“…As expected, because manganese plays such an important role in steelmaking, any description of an improved spectrographic method of analysis of steel is to be used as a quality control or production control tool must include manganese as one of the elements evaluated. Included in the papers that fit this criterion are two evaluations of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy as applied to steel analysis (36, 82), the determination of the microheterogeneity of steel and weld zones with a laser microanalyzer equipped with a spectrograph (163), the use of a direct current plasma (DCP) as an excitation source for a flame fluorescence spectrometer (174), the use of a laser ablation DCP emission spectrometer for the analysis of steels and some ores (323), a study of two excitation techniques, namely, porous cup and vacuum cup excitation, for the spectrographic analysis of stainless steel (431), an investigation of gas-stabilized microspark excitation procedures in which different gases were evaluated for the emission spectrographic analysis of steels (513), the development of a sample preparation procedure that allowed the spectral analysis, with a unipolar spark source, of various steel foils, wires, and other small parts after dissolution in a mixed acid medium (415), and a patent for the preparation of steel samples for emission spectral analysis that includes shearing a fresh surface with subsequent shot-blasting to stabilize the surface prior to analysis (357).…”