32mm diameter discs.

MCACAL - This monitor is for the calibration of the energy dispersive system, and for this purpose it contains the following elements:  F, Na, Mg, Si, Cl, Ca, V, Zn, As, Fe, Y, Mo, Cd, and Ba (13 elements).

Mon A - This is intended as a drift monitor with the following elements: Mg, Si, P, W, Pb, and Sn (6 elements).

Mon B - This is a drift monitor with the following elements: Na, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, and Ni (7 elements).

Specials - Monitor discs can be made to suite needs  not covered by the above.  Very often this is for laboratories analysing materials that do not have long term stability and so they cannot use a similar product as a monitor, e.g. aqueous liquids or liquids from the petroleum industry. Cl in brine, Ca in milk, Cl, Br, and trace elements in synthetic rubbers are some of the cases for which we have made monitors.

Matched Monitors - Many industries require prompt XRF analyses of products and any delay can seriously affect operations, in the extreme case causing plant shut down until XRF analyses return to normal. Breakage or loss of the XRF monitor may create such a situation, and for those industries, having a backup monitor is a wise investment. Where two monitors are required, one for backup purposes, attempts will be made to select two that are very similar. It is convenient to have the two similar but it is not necessary.  The Ausmon and Iron Ores monitors can be supplied closely matching one another, For these matched monitors the intensity variation between discs, of each element, will have a standard deviation of less than 1%.  Some industries that have multiple XRF instruments have taken advantage of using matched monitors so that each instrument has the same calibration constants.

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