In the past few weeks we have been very involved jn setting up new QemSCANs, MLA's and analytical scanning systems and it Is amazing how many times we had to explain the relationship between accuracy, magnification, scan speed, resolution and the resulting time taken to scan over a number of samples.

Let me explain. All the above systems are used to scan over a number of geological samples using a scanning electron microscope and EDX analytical systems. In most cases the users are simply looking for a phase/type of mineral within each sample. They then need to analyse it. The main criteria being that they scan through a large number of such samples in as short a time as possible.