1 00:00:10,133 --> 00:00:11,700 Hi, I’m Todd Houlahan. 2 00:00:11,700 --> 00:00:15,500 Welcome to the final installment in our Geochem Technical Tutorial Series. 3 00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:17,066 I’m joined by Ted Shields again, 4 00:00:17,066 --> 00:00:19,666 the Vanta XRF product manager. Hola Ted. 5 00:00:19,666 --> 00:00:21,766 Hola Todd. What’s the plan for today? 6 00:00:21,766 --> 00:00:23,866 The plan is to review the series, 7 00:00:23,866 --> 00:00:25,900 summarize it and just provide a few 8 00:00:25,900 --> 00:00:28,066 additional pieces of advice to make sure 9 00:00:28,066 --> 00:00:30,166 you run your program smoothly. 10 00:00:30,166 --> 00:00:32,600 And you wanted to start with the Vanta hardware, right? 11 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:35,300 Indeed. I just want to reinforce the message 12 00:00:35,300 --> 00:00:37,166 regarding the front window. 13 00:00:37,166 --> 00:00:39,666 To make sure it’s always kept clean 14 00:00:39,666 --> 00:00:42,566 use a tissue or a wet wipe if there’s some dust on it. 15 00:00:42,566 --> 00:00:44,066 And that it’s intact. 16 00:00:44,066 --> 00:00:47,766 If it’s broken or split to replace it immediately. 17 00:00:47,766 --> 00:00:49,766 And then run the blank to make sure 18 00:00:49,766 --> 00:00:52,800 there’s no contamination on that front area of the analyzer 19 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:54,500 that could affect your results. 20 00:00:54,500 --> 00:00:56,933 And I want to start with some software tips. 21 00:00:56,933 --> 00:01:00,200 The idea is that you should keep your software up to date. 22 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:02,166 We release new features all the time 23 00:01:02,166 --> 00:01:05,033 so it’s important that your Vanta is kept up to date 24 00:01:05,033 --> 00:01:07,333 as well as if you’re using the PC software 25 00:01:07,333 --> 00:01:10,133 that lets you run your Vanta from your PC, 26 00:01:10,133 --> 00:01:11,733 that’s kept up to date as well. 27 00:01:11,733 --> 00:01:14,633 You can schedule the Vanta to do it automatically for you, can’t you? 28 00:01:14,633 --> 00:01:17,666 That’s right, if you’ve got a wireless dongle in the Vanta, 29 00:01:17,666 --> 00:01:19,800 it will check for the latest software update 30 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:21,700 and download it automatically and all you have to do 31 00:01:21,700 --> 00:01:23,966 is hit accept and your software is updated. 32 00:01:23,966 --> 00:01:26,466 What about compatibility between the PC software 33 00:01:26,466 --> 00:01:27,800 and the software on the Vanta? 34 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:30,100 Yeah they need to be kept at the same software version 35 00:01:30,100 --> 00:01:32,200 so you can go and get the software 36 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:34,900 for the PC software at the IMS website. 37 00:01:34,900 --> 00:01:36,666 Or the more current versions of that 38 00:01:36,666 --> 00:01:38,300 have the same features as the Vanta 39 00:01:38,300 --> 00:01:40,700 and it will go look for the software and download it 40 00:01:40,700 --> 00:01:42,066 if your IT permissions lets you. 41 00:01:42,066 --> 00:01:44,033 OK. Any other software tips? 42 00:01:44,033 --> 00:01:45,466 Yeah I’ve got just one more. 43 00:01:45,466 --> 00:01:48,866 The record is kept on the Vanta of your results, 44 00:01:48,866 --> 00:01:51,233 that’s where the main record is, 45 00:01:51,233 --> 00:01:54,666 and so you should hit the sync button in the PC software 46 00:01:54,666 --> 00:01:57,766 to bring those results over into the PC software. 47 00:01:57,766 --> 00:02:01,200 And we get a current copy of that that’s current and up to date. 48 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:03,433 Then you’ll have the data stored on the Vanta 49 00:02:03,433 --> 00:02:05,400 and on your computer right? That’s correct. 50 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:07,400 OK, there’s a few more features that I want to cover 51 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:08,733 before we move any further. 52 00:02:08,733 --> 00:02:12,633 Some of these have a few video tutorials in their own right. 