Metals Analysispmi oil and gasPositive Material Identificationprecious metals analysisXRF Technology

Northeastern University - BS, Mechanical Engineering

Mark Lessard

Business Development Manager , Thermo Fisher Scientific

For over 13 years, Mark Lessard was the Business Development Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific and the subject matter expert for handheld XRF analyzers, especially for metals analysis and PMI.

Analyzing Metals

The Connection Between Scrap Metal Recycling and Drug Abuse

The Connection Between Scrap Metal Recycling and Drug Abuse

March 31, 2020

Metal Stress and Fatigue Test Results Published

Metal Stress and Fatigue Test Results Published

March 24, 2020

New Technology to Process Aluminum Alloy Powders May Benefit Automotive Industry

New Technology to Process Aluminum Alloy Powders May Benefit Automotive Industry

February 25, 2020

Satellites Provide Copper Supply Data

Satellites Provide Copper Supply Data

February 18, 2020

Potential New Rare Earth Elements Supply from Phosphoric Acid

Potential New Rare Earth Elements Supply from Phosphoric Acid

January 21, 2020

Silver Micro-alloy May Be World’s Strongest

Silver Micro-alloy May Be World’s Strongest

January 14, 2020

New Database Helps Create Innovative Steel Alloys

New Database Helps Create Innovative Steel Alloys

October 8, 2019

Does Underkarating Matter?

Does Underkarating Matter?

September 24, 2019

Metal “Fingerprinting” Helps Identify Counterfeit Steel Parts

Metal “Fingerprinting” Helps Identify Counterfeit Steel Parts

June 11, 2019

Scrap Metal Recyclers Benefit from Challenging Palladium Market

Scrap Metal Recyclers Benefit from Challenging Palladium Market

April 16, 2019

How Critical Is Copper?

How Critical Is Copper?

April 9, 2019

New Advances in Scrap Metal Recycling for the Aluminum Industry

New Advances in Scrap Metal Recycling for the Aluminum Industry

March 26, 2019

New Gold-silver Metal Alloy Offers Variety of Applications

New Gold-silver Metal Alloy Offers Variety of Applications

February 26, 2019

Salvage Company Discovers 304 Stainless is Not What It Appears to Be

Salvage Company Discovers 304 Stainless is Not What It Appears to Be

February 19, 2019

New High Temperature Alloy for Aerospace Applications

New High Temperature Alloy for Aerospace Applications

February 5, 2019

Magnesium from Asbestos Tailings May Benefit Automotive Industry

Magnesium from Asbestos Tailings May Benefit Automotive Industry

January 22, 2019

API Inspection & Mechanical Integrity Summit for the PetroChem Industry

API Inspection & Mechanical Integrity Summit for the PetroChem Industry

January 15, 2019

New Metal Alloys May Help Prevent Stress Corrosion Cracking

New Metal Alloys May Help Prevent Stress Corrosion Cracking

December 11, 2018

Malaysia International NDT Conference

Non-Destructive Testing for PMI in Malaysia

November 13, 2018

The materials science team at Sandia National Laboratories has engineered a platinum-gold alloy believed to be the most wear-resistant metal in the world. According to an article on the Sandia web site, it’s 100 times more durable than high-strength steel, making it the first alloy in the same class as diamond and sapphire, nature’s most wear-resistant materials. “We showed there’s a fundamental change you can make to some alloys that will impart this tremendous increase in performance over a broad range of real, practical metals,” said materials scientist Nic Argibay, an author on the paper. Without a protective barrier, even the strongest metals will wear down when exposed to friction with other metals. A metal’s ability to withstand friction is believed to be based on how hard it is, but the Sandia team theorized that wear is related to how metals react to heat, not their hardness, and they handpicked metals, proportions, and a fabrication process that could prove their theory. “Many traditional alloys were developed to increase the strength of a material by reducing grain size,” said John Curry, a postdoctoral appointee at Sandia and first author on the paper. “Even still, in the presence of extreme stresses and temperatures many alloys will coarsen or soften, especially under fatigue. We saw that with our platinum-gold alloy the mechanical and thermal stability is excellent, and we did not see much change to the microstructure over immensely long periods of cyclic stress during sliding.” The new alloy looks and feels like ordinary platinum, and it’s no harder than other platinum-gold alloys, but it’s much better at resisting heat and a hundred times more wear resistant. The research was published in Advanced Materials. Metals alloys are created to impart many properties beyond aesthetic ones, such as strength, flexibility, machineability, and durability. Getting the right alloy “recipe” is especially important in industrial applications such as the manufacture of aerospace and automotive parts. Costly incidents can result when incorrect or out-of-specification metal alloys enter the manufacturing process, resulting in defective critical components. Inspection and verification of metal alloys can be quickly and easily accomplished using handheld x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers. XRF is used for inspection of incoming raw material to ensure it matches the alloy grade and composition documented on the material test report prior to product manufacture. It is also used for final quality inspection before finished parts are sent to the customer. This “double-check” process helps ensure that the incoming raw materials and the outgoing finished parts meet the expected engineering requirements. XRF is a nondestructive testing technique that can analyze a metal sample in seconds with little to no need for sample preparation. Portable XRF analyzers deliver fast, accurate elemental analysis and positive identification for manufacturing requirements in seconds. In fact, advances in handheld XRF technology have expanded to the point that today’s analyzers are capable of distinguishing alloy grades that are nearly identical in composition to one another.

