Posted by Sarup Chopra on April 21, 2008 at 17:50:11:
In Reply to: metallographt posted by Ademakin Ayodeji on April 21, 2008 at 03:46:28:
In simple terms, you cut off a section of the test piece without overheating it, cold or hot mount it if needed, wet grind it on SiC grinding papers ( starting with a coarse grit and working your way down to finer grit )and then polish it with successively smaller particle size polishing compounds ( diamond suspensions, Alumina slurry, Colloidal Silica ) on proper polishing cloths to a scratch free shine. After polishing, you etch ( by simple immersion or electrolytic ) the specimens in chemical solutions called etchants to reveal the details of microstructure. For a deeper insight, you need to look into a book of metallography.