Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy expands into industrial applications

This paper presents R&D activities in the field of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for industrial applications and shows novel LIBS systems running in routine operation for inline process control tasks. Starting with a comparison of the typical characteristics of LIBS with XRF and spark-discharge optical emission spectrometry, the principal structure of LIBS machines embedded for inline process monitoring will be presented. A systematic requirement analysis for LIBS systems following Ishikawa's scheme was worked out. Stability issues are studied for laser sources and Paschen-Runge spectrometers as key components for industrial LIBS systems. Examples of industrial applications range from handheld LIBS systems using a fiber laser source, via a set of LIBS machines for inline process control tasks, such as scrap analysis, coal analysis, liquid slag analysis and finally monitoring of drill dust. (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.