Can metallographic samples not be embedded? And listen to Ke Mai's editor explain:

1. For some large-sized specimens, the surface used for metallographic observation has been cut and can be directly entered into the grinding and polishing process, and manual grinding and polishing can be carried out using a handheld handle.

2. Sometimes, SEM and TEM observation are required after grinding and polishing the sample, but the experimental engineer does not have conductive resin at hand or wants to omit the steps, so they will also use a non embedded method to prepare the sample.

3. Thin slice samples and petrographic samples are attached to a glass slide using a thin slice sample bonding platform. They are thinned using a diamond cup shaped grinding wheel on Metlab's METCUT-10GEO petrographic precision cutting machine, or ground and polished using a glass slide fixture on MetLab's METPOL-A automatic grinding and polishing machine.

4. Some irregular samples and samples that need to maintain a complete shape refuse to be cut and embedded, and are directly ground and polished using methods such as vibration polishing, fluid polishing, and gas polishing.

5. Some samples need to be observed as a whole, and no surface can be covered up. For example, photovoltaic glass needs to be ground to remove the grid to observe the transmittance, so it is not required to be embedded (or cannot be embedded). Equipped with customized fixtures and bonding methods, perform single sided grinding and polishing on MetLab's METPOL-A automatic polishing machine.

6. Some materials require grinding and polishing, but are not used for testing and analysis. After thinning and polishing, they are used for the next assembly process. This does not require inlaying (or heating after inlaying), and can be directly thinned and polished using a customized fixture on MetLab's METPOL-A.

Next issue preview: QMAXIS (Kemai) metallographic specimen inlay technology exchange - under what circumstances is hot pressing inlay used? Stay tuned!