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David Billington

On 26/06/14 01:16, wrote:
On Wednesday, June 25, 2014 2:23:31 PM UTC-4, PrecisionmachinisT wrote:

Yes, Dan, a qualified laboratory can perform an assay on scrap alloy and certify it's findings as to mechanical and chemical properties, after which point it is no longer scrap.

Your point is what, exactly?
My local scrap yard has an Oxford XFR and will use it on any metal that I want to know what alloy it is. It is a portable instrument and checking some metal takes less than a minute, well maybe two minutes if you count getting it out of its case.

My point is that identifying a metal can be quick and easy. May not be cheap. I have not asked how much it cost and how much it costs to get it calibrated every year. I will try to remember to ask about the costs the next time I go by there. My best guess is maybe $1 per test. That is assuming they use it about 4 times a day or 1000 times a year.

Dan
A nice piece of kit to have available. I used to write software for OE
and XRF spectrometers but not the real detailed bits. I do know an ex
physicist that did quite a bit of that sort of thing and started the
company I used to work for, IIRC he did some work for a handheld xray
machine developing the software for the "brick on a stick" but in the
end IIRC they bought an existing company and product and went with that.
He did show me a prototype and analysed a brass switch escutcheon and it
gave about what I would have expected. Nice to see them being useful,
not sure about current price, but about £40k springs to mind.