Compact crystalline phase monitor for the steel industry

This paper describes the development of a prototype in-line process monitor for galvannealing processes in the steel industry using parallel beam X-ray diffraction. The implementation of this is to design a simplified X-ray diffraction system monitoring a single phase (FeZn (xi) phase)of the steel surface coating during the galvannealing process. A laboratory base system was built with a low power source combined with a polycapillary collimating optic. Data sets from several steel samples were collected and analyzed. Two-dimensional polycapillary angular filters were used in this system and show that they could increase the single-noise ratio. Data acquisition times were also estimate to detect a change in phase composition. The direction of future work and system improvements for in-line application is also discussed.