Mineral analysis testing is known for time consuming methods that require many steps, skilled operators, use of hazardous chemicals and expensive gases. All this has changed with a game changing, LIBS-based mineral analysis solution called Micral™.
After the drying and grinding steps, Micral boasts an analysis time of less than three minutes, leading to higher throughput and faster time to result compared to the current industry reference method, ICP.
Family-owned laboratory network, Rock River, USA, share their experience with the new method.
“Finding something like Micral that has fewer steps, really is a great movement towards reduction of error in the laboratory,” explains Laboratory Director, MSc. Dustin Sawyer in this video interview.
“This is a step forward in the analysis of the minerals for animal feed”, he continues. “So, we felt that this has the same potential that NIR had decades ago.”
Similar to NIR in the 1980’ies, LIBS is still in the early stages, with current offerings covering 6 micro and 6 macro elements in forages, but the future holds a lot of potential for fast element analysis with LIBS. When NIR was introduced decades ago, Rock River were among the pioneers to adopt the new technology early on. They plan to do the same with LIBS as an alternative to ICP.
“Once the technology has been fully vetted and gained the acceptance of the industry, we plan to deploy LIBS throughout our entire network of laboratories, so that we can offer the same rapid turnaround mineral analysis at all of our Rock River laboratories,” he concludes.
Watch the full interview to learn more.
