UNDERSTANDING X-RAY FLUORESCENCE: HOW DOES XRF WORK?

“There has been plenty written and spoken about Eskom and load shedding in South Africa and sadly the situation is not getting better in any way at all. The situation has had some sort of effect on every single South African and those that visit our country. One of the few positives to come out of the debacle is the growth in the industry of the manufacturers, suppliers and service providers that provide solutions for keeping the power on so that homes and businesses can continue to function. It is almost like the security industry in South Africa – industries have been created for all the wrong reasons,” said Stuart Bateman, Managing Member of Innov-X Africa. “Another outcome is that it has accelerated the move into green energy where many are using the sun to keep the lights on. South Africa’s power supply issues go as far back as 2007. They are not a new phenomenon – they just got worse.” “Energy security – not just electricity supply – threatens the sovereignty of the country. Shortages of liquid fuels, oil and gas are also proving to be big challenges for South Africa. Due to other problems in the world, importing liquid fuels is not sustainable. In addition, some of the country’s big refineries will soon shut down to avoid costly refurbishments and upgrades to comply with the latest environmental legislation and stipulated minimum emissions standards. These developments are not helping the country.” “For the current energy challenges, South Africa must respond and adopt similar disaster-management strategies as those used to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. It is time to acknowledge that we have gone past the crisis stage in our energy challenges and we are now in a state of energency.” “At least there are now schedules of when the power will be turned off in your area and you can organise your life and business around these times. But it does not help if you are off for 10 hours in a day.” “We – Innov-X Africa – like everybody else, have had to take steps to avoid load shedding ruining our business and have decided to move from the office complex in Bedfordview, where we have been located for 13 years, to First Avenue, Dunvegan, which is a suburb that is part of Edenvale, Gauteng.” “We are very pleased that we have made the move because besides investing in a PV solar system and inverter battery that keeps the power on all the time while we are in the office, there are other benefits built-in for our business.” “The new premises are much larger. We have gone from approximately 170m² space to 320m². This gives us the opportunity to setup a professional demo lab that we can also use as a training centre. We are centrally situated so our access from all the industrial areas is relatively easy.” “Of course it also gives more space to increase staff numbers without being on top of each other.” “Innov-X Africa has now been in business for 16 years as the sole distributors for Evident Olympus XRF and XRD equipment and Belec optical emission spectrometers for metal analysis in Sub-Saharan Africa. We supply desktop, portable and handheld XRF analysers of the highest quality and most robust into various industries, such as mining and exploration, alloy and steel, precious metals, recycling and many more.” “We have direct access into these two expert companies in the field of material determination of metals. Applications include foundry metal input, scrap metal recycling, catalytic converter analysis, geochemical analysis, precious metals analysis, positive material identification and catalytic converter recycling, to name a few.” “Other applications include screening for lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), chromium (Cr), and other toxic metals in consumer products such as toys and apparel, to comply with regulations.” For further details contact Innov-X Africa on TEL: 010 006 0430

Portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) equipment provider Innov-X-Africa has noted increased interest in its products from the steel sector, with salesperson Craig Bateman observing that the primary applications are for quality control and scarp sorting applications.

Our Vanta™ handheld XRF analyzer was recently featured on an episode of the popular History Channel TV show Pawn Stars. In the show, people bring items into the shop to potentially sell, trade, or pawn. Often, people don’t have a lot of information about the items that they’re bringing in. To determine a fair price, outside expertise can be required to get more information. That’s where a tool like the Vanta analyzer can help.

The new Vanta ™ GX precious metal analyzer is an affordable way to know the purity and composition of gold, jewelry, coins, and other valuables. Accurate, easy to use, and nondestructive, the countertop instrument delivers precious metal content, karatage and fineness in seconds so jewelers can confidently price the valuables they buy and sell.

Aluminium Metal Recyclers have recently taken delivery of a new Belec In-Spect arc-spark optical emission spectrometer and an Olympus Evident Vanta handheld XRF, both of them supplied by Innov-X Africa, a supplier of portable and handheld XRF elemental analysis instruments for metals and alloys, mining and geology, scrap and recycling, environmental and consumer safety, education and research and general manufacturing requirements in Africa.

Recommended Practice 578 (API RP 578) from the American Petroleum Institute (API) provides guidelines for a material and quality assurance system to verify the composition of alloy components in new and existing piping systems. Following these guidelines is critical for safety since using the right alloy in the right component can help prevent accelerated corrosion or even part failure.

As a networking event for us as Innov-X Africa the SASSDA Bryanston golf day was very productive to be out and meet with the people in the industry that are in need of our analysers.

Deciding between a silicon drift detector (SDD) or PIN detector is one of the first choices you need to make when buying a handheld XRF instrument. For instance, the two instruments in our affordable XRF series have different detectors: the Vanta Element™ analyzer is built with a PIN detector, while our Vanta Element-S analyzer is equipped with an SDD.

Olympus’ Damien Blondel recently presented at the International WEEE and Battery Recycling Virtual Conference, an event that brings together industry professionals from across the world to discuss trends, insights, and best practices in the electronics and battery recycling industry.