BOSCORF has won funds to make major improvements to its ITRAX micro-XRF core scanner. This involves installation of a new high-resolution RGB camera, an upgraded X-ray camera to current ITRAX standard, and upgrades to the operating computers, motor card, relay box and X-ray pulse processor. The new camera will provide high-quality RGB colour images. Image format will be 3 x 16 bit RGB TIFF images with a dynamic range of approximately 9 bits greyscale and 3 x 9 bits colours. A new advanced illumination unit based on water cooled high power LEDs will produce white light with a minimum infrared and ultraviolet component and use polarising filters to minimise effects of glare from wet sample surfaces. Completely rewritten operating software, including a new graphical user interface, will offer greater speed and new features for spectra evaluation and data display. In addition a new quiet integrated cooling system is being installed, as well as a UPS system to protect against power outages. These improvements will maintain the ITRAX core scanner as a state-of-the-art instrument for community use, providing BOSCORF users with superb capability for high-resolution palaeoenvironmental analysis. The new upgraded ITRAX will be available from early December.
Photograph: Preparation for the new components