Mechanical polishing
- Depending on your sample and your final requirements for surface finish, MCL offers hand polishing or automated mechanical polishing.
- Common polishing compounds are diamond suspension, alumina suspension, diamond paste, and colloidal silica
- Once rough grinding is finished, typically ending with a 1200 SiC grit, fine polishing begins with a 6 or 3-micron Polycrystalline Diamond Slurry and usually ending with a Colloidal Silica Suspension of 0.0.5 micron. (note: various types of Diamond products, sizes, slurries, and suspensions are available which best serves to polish the material in your sample)
Many samples need to be mounted prior to polishing or sectioning. There are three different options for sample mounting:
- Simple thermoset glue (CrystalBond)
- Compression (hot) mounting with resin
- Castable (cold) mounting with two-part epoxy
Why Mount at all?
- Edge and defect retention
- Preserve friable material
- Infiltrate pores for stability
- Easier to polish samples
- Easier to keep planar and parallel
- Easier to analyze in instrumentation