Industrial applications of LIBS

Abstract

Introduction The availability of compact and reliable laser sources, sensitive optical detectors, and powerful computers has helped to stimulate significant growth in industrial applications of LIBS during the past decade. This, together with a better understanding of the physical processes involved when intense laser radiation interacts with a material, has helped researchers to exploit the LIBS technique for various industrial applications ranging from process control of materials during manufacturing to rapid sorting of scrap materials during recycling and remote characterization of highly radioactive nuclear waste. LIBS is still regarded as an emerging technology and there remain many technological barriers that must be overcome before widespread industrial use becomes a reality. This chapter aims to provide the reader with a general overview of industrial applications of LIBS and is not meant to provide an exhaustive review of the field. The scope has been restricted to applications of LIBS in an industrial rather than laboratory environment. Accordingly, the various laboratory-based LIBS instruments that are now available from a number of manufacturers are not discussed here. The chapter has been written in four sections relating to the following general areas of industry: (ⅰ) metals and alloys processing, (ⅱ) scrap sorting and recycling, (ⅲ) nuclear power generation and spent fuel reprocessing, and (ⅳ) miscellaneous industrial applications. Metals and alloys processing Background The continuously increasing requirements for productivity and product quality in the metal producing and processing industries initiate the demand for measuring methods having the potential to analyze the chemical composition of the processed materials at high speed and – if possible – on-line.