53 00:02:12,633 --> 00:02:14,766 The first is collimation. 54 00:02:14,766 --> 00:02:17,966 I want to just touch on the fact that some of our instruments 55 00:02:17,966 --> 00:02:21,433 can reduce the standard spot size that we measure 56 00:02:21,433 --> 00:02:25,100 from the 9mm standard diameter down to 3mm. 57 00:02:25,100 --> 00:02:26,933 This is just a reminder to make sure 58 00:02:26,933 --> 00:02:31,166 that’s set as you want it to be set before each test. 59 00:02:31,166 --> 00:02:33,933 Another option is the compound display feature 60 00:02:33,933 --> 00:02:35,900 which lets you take things like silicon 61 00:02:35,900 --> 00:02:39,066 or other light elements and display them in their oxide form 62 00:02:39,066 --> 00:02:42,466 in their compound form. If you want we just multiply by the 63 00:02:42,466 --> 00:02:44,500 conversion factor and display it that way 64 00:02:44,500 --> 00:02:46,366 as a convenience for the user. Right. 65 00:02:46,366 --> 00:02:48,866 Pseudo elements is the other one we should touch on. 66 00:02:48,866 --> 00:02:52,266 It allows us to do some mathematical calculation 67 00:02:52,266 --> 00:02:54,966 to the elemental concentration and display 68 00:02:54,966 --> 00:02:57,000 the results of the mathematics on the screen 69 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:01,333 rather than the elements so we can ratio different elements. 70 00:03:01,333 --> 00:03:03,400 We can sum different elements 71 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:05,933 and we can display whatever we want on the screen of the analyzer. 72 00:03:05,933 --> 00:03:07,933 Customers have said they really like that. 73 00:03:07,933 --> 00:03:09,433 Yeah that’s real popular. 74 00:03:09,433 --> 00:03:11,933 Another popular one is to use the notes templates that we offer. 75 00:03:11,933 --> 00:03:13,933 The geochem notes templates. 76 00:03:13,933 --> 00:03:16,700 We have a standard template that will cover a lot of things 77 00:03:16,700 --> 00:03:18,033 that people want to record. 78 00:03:18,033 --> 00:03:20,900 Things like the operator, the project number 79 00:03:20,900 --> 00:03:22,366 and those sorts of things. 80 00:03:22,366 --> 00:03:24,833 But for whatever your uses are you can make your own template, 81 00:03:24,833 --> 00:03:26,666 it’s completely customizable. 82 00:03:26,666 --> 00:03:29,466 OK. One thing we want to make sure we reinforce 83 00:03:29,466 --> 00:03:32,200 in this last video is the importance 84 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,900 of the way the sample is presented to the XRF. 85 00:03:34,900 --> 00:03:39,333 Specifically sample density and sample thickness. Ted? 86 00:03:39,333 --> 00:03:42,000 Yeah, in the factory we take the ideal scenario 87 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,033 where things are densely packed, the sample is densely packed, 88 00:03:45,033 --> 00:03:47,400 it’s 10 to 15mm thick 89 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:49,400 and we’ve covered it with a Prolene film 90 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:51,466 that’s very x-ray transmissive. 91 00:03:51,466 --> 00:03:53,766 But if the samples are not like that, 92 00:03:53,766 --> 00:03:57,500 which is probably 75% of our customers, 93 00:03:57,500 --> 00:03:59,266 we can still get good data, right? 94 00:03:59,266 --> 00:04:01,300 Yeah you can get real useful results. 95 00:04:01,300 --> 00:04:03,000 You’re probably going to get some trending 96 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,700 and there will be some effect due to the fact 97 00:04:05,700 --> 00:04:07,800 that it’s not like what we calibrated with. 98 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:12,300 But like what we were saying with moisture a couple of videos back, 99 00:04:12,300 --> 00:04:14,200 if we’re consistent, 100 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:17,033 we do the same thing over and over again, 101 00:04:17,033 --> 00:04:19,733 our results will be relative to each other 102 00:04:19,733 --> 00:04:22,433 and therefore useful to the majority of customers, right? 