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Demo and teardown of an X-ray fluorescence gun (measures chemical composition)

Applied Science · 369.5K views · 2020-08-31 · 22:48

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Overview

Ben Krasnow of Applied Science demonstrates an X-ray fluorescence gun that measures chemical composition, tears it down, analyzes its failure, and discusses a new XRF technology appearing on eBay.

On Hacker News

HN recommends it as a hands-on introduction to XRF and a fascinating teardown showing the x-ray tube and beryllium windows.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2020–2024

Topics

Materials scienceRepair, teardowns & right to repairChemistry
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xrfteardownmaterials analysismetal alloysapplied science

What people said

CamperBob2 · 2022-05 · Recommendation

It's easy enough to generate x-rays, for better or worse, but the devil's in the details. The x-rays apparently need to be monochromatic, or nearly so, so you can't just apply HV to any old random radio tube that's lying around. And then you need a beryllium exit window on the tube and another one at the detector entrance. Fascinating teardown on one of these things at Ben Krasnow's channel [VIDEO] .

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Jenda_ · 2022-04 · Recommendation

I would like to add a video on XRF from Applied Science, as the device is not very well known (at least in .cz, I have learned about it only recently). [VIDEO]

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CamperBob2 · 2024-08 · Reference

There are no hand held devices which will tell you if the soil you're vaguely near has heavy metals in it, nor how much. Well, technically, there are, but now you're back in the ionizing-radiation business: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Applied Science, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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