The Dow Magnesium Analytical Spectrographic Standards Program

With the introduction of high purity corrosion resistant magnesium alloys and also the re-emphasis of quality products throughout the industrial world, the need for more accurate and more reproducible analysis between laboratories has become apparent. The availability of high quality analytical standards was one of the principle obstacles to achieving analytical agreement between laboratories.

This presentation briefly reviews what until recently was available to the industry and their customers with respect to analytical methods and analytical standards and their limitations in today's quality conscious world. The development of a new series of die cast magnesium standards by The Dow Chemical Company is also described in this paper including their compositional design considerations relating to the selection of the modern direct reading emission spectrometer as the analytical instrument of choice.