Latest News and Application Notes

In the race between the tortoise and the hare, which style of instrument analysis is best for your lab? Slow and steady or fast and loose? Unlike the fable, however, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to elemental analysis, and that is precisely why LECO's instruments do not employ one-size-fits-all methods.

In 2013, as the eastern span replacement of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was drawing to a close, 277 vertical steel rods to improve the seismic stability of the replacement were tested under tension using three-inch-diameter bolts. Within two weeks, 32 of the steel rods had snapped. 277 of these rods were used in the $6.5 billion construction project, but only 96 were accessible. Metal testing suggested hydrogen embrittlement during the manufacturing of the rods may have caused the failures. Thankfully, this was able to be corrected before the bridge opened, but it was a major setback in the construction.

Many LECO analytical instrument rely on consumables like pure chemical and high purity gases to function. When supply chain issues affect these consumables, laboratory operations can quickly increase in cost or in worst case scenarios can even be shut down. One current issue that is plaguing the scientific community is the supply of helium.

Once more expensive than gold, aluminum has not lost its value over the years, only its price tag. Thanks to revolutionary methods of production largely developed in the late 1800s, the price of aluminum dropped from $34 an ounce in 1852 ($1,276 in 2022 dollars) to just $0.09 an ounce today. As a low-density, high-strength, corrosion-resistant metal, aluminum's usefulness has led to incredible consumption in many industries from transportation to packaging.

Most iron products these days are improved with the addition of ferroalloys, or iron alloys containing high levels of other primary elements. Ferroalloys are everywhere from cast iron to stainless steel. These extra elements help strengthen the metal by adding their own characteristics: silicon is used to deoxidize steel, manganese mitigates harmful effects of sulfur, and chromium increases corrosion resistance, to name just a few. But adding to iron is not without risk; if unwanted elements are part of the ferroalloy, they can weaken the resulting products.

The supply of helium for laboratories hasn't been as shaky lately as it has been in recent years, but the price of helium continues to rise. In the meantime, replacement gases keep being tested.

Elemental analysis is essential for your lab, yet oftentimes it can be complicated by slow analysis times and unreliable instrumentation. Lost lab time is not something anyone wants, and is a key problem that we aim to solve. With our 836 Series for the accurate, simultaneous wide-range measurement of oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen we focused on a number of features to save you time.