1) Discuss your materials or analytical problem by phone or e-mail with one of our
professional scientists/engineers so we are sure that we understand what you need
and that you understand what we can do for you. This is the first and a critical
step in our establishing a partnership to solve your applied materials or chemical
problem. If we are not able to help you, we will try to direct you to a lab that
can.
2) Obtain a purchase order to cover the analytical work we will do or provide us
with credit card information to charge once the analysis is complete and has been
reported to you. We take Visa, MasterCard, and American Express cards. We are
happy to provide you with a quote for the job either formally or informally, but our
quote is dependent upon the information you provide us. If you use a purchase
order, payment terms longer than 30 days may incur higher prices. If you have an
emergency and obtaining a purchase order takes too much time, but you are certain
you can obtain it in a timely way, we may be willing to start work without it.
3) Rush Jobs: Guaranteed 36-hour turnaround from the receipt of samples may cost
as much as 60% above normal prices. Check that we can provide such turnaround at
any given time. Guaranteed 3-day turnaround time may cost an extra 30%. When the volume of current jobs is low, additional fees may not be charged for rush jobs.
Submitting Samples for Analysis
1) Include as much background information as possible about the samples. MSDS for
materials in the sample are very useful. Information about prior similar problems
with your materials may be useful. Recent changes in materials processes or
suppliers may be relevant. If the material failed in field use, information about
the environment in which it was used and the way it was used is helpful. Written
information is often more reliable than phone discussions, so writing out the
background information on the problem is a very helpful and useful aid to our work.
2) Exercise care that the sample sent to us is representative of the general
problem you are trying to address. This may not be easy to assure, but it is
critical to maximizing our success in solving your problem. In some cases, it may
be wise to send multiple samples so we can either analyze several or try to select
one which appears most typical. We may call you to advise you that microscopic
examination suggests that multiple areas on a sample need to be analyzed.
3) Certain analytical techniques have sample size limitations. Please check with
us on what these limitations may be. In many cases, we have discussed these under
each technique in the website. In addition, we may prefer to have enough material
or chemical when possible to perform 2 or even 3 analyses if need be. Power
failures, human error, and strange sample behaviors may necessitate re-running an
analysis. On the other hand, we prefer not to have excessive amounts of material,
which may then cause us a disposal problem.
4) Please alert us about known dangers in handling your samples. If a sample is corrosive, please inform us. This is especially important if the sample is to be analyzed with DSC. The DSC cell is very sensitive to corrosive attack. The customer is responsible for the replacement of the $3000 cell if their sample causes corrosive failure of the DSC cell if they did not tell us what their sample was prior to the analysis.
5) Exercise care that samples for surface analysis, microscopy, FTIR, and
electrochemistry evaluations have not been contaminated by handling or shipping
conditions which will compromise their character. Fingerprints may prove a fatal
obstacle to analysis in some cases. Handling samples with clean gloves is
advisable. Be careful not to contaminate samples with machining oils and cooling
fluids in cutting them from larger pieces. It may be advisable to leave many
aspects of sample preparation to us. You may want to discuss these issues with us.
When shipping the samples, it is best that surfaces to be analyzed not be in contact
with materials that may rub against them. If that is unavoidable, be sure to use
clean materials for the packaging. Food storage aluminum foil and zip-lock sandwich
bags are at least clean, if you have nothing better.
6) UPS seems to offer us the most reliable service, though you may also use most
other shippers since we are in the Baltimore - Washington corridor. Federal
Express, Airborne, and DHL are among other shippers delivering here. Do not use
earliest morning delivery unless you have coordinated with someone at the lab to be present for a delivery as early as 0800 hours. Samples may generally be dropped off at the lab between 0900 and 2400
hours on weekdays. Special arrangements should be made for weekend drop-offs or
shipper deliveries.
Price List
Service Item
Cost/hr
Small-Spot X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS or ESCA) Quantitative Elemental Survey, 0.5eV Step Size, High Signal-to-Noise, 0-1100eV Binding Energy (typically $240)
Complete Quantitative Chemical Phase Analysis, including Elemental Analysis (typically $690)
$260
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
$145
Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer Residual Gas Analysis (RGA)
FTIR Infrared Spectroscopy ($115 for simple identification)
$230
Metallographic Optical Microscopy
$135
Coating and Thin Film Thickness Meter Measurements
$100
Data Analysis (Usually included, but some very complex projects require far more than usual data interpretation)
$135
Report Writing and Consultation (Reports are often included, but sometimes the project complexity or audience requires an extraordinary effort)
$135
Microscopy: Cross Section Analysis
$130
3D Imaging Surface Structure Analysis Using White Light Interference Microscopy
$160
X-Ray Diffraction (XRD)
$260
CO2 Snow Jet Cleaning
$100
Macro Photography
$100
Specimen Preparation
$100
We accept
Estimates for analytical investigation are available upon request. Please call us to discuss your materials problem and to request your free quote for the analysis of your materials problem.
