Production and Certification of Arconic Certified Reference Materials

Abstract

Arconic Spectrochemical Reference Materials, formerly Alcoa Spectrochemical Standards, has been a leading producer of certified reference materials (CRMs) used by the aluminum industry for more than 70 years. Arconic offers more than 320 catalog alloys as well as custom specification alloys, all of which are produced by casting techniques that minimize or substantially eliminate both macro and micro segregations. The alloy compositions are certified for up to 28 elements using two or more independent analytical methods; most commonly Spark-AES, ICP-AES, and GD-MS; and rigorous statistical analysis to ensure the accuracy of the final composition certification, the chemical and physical uniformity, and the performance of the CRMs in use. The Arconic Spectrochemical Reference Materials’ process is ISO Guide 34, ISO 17025, and ISO 9001 accredited. This paper describes the production, analysis, and certification techniques used by Arconic Spectrochemical Reference Materials for the production and certification of CRMs.