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In the early 1990’s Alpoco built it’s laboratory facility with formalised testing capabilities to enable accreditation to the BS5750 quality standard. This has evolved to today’s analytical facility with the capability to satisfy routine production and customer requirements for supply of aluminium powders to the ISO 9001:2000 standard.
The most commonly analysed for properties are the particle size distribution and the chemical composition.
Particle Size Analysis
There are three methods used to determine the particle size. Coarser powders are analysed using test sieves with apertures from 710µm to 38µm in a variety of BS and ASTM equivalent mesh and micron sizes.
Finer powders are analysed using a Mastersizer 2000 laser diffraction instrument supplied by Malvern Instruments in the UK. This unit is a supported by a Hydro G sample handler which is a liquid dispersion system.
Powders may also be measured using a Fisher Sub Sieve Sizer.
Chemical Analysis
Chemical analysis is carried out using a Thermo ICP Atomic Emission Spectrophotometer. Common metal impurities such as Iron and Silicon are reported along with trace impurities as required. The laboratory also has the capability to conduct insoluble in ether tests and determine free metallic aluminium.
At our disposal are other more specialised testing methods, such as XRF, LECO or AA from the Analytical Services Department of LSM and SEM facilities at local Universities.
Other Properties
Alpoco can also measure a number of additional properties such as Hall Flow, Apparent and Tapped Densities etc. In addition we have developed a number of customer derived tests to ensure materials are supplied to specific customer requirements.
