PMI (positive material identification) has significantly evolved over time. Advancements in handheld XRF technology have led to improved accuracy, measurement speed, connectivity, and ease of use.
PMI was traditionally mostly carried out using portable optical emission spectrometers, which were often rather bulky and heavy, but around 30 years ago, handheld analyzers based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) were developed, and became widely used for PMI applications a decade later, says Mathieu Bauer, senior application scientist and associate product manager for handheld XRF analyzers, Thermo Fisher Scientific.