Developments for High-Speed Analysis of Diverse Ferrous Alloys

Abstract

High-power positionally stabilized sparks were used to sample several types of ferrous alloys. The power was increased by sparking at repetition rates up to 1920 sparks/s and peak discharge currents up to 800 A. The signal/background ratios of several spectral lines were measured photographically and photoelectrically, while the power was varied and the number of coulombs held constant. The coulombs were measured by gated integration of the discharge current waveform. Analysis time decreased by a factor of 16 while the signal/background ratio for sample spectral lines decreased by a factor of 2.5.