Platinum-gold Alloy Gives High-strength Steel a Run for its Money

October 23, 2018

Analysis of Copper Reveals Earlier Use of the Metal

Analysis of Copper Reveals Earlier Use of the Metal

October 16, 2018

Magma May Help Geologists Find New Iron Ore Deposits

Magma May Help Geologists Find New Iron Ore Deposits

August 28, 2018

Magnesium May Be the Key to Lightweight Automotive Metal

Magnesium May Be the Key to Lightweight Automotive Metal

August 7, 2018

ASTM Standards

ASTM Develops Additive Manufacturing Standards

June 26, 2018

Metallic Glass Can Be Created Using 3D Printing

June 19, 2018

New Reduced Platinum Catalyst for Catalytic Converters

June 12, 2018

Aluminum scrap metal

Scrap Aluminum’s Green and Automotive Applications

April 24, 2018

Ancient Metal Alloys Get a Facelift

Ancient Metal Alloys Get a Facelift

March 6, 2018

Does Your Metal Coating Stick?

Does Your Metal Coating Stick? New Study Has a Surprising Answer

February 13, 2018

recycled toner cartridges

E-waste Stream May Produce a New Source of Iron

January 16, 2018

Lead Found in Pots Made from Recycled Scrap Metal

Lead Found in Pots Made from Recycled Scrap Metal

December 5, 2017

Automotive Manufacturer Combines the Best of Steel and Aluminum

Automotive Manufacturer Combines the Best of Steel and Aluminum

November 28, 2017

xrf analysis of steel in bridges

XRF Helps Craft High Performance Steel

November 14, 2017

military plane parts

Can XRF Be Used in the Military Supply Chain to Discover Counterfeits?

November 7, 2017

unloading slag

Portable XRF Analyzers Help Bring New Life to Old Slag

October 24, 2017

using xrf to confirm metal in car mfg

Magnesium Alloy May Help Car Manufacturers Meet CAFE Requirements

September 19, 2017

hurricane damaged scrap metal

Scrap Metal Recycling After Recent Hurricanes

September 12, 2017

Metal Workers

How Quality Control Employees Help Keep Consumers Safe

September 5, 2017

raw copper analysis

The Future of Copper: ICA Report Highlights

August 8, 2017

steel foundry

Is Your Steel Fit for Purpose? XRF Analyzers May Help Find the Answer

July 6, 2017

copper scrap

Copper Usage Trends and Its Effect on Manufacturing and Scrap Metal

May 12, 2017

rolls of steel

Portable XRF in the Metal Lifecycle

April 11, 2017

refinery pipes and pmi

How to Prevent Mechanical Failures of Oil & Gas Piping with Positive Material Identification, Part 2

March 28, 2017

PMI for pipes

How You Can Help Prevent Mechanical Failures of Oil & Gas Piping with Positive Material Identification, Part 1

March 21, 2017

Lightweighting Automotive Metals

February 7, 2017

auto manufacturing

XRF Analyzers Help Improve Automobile Fuel Efficiency

December 20, 2016

pmi of metal pipe

A Bird’s Eye View: How Real PMI Crews Check The Pipes

September 27, 2016

monkey bars

Can One Metal or Alloy Get Hotter Than Another?

July 21, 2016

Portable XRF Now Matches Lab XRF

It’s Happened… Portable XRF Now Matches Lab XRF Capabilities.

May 26, 2016

microalloy weld

Analysis of Microalloyed Steels

May 5, 2016

Going to GALM?

August 13, 2015

The Lighter Side of the Automotive Industry

August 6, 2015

Predicting Low Silicon in Process Piping Using Handheld XRF

August 26, 2014

PMI of Metals

PMI Tools for Alloy Verification

August 5, 2014

Remember the Alamo… and the NACE/CORROSION Conference Nearby

February 27, 2014