103 00:04:22,433 --> 00:04:24,233 Yeah, exactly, just like that. 104 00:04:24,233 --> 00:04:25,666 It’s the same sort of effect. 105 00:04:25,666 --> 00:04:27,400 The one other thing we should note is that 106 00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:30,466 you can reuse your sample cups but not the Prolene films. 107 00:04:30,466 --> 00:04:33,400 The films are going to likely have contamination 108 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:35,833 but if you clean the cups you can reuse those. 109 00:04:35,833 --> 00:04:38,400 Thanks to Ingrid from Innov-X Africa for that reminder. 110 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:41,100 Another important aspect is data management. 111 00:04:41,100 --> 00:04:44,200 Data management is important because with pXRF 112 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:47,233 you can take a lot of data so you need to have a good protocol 113 00:04:47,233 --> 00:04:50,166 to handle all that data in a good chain of custody. 114 00:04:50,166 --> 00:04:52,866 We help that by having export templates 115 00:04:52,866 --> 00:04:54,633 just like we had our notes templates, 116 00:04:54,633 --> 00:04:57,966 you can set those up in the PC software and go from there. 117 00:04:57,966 --> 00:04:59,933 Or you can export all your data 118 00:04:59,933 --> 00:05:02,100 directly to the Olympus Scientific Cloud 119 00:05:02,100 --> 00:05:03,966 which is a very secure environment. 120 00:05:03,966 --> 00:05:05,600 We should also talk about 121 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:10,766 check your QA/QC results very regularly, daily preferably. 122 00:05:10,766 --> 00:05:14,033 The reason is if there’s some suspect batches 123 00:05:14,033 --> 00:05:16,566 or some data not quite right or your workflow, 124 00:05:16,566 --> 00:05:19,200 your method has fallen down for whatever reason, 125 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:21,533 you can come and address that in real time. 126 00:05:21,533 --> 00:05:25,033 You don’t have to wait weeks or months to address it. 127 00:05:25,033 --> 00:05:26,933 That’s a good point. Another thing that 128 00:05:26,933 --> 00:05:29,833 you should be aware of are spectral interferences. 129 00:05:29,833 --> 00:05:31,966 We’ve dealt with most of these in the factory 130 00:05:31,966 --> 00:05:35,733 so that the end users don’t need to be x-ray physics experts, 131 00:05:35,733 --> 00:05:37,733 we’ve taken care of that. 132 00:05:37,733 --> 00:05:39,766 But there are a few that people should be aware of. 133 00:05:39,766 --> 00:05:43,900 And the most common one we get asked about regularly is . . 134 00:05:43,900 --> 00:05:45,566 Is gold. Right. 135 00:05:45,566 --> 00:05:49,166 Yeah, gold has a very crowded area of the spectrum 136 00:05:49,166 --> 00:05:51,333 and people are interested in very low levels, 137 00:05:51,333 --> 00:05:54,000 and some of those other elements that are nearby 138 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:55,866 can lead to some false positives 139 00:05:55,866 --> 00:05:58,033 so it’s just something that you need to be aware of. 140 00:05:58,033 --> 00:06:00,600 We’re obviously aware that fire assay 141 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:03,333 is the preferred technique to measure gold 142 00:06:03,333 --> 00:06:06,833 but the reality for us is we have a lot of, 143 00:06:06,833 --> 00:06:08,766 a large proportion of our customer base 144 00:06:08,766 --> 00:06:10,666 are gold explorers and miners 145 00:06:10,666 --> 00:06:12,666 either testing directly for gold 146 00:06:12,666 --> 00:06:14,700 or using the pathfinder elements. 147 00:06:14,700 --> 00:06:16,766 Yeah you can get some real useful information 148 00:06:16,766 --> 00:06:20,200 and if your sample doesn’t have any of those conflicting elements 149 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:23,533 you can get down to 1 to 2ppm of gold. 150 00:06:23,533 --> 00:06:26,566 Right. Any other spectral interferences we should . . 151 00:06:26,566 --> 00:06:28,233 Yeah there are a few that are common, 152 00:06:28,233 --> 00:06:31,633 there’s a triplet with titanium, vanadium, and barium. 153 00:06:31,633 --> 00:06:34,000 There’s a lead arsenic effect 154 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,900 and higher levels of iron can affect chrome or cobalt. 