IGNITE SAMPLE IN PURE OXYGEN TO DETECT CARBON & SULFUR
HOW DOES CARBON & SULFUR AFFECT METAL COMPOSITION?
Carbon
Carbon is generally considered the most important alloying element in steel and can be present up to 2% (although most welded steels have less than 0.5%). Increased amounts of carbon increase hardness, tensile strength, and response to heat treatment (hardenability). Increased amounts of carbon will reduce weldability.
If there’s too much carbon, the metal could break. Due to that, it won’t be able to be formed or wrought into the final product. If a product doesn’t break, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s of good quality. Higher carbon also reduces air corrosion resistance, which causes rusting. Rusting, of course, could cause problems later.
Sulfur
Sulfur is usually an undesirable impurity in steel rather than an alloying element. In amounts exceeding 0.05%, it tends to cause brittleness and reduce weldability.
Weldability decreases with increasing sulfur content. Hence the welding properties of steels with high sulphur are poor. S increases susceptibility to welding cracks in the steel. S is only sparingly soluble in steel (about 0.003 %) and takes no part in normal heat treatment reactions.
DETERMINATION OF METAL COMPOSITION VIA CARBON & SULFUR ANALYSER (COMBUSTION METHOD)
Steel is considered to be a part of everyone’s daily life. Steel products can be found everywhere, whether it is used in the building industry, energy technology, transportation, or the domestic home. To fulfil all the various requirements in these different applications, steel properties need to be individually customised.
Therefore, the accurate determination of these elements in steel is of immense importance. The method of choice for quantifying sulfur and carbon concentrations in steel is the combustion method. This method determines the sulfur and carbon concentrations in a highly accurate manner, from mass per cent levels down to trace parts per million. Thus, elemental analysis can qualify and certify specific compositions of steel.
Our expert chemical testing team measures the carbon and sulfur concentration in predominantly metal samples through combustion in an induction furnace and the subsequent analysis of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide in the gaseous combustion products.
In the induction furnace of the elemental analyser, the sample is ignited in a pure oxygen atmosphere, causing sulfur to react to sulfur dioxide (SO2) and carbon to a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2).
Application of Carbon & Sulfur elemental analysis by combustion
Carbon & Sulfur analysis in metals (inorganic) and fuels, soils (organic) samples with one analyser
Safe Carbon & Sulfur analysis of powders with a sample weight of up to 1000 mg
Common Test Methods
ASTM E1019
ASTM E1941
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In the field of combustion elemental analysis, Professional Testing Services offer versatile solutions regardless of the complexity of your sample matrix or your throughput needs. Our combustion analysis devices carry out reliable results to determine the amount of Carbon & Sulfur in your sample.
For more information on our Carbon & Sulfur Combustion method, call us or send us an enquiry today.
