Background

Cement is one of the most important materials for construction. Various physical properties are given to cement by changing the mineral composition of clinker; therefore, it is important to control the chemical composition of cement raw meal. XRF spectrometry has been used for chemical composition analysis in cement production processes owing to its simple sample preparation, rapid analysis and high precision. This application note demonstrates quantitative analysis for cement raw meal by the pressed powder method. The instrument, a tube-above sequential wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, is optimized for routine analyses in powder sample analysis. The tube-above optics, the programmable vacuum speed and the powder trap enable secure analysis of powder samples and low frequency of maintenance by preventing pressed pellet samples from breaking and falling and by protecting the vacuum pump and magnetic valves from fine particles scattered from samples.