Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES)
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Optical Emission Spectroscopy
Portable optical emission spectroscopy (OES), also known as Spark Testing, is a method of positive material identification (PMI). History shows numerous industrial incidents have occurred as a result of the inadvertent substitution of materials in piping systems, fittings, flanges, gaskets, bolting materials and other components. OES techniques can be implemented as a stand-alone program or as part of an API 578 Program to identify potentially rogue materials in high-risk systems to prevent catastrophic failures.What Is OES?
OES involves applying electrical energy in the form of an arc generated between the electrode and metal sample in an argon atmosphere, where vaporized atoms are brought to a high energy state and light is emitted. The excited atoms and ions have a characteristic emission spectral line for each element. The light channels through photo multiplying detectors which measure the presence and intensity of each element of the spectrum to perform a quantitative analysis of the elements. A wide range of elements can be detected using this method of chemical analysis.What can Portable OES do?
- Be applied to QA/QC on new construction, maintenance activities and existing equipment.
- Verify a product chemistry conforms to the correct material standard, code, specification and Material Test Report (MTR)
- Identify incorrect or potentially mixed-up metals (e.g. carbon steel substitutions in low alloy steel systems)
- Ensure welded components have the correct filler metal
- Be used to calculate carbon equivalent (CE) so welding and heat treatments can be applied to minimize cracking and avoid formation of unwanted metallurgical phases
- Assess for enhanced corrosion potential in HF alkylation units due to residual elements in carbon steels (such as C, Ni, Cr, Cu)
- Identify process units susceptible to sulfidation: carbon steels with low silicon (<0.10%) content can corrode at an accelerated rate when exposed to hydrogen-free sulfidation conditions
- Test components to form the basis of API 578 Material Verification Programs (piping flanges, fittings forgings, valves, welds, instrumentation, overlays, bolting, expansion joints and gaskets)
