Met Tips

Measuring the thickness of inorganic coatings or paint
on metallic surfaces on metallographically prepared
specimens is difficult because the opacity of the
coating blends into the mounting medium, and a
sharp, well defined interface at the outer surface of
the coating and the mounting medium is hard to see.

Automatic Specimen Preparation

The fact that one has a Video Measuring System, or a
Reticle disc that fits into an eyepiece, does not put him
in the position of measuring.

Colloidal silica is not a polishing medium which has suddenly made its appearance on the metallographic consumables market.

An Inexpensive Method to Eliminate Bleed-Out of
Etchants from Crevices Caused by Separation at the
Mount-Specimen Interface

The mechanics of specimen preparation—sectioning,
mounting, grinding, and polishing—can be acquired
rather rapidly, but there is a mystique about etching
that holds fascination as well as apprehension.

The most widely accepted definition for hardness is, "the ability of a material to resist permanent penetration" by a much harder body.

Although there are tables available that list the specific
gravity of many substances, the tables cannot cover all
the thousands of different alloys used in our modern
technology

Many times a metallographer needs to examine
the microstructure of a material without
physically destroying the piece.

Ceramic materials are compounds of metallic or
nonmetallic elements.

The basic techniques, or mechanics, for the
preparation of printed circuit boards (PCB) for
metallographic examination are not too different
than the preparation of most alloys found in a
metallography laboratory.

Nowadays, more than ever before, there is a real
need for some sort of quality control to be set up for
checking incoming material.

While sectioning, mounting, and grinding procedures
are usually standardized in metallographic
laboratories, the polishing procedures may vary
considerably from lab to lab.

This article is a compilation of information on optical
microscopy

Corresponding micron sizes for all different types of
grinding abrasives are not based on a universal standard.

Quite often it is desirable to know the volume
fraction, or percentage, of the delta ferrite phase
that is sometimes present in martensitic stainless
steel alloys or stainless steel welds.

Nine times out of ten, material received in a
metallographic laboratory in preparation for
microscopic examination is either too big or too small
to handle conveniently.

The ability to view stereo-pairs of fractured faces in a
three dimensional form need not be confined solely to
a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) or Transmission
Electron Microscope (TEM).

Sulfur printing is somewhat of a lost art in modern
day metallographic practices, but it should not be
because much information can be obtained from a
sulfur print that is not available with highly
sophisticated sulfur analyzers.

The term "surface roughness" is more applicable to
the mechanical field than to the metallurgical field
and, in general, refers to machined parts that have
working surfaces.

One of the two major contributions to the art of
specimen preparation was the introduction of fixed
abrasive grinding papers; the other being diamond
polishing compound.

Every profession has little "tricks-of-the-trade" to
make the pursuit of that profession run just a little
more smoothly

At first glance, the subject of this article may
have a tendency to come across as a ho-hum
subject and the reader may well say, "Mounting
media is mounting media, so what’s the big
deal"?