SPECTRO XEPOS: analysis of additives in lubricants using polarised X-rays

Citation

(2000), "SPECTRO XEPOS: analysis of additives in lubricants using polarised X-rays", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 52 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2000.01852ead.003

SPECTRO XEPOS: analysis of additives in lubricants using polarised X-rays

SPECTRO XEPOS: analysis of additives in lubricants using polarised X-rays

Keywords Lubricants, Semiconductors

Lubricants are constructed to perform differing requirements through the special combination of a wide range of base ingredients. A typical lubricant consists of a base oil, an antifoaming reagent, stabiliser and other special additives. Beside pure organic compounds there are also elements like Mg, P, S, Ca and Zn. Especially in the antifoaming reagent Si is important because they are based on silicon compounds.

To guarantee the high quality of lubricants, the production process has to be monitored continuously. But quality control can only be completely successful when the ingredients themselves are also monitored as part of the control process. Also in case of claims from customers a fast and reliable analysis is also important to limit the occurring costs. To identify any problems in both areas the analysis must contain the whole elemental range of metals.

The use of polarised X-rays increases the sensitivity of classic energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) by a factor of 10. This now means that EDXRF is a method which can be used for qualitative analysis and can achieve LODs (e.g. 0.8g/g for S) which prior to this new technique was only achievable with wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) with their higher purchasing and running costs.

A new generation of semiconductor detectors performs the resolution of the elements and this can be achieved without any cooling by liquid nitrogen. In contrast to WDXRF a simultaneous detection of all typical additive elements is possible.

People also expect from a modern analysis system like EDXRF to keep all sample preparation as simple as possible, to minimise the costs of analysis. Also today's instrument requirements mean that high flexibility concerning the different tasks like process and input control need to be easily managed. And difficult matrices like sludge or multiphase mixtures must be accommodated without additional calibration or method development. This is all possible through the unique XEPOS benchtop ED(P)XRF (see Plate 2).

Plate 2 The XEPOS benchtop ED(P)XRF

For more information contact Spectro Analytical Instruments, Boschstr. 10, D-47533 Kleve. Tel: (0)2821/892-0; Fax: (0)2821/892-4235; E-mail: Rschramm@spectro-ai.com