Structural analysis of metals and alloys

The purpose of structural analysis of metals and their alloys is to evaluate material conformity to requirements and to assess heat treatment quality.

Metals and alloys cleanliness (different inclusions), grain size and microstructure are evaluated.
The purpose of fracture surface analysis is to identify the nature of fracture – brittle or ductile and root cause of failure for example overload, corrosion etc.

Light optical microscope optical magnification is between 4,7x … 1000x. In case of need, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) enables using higher magnifications (up to 20.000x).

For microstructure analysis, preparing a cross-section from examined sample is needed. For that, sampled material is encapsulated with mounting with a plastic shell which prepares the sample for the following metallographic grinding, polishing and etching steps. Both, hot and cold mounting are available (cross-section diameter 25 mm … 50 mm).

LOM and/or SEM methods are used for macrostructure and fracture surface analysis.