Quality Control
Analytical Laboratory
The Quality Control laboratory at Recycling Coordinators, Inc. operates daily, providing essential data to other departments, from acquisition and production to sales and customer service. Our finished products are essential for our customers in enhancing the intricate composition of specialty alloys. The quality of our products is paramount and the accurate composition is critical to us.
The QC laboratory routinely analyzes a variety of feedstock samples as well as the finished products by X-Ray fluorescence. The palette consists in, but not limited to: Al, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Nb, Mo, Ag, Sn, Ba, Ta, W, Re, Pb, Bi. Semi-quantitative analysis of the non-metallic elements (Si, P, B) is also performed. Moisture by LOD or KF techniques is critical in determining the water content.
When a comprehensive characterization is required, the spectrograph results are backed by wet chemistry and further corroborated with the micro-crystalline structure. For non-metallic samples, oxides or salts a suitable acid digestion transforms the metals in soluble ionic species, which are quantified by ICP-OS; this method, with ppm sensitivity, covers all metals resolved by X-Ray fluorescence. Thus, the provenance of the metals could be easily established. This is critical in establishing the ratio between metallic (alloys) species, non-metals and metallic compounds in the feedstock.
The QC laboratory has a full array of instruments, designed to provide both chemical quantifying and metallurgical characterization of the feedstock and the finished products.