Robo-Met technology has been used in conjunction with other characterization methods for many years now. In this blog, we describe some of these integrations. How would you like to explore adaptation and use of the Robo-Met system with other technologies?
Read also: 2021 Research Using Robo-Met's Materials Analysis
SRAS is a laser ultrasound technique that can infer crystallographic orientation information from materials, at a potentially lower resolution than XRD or EBSD, while operating on the meter–scale, making the technique industrially relevant. Dr. Pete Collins's group at Iowa State University has been working on developing and deploying an integration with Robo-Met. This would give them a unique capability to provide 3–dimensional, voxel–based reconstructions of crystallographic information. Free from expensive and constraining electron microscope systems, SRAS allows the Collins group to investigate crystal structure at length scales that would be difficult to analyze, or just generally unobtainable due to size.
Fully automated integration can be time- and resource-intensive, given the advanced robotics involved. It's interesting to note that
A specialized sample holder was designed to maintain a specific kinematic orientation and planarity of the specimen within the Robo-Met.3D and each additional characterization platform used. These custom fixtures make specimen removal quick and easy and provide consistent alignments; critical for techniques such as EBSD.
Here's one our own team collaborated on with the USAF Air Logistics Centers. The challenge of characterizing thermal spray coatings leverages Robo-Met's automated metallography to extract 2D information for quality control in a thermal spray shop. The Robo-Met team developed such a system, commercialized as Robo-Met.QC®, under Rapid Innovation Fund Project for Automated Industrial Metallography System (FA8750-12C-0197). After an operator dropped of a standardized coupon, the system automated specimen marking, sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing and imaging of multiple TBC and cold spray compositions, to yield QC imaging results. The system could be modified for high throughput investigations of multiple standardized form factor samples.
You can learn more about Robo-Met and how it can help you solve your materials challenges here. Have particular material challenges you’d like to discuss with our experts? Contact us here.
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