Advice For Using Metallurgical Mounting Presses For Sample Preparation

Posted on: 14 December 2021

In order to create samples used in metallographic analysis, you'll need a mounting press that lets you encapsulate materials being studied. You can have success using said tool when you observe a couple of mounting suggestions. 

Select a Press You're Comfortable Using

Prior to using a mounting press to encapsulate materials for metallurgical analysis, you need to find a press system that you're comfortable using. Then you can complete this stage of metallurgical analysis without any issues and ultimately create better samples. You have a lot of press varieties today, including cold, compression, embedded, and pellet mounting presses.

Each one of these presses has distinct features and operating capabilities. For instance, cold presses encapsulate materials using cold resins while compression presses rely on heat and pressure to achieve samples. Look over these presses until you find a system that you can use to its full potential for high-quality samples at the end. 

Assess Characteristics of Materials Being Mounted

Once you pick out samples that are being encapsulated by a mounting press, you want to review their specific properties. That's especially true regarding their fragility rating. Assessing these attributes will help you figure out what specific resins to use as the encapsulation material.

That's going to ensure the samples don't get damaged during the mounting process. Analyzing sample properties also will help you figure out what specific mounting press to use, whether it's a cold or compression mounting press.

Thoroughly Clean Samples Prior to Using a Mounting Press

After you've figured out what specific samples you're going to encapsulate with a specific mounting press, you want to make sure the samples are thoroughly cleaned. This has to be done in order for the resins used in this process to adhere to your samples properly.

Cleaning samples is perhaps one of the most important preparational steps you'll take, so make sure you take your time and try to remove all possible containments. It might be things like residues, grease, or oil. Once you get done cleaning, verify the samples are truly clean before using them with a mounting press.

An important stage of metallurgical analysis is preparing the samples for said testing and a mounting press will help you achieve this. You just need to know which press to use and follow the right mounting procedures. Then your samples will turn out great and help you complete metallurgical testing effectively and accurately.

Contact a supplier of metallurgical mounting presses to learn more.

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