Keighley Laboratories highlights independent chemical analysis

Currently celebrating its 90th anniversary, heat treatment and metallurgical testing services company Keighley Laboratories is putting the spotlight on its advanced Chemical Analysis facility, bringing it to the attention of an even wider spectrum of industry. Its team of analytical chemists has over 150 years' combined experience, ensuring that samples are assessed by the most economical and efficient method, depending on the type of material, the size and form of specimen, and the degree of accuracy required. It is a level of service that has retained customers for 30 or 40 years and attracted business from across the UK and as far afield as Saudia Arabia.

Chemical analysis at Keighley Laboratories involves determining the elemental constituents of a wide range of materials, including cast iron, steel and stainless steel, aluminium, copper, nickel and titanium alloys, weld metals and non-metallic compounds like foundry sand. The laboratory employs state-of-the-art spectroscopy equipment, classical gravimetric and volumetric 'wet' methods, and qualitative depth profile analysis to check that submitted samples meet a required specification, for quality assurance purposes, as well as identifying any material coatings and metallurgical treatments.

In addition to analysing known samples from general engineering companies, foundries, the aerospace industry, galvanisers and platers, importers and the like, Keighley Laboratories also applies reverse engineering principles to unknown components. This enables parts of existing machinery to be identified and replicated where documentation is lost, for example, mixed stock to be reclassified when certification is missing, or corroded parts to be replaced with like-for-like material. Similar examinations also form part of the company's Problem & Failure Investigation service, for forensic analysis of failed components, health & safety investigations and insurance claims.

"It is relatively unusual for an independent metallurgical services company to offer this level of experience and equipment," says Chief Chemist, John Whittaker. "We offer a prompt turnaround and a highly personal service and, because we don't manufacture anything ourselves, there are no confidentiality or conflict-of-interest issues."

Specimens typically arrive by rail or carrier and range in size from a minute speck of material to a solid component or sample of virtually any size, with pricing dependent on the complexity of analysis and the quantity of material. When dealing with solid pieces of metal, the laboratory's Glow Discharge Spectrometer is the instrument of choice, since it offers the quickest, most accurate bulk analysis of steel, stainless steel, nickel, aluminium and copper alloys, as well as quantitative depth profiling.

Where the sample size is limited or the format unsuitable, an Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometer is employed, which uses an argon plasma and enables low sample weights to be analysed down to parts per million detection limits. It is a very sensitive technique for identification and quantification of elements in a sample, although this 'wet' process does take a little longer.

For the precise measurement of residual and trace elements, the Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer is the preferred analytical tool, measuring down to parts per million in a sample; this method is also useful where no certified reference materials are available. In addition, classical chemical analysis techniques are used to augment spectrometry instruments, to provide a 'control' check for results and determine gravimetric, volumetric and photometric characteristics.

Results usually take the form of material certification, positive material identification or trace element analysis and are typically emailed to the client. Work is carried out to UKAS Metallurgical Laboratory Service accredited standards and conforms with relevant BS EN ISO specifications.

"Basically, if a sample can be delivered or posted to Keighley, we can accept commissions from anywhere in the world and analyse virtually any metal or metal-related material," adds John Whittaker. "With manufacturers and suppliers working to ever tighter technical specifications and quality control high on the agenda in the engineering industry, it's an independent service that is in growing demand."

For further information, e-mail: lstott@keighleylabs.co.uk

Upgraded ICP-MS software, expands ICP-MS instrument family

Agilent Technologies have released a new easy-to-learn version of its popular ICP-MS MassHunter Workstation software for the 7700 Series inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The company also expanded its ICP-MS instrument platform with the Agilent 7700e ICP-MS, designed to deliver high-performance, routine elemental analysis at an affordable price.

The updated ICP-MS MassHunter Workstation provides an all-new interface for instrument control, method setup and sequencing on Agilent 7700 Series ICP-MS systems. The new software release also introduces innovative productivity and ease-of-use features such as a startup scheduler and batch-and-queue sequence control. Fewer screens and a flat user interface simplify menu navigation, and all essential information is at the operator's fingertips. The result is software that is easy to learn and simple to operate.

A key feature of the new ICP-MS MassHunter software is the use of pre-set methods, which allow users to choose from pre-defined sets of operating and acquisition conditions for the analysis of well-characterized sample types. As well as defining the auto-tuning parameters and the plasma conditions to be used, the pre-set methods also pre-load the analyte list, select the internal standards, set the integration times and define the preferred cell mode and any correction equations required for each analyte. The result is that many routine applications can be run without any manual tuning or method development, using consistent and optimum conditions regardless of the operator's expertise.

