Cement forms the basis of virtually the entire worlds’ infrastructure. Despite its ubiquity, it is a surprisingly complex mixture of ingredients, such as lime, silica, alumina, and more. Some of these ingredients are known for releasing greenhouse gases into the...
Analyzing a metallographic sample is necessary to understand what you’re really working with, or to ensure a job is done right. The hardness of a metal, as well as its grain structure, reveals important properties of the material. Properly preparing a sample for...
Sectioning machines (enclosed abrasive saws) come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and methods for cutting. They can be as simple as a manual saw, like what you might find at a hardware store, or they can be large, complex, and automated, like something you’d see...
For anyone who has worked with polishing/grinding equipment, like LECO’s PX Series, you know that using the right combination of abrasives and polishing cloths is key. However, changing out the materials can sometimes be a tedious task. As part of LECO’s...
Bakelite, Lucite, epoxy, or acrylic? Hot or cold? Compression or castable? With all of the options available for mounting materials, it can be difficult to know which one is the best option for your sample or why it even matters. However, your choice of mounting...
There is no question about it: concrete is the most ubiquitous and versatile building material in the world. While the basic recipe is simple cement, aggregate, water, and air the variations and additions to this recipe can create infinite types of concrete. Knowing...
Nothing is more frustrating than when you go to evaluate your sample under a microscope and all you see is scratches across the surface of your specimen. You want your materials lab to run as smoothly as possible and these scratches can slow down your evaluation...
In this era of incredible plug and play technology, a Video Measuring System or reticle disc for your microscope eyepiece feels like it should be enough to begin accurately measuring metallographic samples, but if you skip your calibration steps, your results could be...
To accurately perform a metallographic analysis of a sample, the preparation is critical. The microstructure and hardness of your sample has to be unveiled, and you have to be able to trust that what you’re seeing is what is actually there and not just something...
Cracks in your mount are never a welcome sight. While a scratched specimen doesn’t always have a cracked mount, a mount with radial cracks is far more likely to cause a future scratched specimen. While we covered the scratches in an earlier tip, we can’t...
