Up to now, medium-sized cement manufacturers in particular have had no methods at their disposal to test their products with regard to environmentally relevant properties. While X-ray fluorescence spectrometers for the determination of the main elements and qualified personnel for their operation are also available at medium-sized cement manufacturers, there is a lack of experience regarding the influences of the preparation and measurement conditions on the determination of the trace element contents and the precision and application limits are unknown.
To achieve this goal, calibration materials were produced that can be used for XRF pressed pellet analysis. With the help of these materials, influences on the XRF trace analysis as well as lower application limits were investigated and the results were recorded in a standard operation procedure.
Following these investigations, an interlaboratory test was organised in which the precision data of the developed method will be determined. Since no cement-specific XRF trace element calibrations have been available so far, the participants in the interlaboratory comparison received the procedural instructions, the calibration samples and the materials for the interlaboratory comparison.
