Metals under the microscope

Metallography is one of the many techniques we can use to build up a picture of a material’s properties for our clients. For example, this image shows the 3D microstructure of a 250um cube of wrought aluminium.

To understand a metal component you need to examine it in more than one direction or you won’t see the whole picture. Lots of wrought metals have anisotropic (strength and elongation) properties and this comes from non-equiaxed grain structure formed during cold working processes, such as extraction or rolling. In this case we put the views together digitally to give the client insights into the grain structure and its impact on the behaviour of the component. Find out more about our metallurgical analysis services.