PORTABLE MATERIALS ANALYZER

1 . A method comprising:

retrieving a sample of materials from a container, wherein the sample contains substantially less than a total amount of the materials within the container;

analyzing the materials to determine chemical compositions of each of the materials within the sample; and

comparing the determined chemical compositions to an expected chemical composition, wherein the expected chemical composition is the chemical composition for all of the materials within the container.

2 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the materials comprise Twitch.

3 . The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein the analyzing the materials is performed by an XRF system.

4 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the analyzing the materials is performed by a LIBS system.

5 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the analyzing the materials is performed by a vision system implemented with an artificial intelligence system.

6 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein a number of the materials within the sample is less than 50%, less than 40%, less than 30%, less than 20%, less than 10%, less than 5%, or less than 1% of a total number of the materials within the container.

7 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein a number of the materials within the sample is less than 5% of a total number of the materials within the container.

8 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the analyzing the materials comprises determining a relative percentage of different elements contained within each of the materials.

9 . The method as recited in claim 8 , further comprising outputting whether the determination of the chemical composition of the sample of materials indicates that one or more elements have a relative percentage outside of a percentage range of the expected chemical composition.

10 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the materials are scrap metal pieces.

11 . The method as recited in claim 11 , wherein the scrap metal pieces are from end-of-life vehicles.

12 . The method as recited in claim 6 , wherein the container is an ISO shipping container.

13 . A method comprising:

retrieving a sample of material scrap pieces from a container holding the material scrap pieces, wherein a number of the material scrap pieces within the sample is a substantially small percentage of a total number of the material scrap pieces within the container;

analyzing the sample of material scrap pieces to classify the material scrap pieces within the sample; and

determining whether the classification of the material scrap pieces within the sample correspond to an expected classification of the entirety of material pieces within the container.

14 . The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein a number of the material scrap pieces within the sample is less than 50%, less than 40%, less than 30%, less than 20%, less than 10%, less than 5%, or less than 1% of the total number of the material scrap pieces within the container.

15 . The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein a number of the material scrap pieces within the sample is less than 5% of the total number of the material scrap pieces within the container.

16 . The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the material scrap pieces are Twitch.

17 . The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the analyzing the material scrap pieces is performed by an XRF system.

18 . The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the analyzing the material scrap pieces is performed by a LIBS system.

19 . The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the analyzing the material scrap pieces is performed by a vision system implemented with an artificial intelligence system.

20 . The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the container is an ISO shipping container, and wherein the sample is less than 20 pounds of material scrap pieces.