Metallography and material testing

The use and development of modern beam processes in industrial production technology requires an appropriate infrastructure for the testing of processing results and component quality. Metallographic methods offer versatile preparation and etching processes by means of which the effects of laser processing on the microstructure of the various metal and non-metal materials can be visualized and then characterized using a microscope. For this purpose, grinding and polishing systems, a vacuum embedding plus various reflected-light and transmitted-light microscopes with up to 1000 times magnification are available (see figure 1).

In computer engineering, too, metallography plays an important role, too. In combination with a high-power microscope and a digital color camera for macro- and micro-photography, the ProIMAGE image processing system is used for the documentation, image processing and storage of microstructure images. Image analysis offers a broad spectrum of applications, such as particle and grain size determination, layer thickness measurement and grain boundary analysis.

Hardness measurements are a common method to evaluate effects on the microstructure in metals.

The detailed material analysis can be done using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) at a maximum magnification of 1:200,000. That way fracture images for destructive material testing can be evaluated.

The SEM features an EDS module (energy dispersive X-ray analysis spectrometer, elemental identification starting at atomic number 5) for elemental identification (linescan, mapping etc.). Moreover, the results of laser-assisted micro material processing can be visualized through SEM. An example of application is the assessment of laser-assisted processing of lithography masks or micro contacts.

A servo-hydraulic testing machine is available for static or dynamic tensile, compressive or flexural strength tests. Further destructive material testing methods are the use of wear test stands as well as customized testing techniques.