SATRA has invested in new instrumentation worth £60,000 to meet with rising demand for restricted substances testing. The new Inductively Conducted Plasma (ICP) Optical Emission Spectrometer means SATRA can now analyse for a greater number of elements with increased sensitivity and speed.
THE ICP equipment has been purchased to complement the company's existing Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS). While the AAS tests for just one element at a time, the new instrument can quantify a wider range of elements of interest simultaneously, drastically reducing analysis time.
Among the common elements it tests for are the eight metals specified by standard EN71 Part 3, which covers toys: cadmium, chromium, barium, lead, antimony, arsenic, selenium and mercury.
These are restricted in toys and other products that may be swallowed by young children. ICP is up to a thousand times more sensitive than AAS, meaning much smaller quantities of these and other elements can be detected, down to parts per billion.
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