Sample Preparation and Examination

1. Lab Description and Capabilities

  • Materials are prepared for posterior testing, regardless the nature of the test: chemical, electrochemical, mechanical, or physical
  • Materials are cut into pieces that fit the experimental needs, mounted in resins or special holders, and their surfaces are prepared for testing by polishing until a desired finish is reached; a manageable sample size for testing and a well-defined area that will be exposed to the tests

2. Deliverables

  • Supports basic and advanced research on materials performance by preparing samples for posterior testing or observing samples after they were subjected to tests Any type of research, basic, advanced, or applied, requires a standardized sample preparation for testing
  • This process will ensure that every test is performed in exactly the same surface conditions and it will eliminate variations in the results caused by a surface effect, such as roughness, geometry, size, or corrosion extent
  • Sample analysis after testing; observations and imaging of the surface after testing is the primary analysis in investigating the material behavior under certain conditions

3. Major Equipment and Specific Minor Equipment

  • Struers High‐Precision Cut‐Off Accutom‐10
  • Struers Polisher Tegramin‐30
  • Bruker Optical Microscope Contour GT‐I 3‐D
  • Nikon Stereoscopic Microscope SMZ 745T
  • Nikon Metallographic Microscope Eclipse MA100. 2-D Trinocular inverted polarizing metallurgical microscope with high-definition Nikon DS Series Digital Camera

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