Metallography

• Microstructure examination
• Electron probe microanalysis
• Fractography – fracture surface analysis
• Determination of area fraction of phases by means of image analysis
• Measurement of grain size
• Metallographic determination of non-metallic inclusion content
• Microscopic measurement of layer thickness
• Metallographic evaluation of the microstructure of cast iron
• End quench hardenability tests
• Measurement of hardness (in our laboratories and on site)
• Macroscopic investigation of machine components

The metallographic laboratory is testing laboratory no. 1476 accredited by the Czech Accreditation Institute:

Equipment of the laboratory

• Optical (light) microscopes Nikon, Carl Zeiss (magnification 50x - 1000x) and Keyence, bright and dark field, Nomarski DIC, fully automatic motorized stage (enable documentation of large areas with multiple field of view), software for digital image analysis processing
• Durascan automatic micro hardness tester (Vickers load HV 0.01 - HV10, Knoop hardness)
• Instrumented nanoindentor - NanoTest Vantage: Load range: from 10 μN to 500 mN (3 nN resolution)
• X-ray diffractometer BRUKER D8 Discover - quantitative and qualitative phase analysis, measurement of internal stresses, texture evaluation
• JEOL Scanning Electron Microscopes
• Detectors: secondary electrons (SE), backscattered electrons (BSE), INCA and EDAX energy dispersive analysis (EDS) detectors, EBSD high speed EDAX camera
• Other equipment - ion polisher for sample preparation for scanning electron microscopy - analysis of grains and sub-grains, low and high angle boundaries, textures and for crystallographic identification of phases
• Equipment for on-site analysis – mobile polisher, mobile microscope, replicas, hardness measurement at the customer

Microstructure of quenched and tempered steel etched to reveal prior austenite grain boundaries	Close-up view of weld

Longitudinal section through a specimen after physical simulation of thermomechanical treatment. Specimen length: approx. 15  mm; specimen width: 6  mm. This micrograph was taken using an optical microscope with an automatic stage and pasted together from 28 fields of view.