As the world’s largest steelmaking and mining company, ArcelorMittal specializes in manufacturing a wide array of sophisticated steels — all tailored to the needs of industries such as automotive, construction, appliances, and packaging. At the company’s global research and development center in Maizières-lès-Metz, France, scientists conduct a host of pilot studies, proposing and testing new steel chemistries in various coating formulations to be applied for aesthetic and anticorrosion purposes.
This research utilizes a broad spectrum of often-complementary analytical instrumentation. A key tool in the team’s lab: their high-performance, universal magnetic sector IMS 7f secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) from CAMECA. This instrument’s unique optical system allows both direct ion microscopy and scanning microprobe modes.
The team turned to their SIMS when bare spot defects showed up in carefully chosen samples from testing of new metallic coatings for automotive use. The instrument allowed precise analysis of 500-micron zones, to include a defect plus its bordering “healthy” area.
This brief report further explains the SIMS tool’s unique “checkerboard” option for depth profiling and ion imaging — and what the SIMS found at the bottom of numerous bare spots in sampled steel coatings. Will this defectology detective story suggest solutions to any analytical mysteries in your lab?