An online analyzer is a good investment for most plants. Already in 1991 Jones et al concluded that the typical return of investment was 4.8 – 5.3 months. This is true also today, even for a small copper or zinc producer, and if commodity prices rise the investment will pay off even sooner. For a larger operation the return of investment may be as short as a few weeks.
Many operations prefer Evolution to Revolution and in that viewpoint the Boxray analyzers are a good choice. Well proven technology but in it’s latest form and with higher performance and accuracy than what has been the norm.
Quicker data acquisition allows for better process control. Usually an averaging function over a few samples is used in the control loop. This is fine, but the problem might be that the oldest sample is two or three hours old and simply not relevant any longer. With fast and accurate data there will always be enough relevant data available to allow for good decisions at all times.