155 00:06:36,900 --> 00:06:38,866 Although we’ve done some really good work recently 156 00:06:38,866 --> 00:06:40,700 because of the interest in battery metals 157 00:06:40,700 --> 00:06:44,000 to distinguish low amounts of cobalt and high amounts of iron. 158 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:45,966 The best piece of advice we could give 159 00:06:45,966 --> 00:06:48,400 is the importance of having someone within a company 160 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,133 to take ownership of the XRF program. 161 00:06:51,133 --> 00:06:53,266 So what do you mean by ownership Todd? 162 00:06:53,266 --> 00:06:55,933 Someone who champions the XRF, 163 00:06:55,933 --> 00:06:57,633 takes ultimate responsibility, 164 00:06:57,633 --> 00:07:01,166 maybe a superuser is a word that’s been used, 165 00:07:01,166 --> 00:07:05,400 to take ultimate ownership of the quality of the data produced 166 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,300 and implementing the XRF throughout a company. 167 00:07:08,300 --> 00:07:11,900 Ultimately someone or a few people 168 00:07:11,900 --> 00:07:15,533 who can say the data collected is fit for purpose. 169 00:07:15,533 --> 00:07:18,033 So what does a champion or superuser do? 170 00:07:18,033 --> 00:07:20,133 They need to cover all the things 171 00:07:20,133 --> 00:07:22,266 that we’ve tried to cover in this video series. 172 00:07:22,266 --> 00:07:25,700 Yeah right and that starts with your data quality objectives. 173 00:07:25,700 --> 00:07:28,466 You need to identify what it is you want to get out of that 174 00:07:28,466 --> 00:07:30,933 and then do an orientation survey 175 00:07:30,933 --> 00:07:33,166 to take a look to see if your process meets them. 176 00:07:33,166 --> 00:07:36,133 Exactly and the orientation survey needs to cover 177 00:07:36,133 --> 00:07:39,366 whether the factory calibration is working on your samples, 178 00:07:39,366 --> 00:07:43,333 whether you need or want to adjust that factory calibration, 179 00:07:43,333 --> 00:07:46,466 look at what sample preparation you might want to do, 180 00:07:46,466 --> 00:07:48,333 the containers you’re using, 181 00:07:48,333 --> 00:07:51,000 and the test times that you want to optimize it for. 182 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,433 And then, of course, you need a QA/QC program 183 00:07:53,433 --> 00:07:55,100 to evaluate your data. 184 00:07:55,100 --> 00:07:57,800 Once you evaluate the data from your orientation survey, 185 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:00,200 see if it meets your data quality objectives. 186 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:04,166 If it does then you’ve designed a successful pXRF testing program. 187 00:08:04,166 --> 00:08:05,966 Easy. Easy. 188 00:08:05,966 --> 00:08:08,366 The other piece of advice I do like to give 189 00:08:08,366 --> 00:08:10,266 is to not turn your brain off 190 00:08:10,266 --> 00:08:12,366 just because you’ve turned the instrument on. 191 00:08:12,366 --> 00:08:16,233 Portable XRF has it’s strengths but it has it’s weaknesses. 192 00:08:16,233 --> 00:08:19,500 It should be used as another tool in your toolbox 193 00:08:19,500 --> 00:08:23,233 with your geopick, your hand lens, and your experience. 194 00:08:23,233 --> 00:08:24,900 Any other closing words? 195 00:08:24,900 --> 00:08:26,266 Just some thank you’s really. 196 00:08:26,266 --> 00:08:28,866 Thanks to everyone who’s helped out with this videos series 197 00:08:28,866 --> 00:08:32,333 specifically Marcus, Aaron, Alex, 198 00:08:32,333 --> 00:08:35,966 thanks to you Ted, but also to our customers. 199 00:08:35,966 --> 00:08:38,433 It’s our customers that we’ve learned most from, 200 00:08:38,433 --> 00:08:42,033 working with this technology in the geochem industry. 201 00:08:42,033 --> 00:08:43,600 So big thanks to you guys, 202 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:47,700 hopefully we can continue our partnership for many years to come. 203 00:08:47,700 --> 00:08:49,900 Thanks again mate. You’re very welcome, any time. 204 00:08:49,900 --> 00:08:51,900 It’s been fun, go well.