The 7700e is a new addition to the Agilent 7700 Series ICP-MS family, developed with the emphasis on streamlined and simplified operation for common applications. With commonly required software functionality and a standardized hardware configuration, the 7700e offers users access to high-performance ICP-MS capabilities at an affordable price. This is especially useful where budgets are limited and ultimate flexibility is not required. The 7700e mainframe does not compromise on performance, as it keeps the same matrix-tolerant plasma, off-axis ion lens, ORS³ collision cell and nine orders of magnitude detector as the Agilent 7700x model.

The new ICP-MS MassHunter comes in two versions, core and full. The core version of MassHunter, which ships as standard with the new 7700e model, includes the standard functionality required for typical routine analysis.

The full version of the new MassHunter software ships as standard with the 7700x and 7700s models, and includes advanced functions such as makeup gas control, used for high-matrix introduction (HMI) operation on the 7700x; flexible manual tuning modes; fast cell gas switching; and advanced acquisition modes, including half-mass acquisition, time-resolved analysis, isotope ratio and isotope dilution. An upgrade path is available to convert the 7700e hardware and core version of MassHunter to 7700x equivalent specification with full version of MassHunter, should lab requirements change in the future.

For further information, view website: www.agilent.com/chem/icpms  Refer to page 231

A complete concept in personalisation

The new cellSens software for life science imaging applications from Olympus consists of three different packages: cellSens Entry, cellSens Standard and cellSens Dimension, all user requirements can be met with ease. Incorporating a unique user-definable interface, the imaging process can be personalised from start to finish, for complete control over the entire experiment. As a result, only the required tools are present at each stage, enabling everyone to image with ease, regardless of experience levels. Furthermore, each package integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Windows and Office programmes, making the advanced functionality of the Olympus cellSens family extremely user-friendly.

cellSens Entry
With the ability to perform simple image acquisition and documentation, cellSens Entry is ideal for basic image capture. The unique customisable interface provides complete control over a range of Olympus digital cameras to obtain live images in a number of formats, including AVI movies. Users can therefore capture the image they require, with ease. The cellSens Entry package can perform straight-forward post-capture processing such as light intensity and white balance adjustments, and its layers file format enables the addition of arrows and annotation text without affecting the original image channels.

cellSens Standard
Building on the concept of cellSens Entry, the cellSens Standard software enables more advanced image capture, including time-lapse TWAIN acquisition. With advanced hardware control, processes such as objective and filter changes, focusing and internal shutter control can all be motorised, enhancing the user's ability to precisely manage the acquisition. Supplied with extended geometry functions, images are easily manipulated via mirroring, rotation, resizing, cropping and channel shifting. Creating additional flexibility, cellSens Standard can also convert bit-depth and colour-space settings to meet the capabilities of the computer system as well as the requirements of the application. Further image processing tools are available for contrast adjustment, smoothing (lowpass), image sharpening, as well as noise and shading correction. Increasing this versatility, the software can also process multi-dimensional images for extremely accurate depiction of sections through a tissue by manipulating channels as well as combining or extracting specific frames. Within the images, interactive measurement functions can be executed on a separate image layer. Extracted numerical values such as size, distance or area can subsequently be exported to Microsoft Excel for in-depth statistical analysis.

cellSens Dimensions
Designed to offer the control and processing requirements for microscope-based experimental systems, the cellSens Dimensions software provides a broad range of advanced features as well as specialised, optional solution modules. It is possible to successfully conduct a range of complex and highly sophisticated experiments, from extended focal imaging to multiple image alignment and multi-position imaging. In addition, live images can be transferred directly to the web using the netcam functionality, enabling rapid discussion with colleagues, wherever they are in the world. With the ability to control a wide range of Olympus and non-Olympus hardware, advanced and precise time-lapse experiments can be conducted. On the resulting time stacks, kinetic analysis and threshold based object analysis are possible. Once data has been obtained, the unique report composer uses Word templates to generate user-defined reports that retrieve images and data directly from the images and data directly from the cellSens database.

Solution modules
A series of optional modules enables the user to further expand functionality. For example, the multichannel 5D solution enables the automatic acquisition of images in five dimensions: X, Y, Z, multi-channel fluorescence with transmission overlay, time-lapse and multi-position. Other modules include: the multi-position solution for automated panorama imaging functionality, the database solution to add a client-server database; the deconvolution solution to remove out-of-focus blur for sharp image definition; and the object detection solution for precise threshold-based object detection as well as spectral un-mixing of brightfield images.

For further information, e-mail: microscopy@olympus-europa.com or view website: www.microscopy.olympus.eu   Refer to page 248