Abstract:
The process capability index (C
PK) is the value that measures the degree of process capability to meet the quality standard of products. In the process control, if the C
PK is bigger, the product quality is better. Considering the economy of production and processing, the C
PK is usually controlled at an acceptable level. In this paper, we firstly applied a process capability index from industry to the quality assessment of analysis in the geological laboratory. The comprehensive evaluation of the overall quality of the samples was obtained through calculating the process of 114 capability indexes of the standard sediments (GBW 07320, GBW 07325 and GBW 07328) with the geochemical samples selected from the two Tibet 1∶200000 Luolamu map. The results show that all the C
PK were more than the threshold levels of C
PK. In all of the testing items, 63 items′ C
PK such as Na
2O, MgO, Al
2O
3 and SiO
2 etc, were more than 1.33, 47 items′ C
PK such as Cu, Li, Be, W etc were more than 0.67. However, the C
PK of Th, Ag, Cr and Hg were less than 0.67. As for the items with poor process capability, the tests for process capability were taken, appropriate standard materials were selected, equipment calibrated, chemical procedures standardized and the measurement methods optimized in order to improve accuracy and stability of the analytical data. The application of process capability index provided a convenient and scientific method for quality evaluation of geochemical sample analysis, which provided the scientific basis to choose analysis plans for different testing items and reduce the cost.