Latest News and Application Notes

Alcohol is one of the oldest intentionally-crafted drinks in the world, with evidence of fermented drinks existing as early as 10,000 BC. It has remained an important cultural touchstone around the world, with most countries having some version of "going out for drinks" as a common social activity. While there are three main types of alcoholic beverages—wine, beer, and spirits—beer consistently remains the most popular alcoholic drink around the world and third most popular drink after water and tea. Recent Gallup polls find that 38% of Americans prefer beer to wine (30%) and spirits (29%).

Since the 1800s, there have been two major methods of protein determination, the Kjeldahl and the Dumas methods. Both methods measure the nitrogen in a sample and use mathematics to convert that into the protein content. Though the Dumas method was older, the Kjeldahl method quickly took off in popularity due to its relative ease of performance. However, as new technologies developed, the Dumas method began gaining in popularity.

Clean, safe water is a cornerstone of life itself, and the ability to properly process and treat wastewater is a key component in environmental preservation. As such, water treatment plants such as Veritas S. p. A (Veneziana Energia Risorse Idriche Territorio Ambiente e Servizi) are a critical part of water infrastructure, and the analytical methods they use are a critical part of water treatment.

Traditional thermogravimetric analyses such as loss-on-drying or loss-on-ignition techniques are long processes with many manual steps as samples are measured and transferred and re-measured to determine the loss. Every touch increases labor requirements and the chance for operator error. But there's a better way.

The price of crude oil is one of the great drivers of our economy. At a minimum, the price of all goods includes costs of transporting them from manufacturer to consumer. But the price of crude oil and other oil materials can feel fickle, increasing and decreasing with supply or demand or even just market sentiment. Natural disasters or humanitarian crises can drastically impact availability or demand, sending prices hurtling skyward or crashing down. No refinery can control the entire market. All a refinery can do is operate their facilities in the most efficient and optimized manner. Doing that, however, requires an accurate way to monitor their process.

Portland cement, one of the most ubiquitous building materials in the world, is not all the same. There are five standardized types of Portland cement classified by the ASTM C150 standard, and each of these different types have different best-use cases. Part of what distinguishes these types of cement is the concentrations of carbon and sulfur in the precursor materials. Sulfur is especially important in determining the final chemical resistances of the Portland cement, so knowing the sulfur concentration is critical to correctly determining the type and quality of the final material.

Express Micro Science (EMS) is the only food nutritional laboratory in Scotland, serving clients in food, leisure, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries. For more than ten years, they've had constant, steady growth. But after they added protein determination to their services, they struggled with their instruments and results. Finally, in 2020, after five years of frustration, they chose to replace their old instruments with the LECO protein determinators.

Coal in your stocking might be Santa's go-to punishment for naughty children, but surely he wouldn't just be giving away higher-quality coal! In the right field, a good, high-quality coal could be an ideal present! In order to separate the naughty coal from the nice, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen determinations are required.

This Thursday, November 25, most Americans will be sitting down to a Thanksgiving meal, with approximately 95% eating some form of turkey. The National Turkey Federation (NTF) estimates that 46 million turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving. At an average weight of 15 pounds per bird, this adds up to approximately 690 million pounds of turkey in a single day. But how much protein is in that turkey? LECO took a look.

When the Kaunis Iron Mine opened in Sweden, it was the newest in one of Sweden's biggest industries. The mine contracted with Degerfors Laboratory (D-LAB) for their iron analysis. Before analysis could be run on the samples, however, the ore had to be dried and moisture levels measured. D-LAB had a problem: their current moisture determination methods used a manual balance that could only handle one sample at a time, requiring a technician's attention every five minutes. The ISO 3087:2020 method used was also a problem, as a single run could take more than 5 hours to complete. The lab turned to LECO for a solution.