Part of the Oxford Instruments Group
The automated analysis of asbestos in the SEM by EDS is a powerful technique that enables the quantity, composition, and morphology of suspected asbestos fibres to be quickly characterised.
Historically, most asbestos analysis in the SEM has been performed manually with the operator obtaining an electron image of the sample, identifying any particles/fibres of interest by eye, and then selecting a location from which to obtain EDS spectra. This technique is laborious and time-consuming and potentially open to bias. A complementary approach is to perform an automated analysis of a complete sample stub making use of image processing techniques to locate fibres and obtain EDS spectra from them. This approach is particularly suited to the analysis of non-agglomerated fibres. Here, we discuss the use of AZtecFeature to do this.
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