Press release
15/08/2008
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science,
will announce its new coating thickness/coating weight measurement technology at IMTS 2008,
McCormick Place, Chicago, IL, Booth # D4431. Thermo Fisher Scientific is the worlds leading
manufacturer of handheld x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers.
The handheld Thermo Scientific Niton XL3t 800 XRF analyzer, already known for its superior positive
grade identification and composition analysis of alloy and metal coatings and substrates, now will offer
the benefit of coating thickness and coating weight measurement, providing an out of the box,
nondestructive solution for gauging the effectiveness of coating and plating systems.
Fast and easy to use, the instrument will not only perform at line and plating bath solution analysis, but
provides more accurate data than non-XRF technologies, such as eddy current, magnetic induction, and
Beta backscatter. Users will get precise multilayer coating thickness results in seconds. Testing at the
plating line means increased productivity and improved process efficiency, eliminating over-coating or
under-coating. Further, because the Niton®XL3t can measure irregularly shaped samples as well as
small-diameter wiring or tubing, there is no longer a need to cut samples for benchtop analysis.
Skyrocketing costs of metal coating materials such as zinc have driven the need for improved process
control. Anything other than optimum coating thickness is unacceptable either from a quality control or
cost control standpoint, said Mark Lessard, Thermo Fishers business development manager for alloy
and coatings for the Niton Analyzers business unit. Our analyzer can provide the appropriate application
for general metal finishers who are concerned with corrosion resistance and wear resistance, as well as
the automotive industry with its need for passivation coating analysis or the aerospace industry that has
the added concern of corrosion resistance at high temperatures and lubricity.