Optimized excitation and detection guarantee outstanding sensitivity and accuracy for the analysis of heavy and other metals in a wide range of materials

Kleve, Germany, May 2011 – The latest addition to the SPECTRO XEPOS Series is optimized for the analysis of medium and heavy elements. It achieves detection limits that are a factor of 5 to 10 times better than conventional ED-XRF instruments. The SPECTRO XEPOS HE (“HE” stands for “Heavy Elements”) was developed specifically for laboratories conducting environmental, geological and waste disposal analysis.

“XRF instruments typically are setup for rapid screening analyses and for the quantification of multiple elements. They often are used to determine the concentrations of heavy elements only in screening quality,” explains Dirk Wissmann, SPECTRO’s Product Manager for XRF. “However, especially heavy elements, such as cadmium or antimony, are of great interest for many applications. That’s why we added the XEPOS HE to our range of products. It is an instrument that offers all the advantages of modern XRF, but with an innovative design that is able to reliably quantify even heavy elements in ppm ranges.”

Among the unique features of the SPECTRO XEPOS HE is its flexible excitation source. The instrument uses an extremely stable end-window tube with a power of only 50 Watts. The instrument also offers a target changer with up to eight polarization and secondary targets that allows users to achieve excellent sensitivity and accuracy for an ED-XRF instrument during the analysis of medium and heavy elements.

For these demanding environments, the XEPOS HE is equipped with a large area SDD detector. With the large surface area, the instrument provides much higher sensitivities and gives laboratories the ability to decide whether to measure a great deal faster or achieve lower detection limits.

Suited to Many Applications
Designed specifically for heavy metals, the SPECTRO XEPOS HE is especially suited for a number of applications that until now were not accessible for benchtop ED-XRF instruments. These include:


  • Geological examinations: When analyzing rock samples, geological laboratories are dependent on the reliable quantification of heavy elements, such as documentation of the arsenic or cadmium contamination in soil. Even here, the SPECTRO XEPOS HE provides an exact determination of the concentration.
  • Compliance Analyses for Environmental Applications: For a long time, the only internationally binding criteria for consumer goods was the maximum content of 100 ppm cadmium as defined in the RoHS, but many government agencies and commercial organizations have now defined stricter limiting values, often in the range of 5 ppm. Conformance with these new limiting values cannot be reliably ensured using conventional XRF instruments. The SPECTRO XEPOS HE, however, provides extremely reliable results in this area as well.
  • Analysis of Waste Oil and Alternative Fuel: When burning alternative fuels, cement works increasingly must meet strict legal restrictions and document conformance with incoming and outgoing samples. Here too, highest values in ppm ranges are frequently valid for heavy elements. Once again, this application area is typically inaccessible to conventional EDXRF, while the XEPOS HE delivers outstanding results.