The U. S. Steel Research x-ray spectrometric laboratory performs between 7,000 and 10,000 analytical determinations each month for alloying elements in all types of steels and raw -materials. The spectrometer is automatically controlled by a DEC PDP 8/1 minicomputer utilizing vari ations of software packages provided by Siemens Corporation. As many as 256 individual analytical measurements can be sequentially performed. The minimal interelemental effects encountered in low-alloy steel analyses are corrected in a separate program written in FOCAL language. Correction coefficients for the program were established by multiple linear regression analyses.

Stainless and multialloy steels are analyzed with a two-part control and correction program. The control program controls all functions of the spectrometer automatically and stores parabolic calibration coefficients. Following a sequential determination of the alloying elements control is switched to a correction program written in FOCAL. The correction program prints a tabular listing of the elements determined, followed by a listing of the corrected concentrations of elements adjusted for interelemental effects. Orthogonal polynomial analyses were performed to determine σ values for all constituents determined.

For analysis of raw materials, the samples are fused prior to analysis by use of a flux and heavy absorber technique that essentially eliminates interelement effects and permits linear calibrations up to 100 percent. Samples are ground and pelletized after fusion for better reproducibility. Single sets of calibration standards are used regardless of raw materials mineralogical history. Synthetic standards can be produced for ranges where no calibration standards exist.