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Assignment of Material Science

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Rozalita Othman
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19 views9 pages

Assignment of Material Science

Uploaded by

Rozalita Othman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Assignment of material science

Metallographic
Procedures and
Analysis

By student: Razan
ben otman
1. Introduction
Metallography is the study of the microstructure of various
metals. To be more precise, it is a scientific discipline of
observing chemical and atomic structure of those materials,
and as such is crucial for determining product reliability.
Not only metals, but polymeric and ceramic materials can also
be prepared using metallographic techniques, hence the terms
plastography, ceramography, materialography, etc.

Steps for preparing metallographic specimen include a variety


of operations, and some of them are: documentation,
sectioning and cutting, mounting, planar grinding, rough
polishing, final polishing, etching, etc.
1.1. Documentation
As previously mentioned, metallographic analysis is
very valuable. If the analysis is properly conducted, it can
provide a researcher with high quality control, and can
serve as an investigative tool.

2. Metallographic Procedures
2.1. Sectioning and cutting
Most of the metallographic samples need to be sectioned for
easier handling. The way of sectioning depends generally on
the type of material, and so you can clearly differentiate abrasive
cutting (metals), thin sectioning with a microtome (plastics),
and diamond wafer cutting (ceramics).

These processes are mostly used in order to minimize the


damage which could alter the microstructure of the material, and
the analysis itself.
2.2. Mounting
This process protects the material’s surface, fills voids
in damaged (porous) materials, and improves handling of
irregularly shaped samples. There are plenty of ways to conduct
this operation, and all of them depend on the type of material
that is being handled. So, there are:
compression mounting used for metals, and castable
mounting resins used for electronics or ceramics.
2.3. Planar grinding
This operation is mainly used to reduce the damage caused by
previously done sectioning. Generally talking, this means
reducing the size of the particles in such way that the surface of
the material is ready for polishing. It goes without saying that,
in this step, it is necessary to be cautious in order not to produce
greater damage than the one caused by cutting.
2.4. Rough polishing
The purpose of this process is to remove the damage caused by
cutting and planar grinding. This is usually done using
diamond abrasive because of its multiple smaller cutting
edges which produce minimal surface damage. If done right,
rough polishing serves as a reason to spend minimal
amount of time on further (final) polishing.
2.5. Final polishing
Final polishing is used to remove the surface damage, and not
the damage caused by cutting and/or planar grinding. If the
damage from those two steps is not removed completely, the
rough polishing should be repeated before moving on to the
final polishing step.
2.6. Etching
The reason why etching is done is to optically enhance
microstructural features of the material (grain size, phase
features, etc.). The most common technique used is chemical
etching, but other techniques include:
molten salt, electrolytic etching, thermal etching, and plasma
etching.

3.Metallographic analysis:
The metallographic analysis provides the
scientist with information about grain
size, phase structure, solidification
structure, etc.
4.Microscopic analysis:
The most common
way of conducting
the
metallographic
analysis.
4.1.Bright Field (BF)
illumination It counts as the most
common illumination technique for
metallographic analysis. The light path
for BF illumination is from the source,
through the objective lens, reflected off
the surface, returning through the
objective, and back the
eyepiece/camera. This way, non-flat
surfaces (cracks, pores, etc.) appear
darker compared to the flat surfaces
which produce the bright
background.
4.2.Dark Field (DF)
illumination This type of
illumination is not as known as BF
illumination, but nonetheless is a
powerful illumination technique. The
light path for the DF illumination is from
the source, down the outside of the
objective, reflected off the surface,
returning through the objective, and
back to the eyepiece/camera. What
happens with this type of illumination is
the exact opposite of the BF illumination,
because here the flat surfaces serve as
dark background to the non-flat surfaces
which appear brighter.

4.3. Differential
Interference Contrast
(DIC)
This type of microscopic
analysis is also known as
Nomar ski Contrast. It
helps to visualize small height
differences on the surface of the
observed material. The mentioned
height differences are visible as
variations in color and texture

5. Hardness testing
This step provides the scientist with
useful information which refer to the
tensile strengtj, wear resistance, ductility
and various other physical
characteristics.
Hardness testing is therefore very useful
for monitoring quality control, and for
the material selection process.

5.1. Microhardness
Microhardness is determined with Knopp
hardness number (HK) and Vicker
hardness number. It is used to
determine the hardness of specific
phases, small particles, etc.
5.2. Rockwell hardness (HR)
This type of harness is determined with a
spheroconical penetrator (hard steel ball
forced into the material surface).
6. Conclusions
today’s day and age because materials
such as metals, Microstructural analysis
is extremely important in ceramics,
polymers, and others are used to
improve our everyday lives in terms of
insuring reliability, safety, etc. In order
to successfully conduct the
microanalysis of the metallographic
structures, it is necessary to do a proper
specimen preparation. The key to the
mentioned proper specimen preparation
is knowing as much physical properties
(hardness, fracture toughness, and
other) of the observed material as
possible. Generally, the point is to
minimize the damage early in the
microstructural preparation stage, and to
follow the guidelines outlined in this
paper with the goal of obtaining
accurate results from the analysis.

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