Study on Efficient Determination of the Content of Key Elements in Thin Stainless Steel by Spark Discharge Optical Emission Spectrometry with Contrivable Sample Thickening

Abstract Spark discharge optical emission spectrometry is one of the most effective methods to accurately determine the chemical composition of stainless steel and other metal materials. However, when the thickness of the sample to be tested is less than 3 mm, the test stability of this method decreases and the sample is at risk of breakdown. In this paper, we studied the surface morphology of the excited samples by optical microscope and scanning electron microscope, and analyzed the reasons that affected the testing instability of thin samples. An auxiliary thickening device was proposed to improve the excitation stability of this method, and we realized the efficient determination of key chemical components in thin stainless steel samples. Accurate and stable test results were obtained for 304 stainless steel thin samples with different thicknesses of 1 to 3 mm.