Metallography

From phase analysis to grain analysis for a variety of metallic alloys to the examination of non-metallic inclusions in steel, Leica microscopy solutions for metallography and metallurgy help you develop better and cleaner alloy products with speed and reliability. Flexible and affordable Leica metallographic and metallurgical microscopes help lower your costs by efficiently providing statistically meaningful data, so you can continuously improve your workflows and alloy production processes.

Please contact us if you would like to have personal expert advice on our microscopy solutions for metallography.

Metal Working

Your work in Metal Working requires strict Quality Assurance processes in order to consistently meet your customer specifications and allow your business to manufacture products at acceptable prices. Leica Microsystems offers high quality microscopy imaging solution that are easy-to-use, affordable and customizable for your specific needs. Paired with the right camera and software, these metalworking microscopes will help you optimize your productivity while providing you the ability to find defects with comfort and accuracy.

Iron & Steel

Your role in the Iron and Steel industry is specialized and requires individualized microscope solutions to help you inspect, analyze or document microstructure development, composition and mechanical properties. Research and assess quality and performance through inspection of inclusions, defects, corrosion or other potential failures while reducing strain from repetitive tasks using these ergonomic imaging systems.

Microscopes for the Iron and Steel industry from Leica Microsystems are available with a wide range of options to meet your needs for inspecting, analyzing and documenting your work.

Research & Development

See and analyze more microstructure detail while improving metallurgy workflow efficiency with advanced microscopy solutions for the Iron and Steel industry by additional contrasting techiques and state-of-the-art 0.7x Macro objective. Offering the most versatile imaging solutions for research and development, Leica Microsystems provides high resolution optics, easy-to-use software and intelligent automation with a wide range of advanced and ergonomic microscopy options.

Regulatory Affairs & Quality Assurance

Experience the efficiency and reliability of powerful workflow automation and the ability to quickly capture and analyze microstructures. Leica Microsystems' Iron and Steel microscopes for Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs help reduce the time it takes inspection and documentation without compromising the optical quality you need to see every detail.

Foundries

Your work in foundries requires you to ensure the highest quality research, development and quality control to meet your production demands. Whether you are inspecting castings for defects or trying to lower the cost of production, affordable and customizable microscopes from Leica Microsystems help you optimize your workflow and production processes by providing reliable solutions that work quickly and intelligently.

Research & Development

Get more out of your metalcasting research while improving your foundry's workflow efficiency with the affordable and customizable microscopes, cameras and software from Leica Microsystems. These cost-effective and balanced solutions feature high quality optics, easy-to-use operation and ergonomic design to allow you and your team to get the most out of analysis and documentation while reducing strain from repetitive tasks.

Regulatory Affairs & Quality Assurance

Get powerful workflow automation with efficiency and reliability to quickly capture, analyze and document potential metalcasting defects. Leica Microsystems' Foundry microscopes for Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs help reduce the time it takes inspection and documentation without compromising the optical quality you need to see every detail.

Frequently Asked Questions Metallography

What is metallography?

Metallography is the study of the microstructure of all types of metallic alloys. More precisely, it is the scientific discipline of observing and determining the chemical and atomic structure and spatial distribution of the grains, inclusions, and phases in metallic alloys. Many important macroscopic properties of metals are greatly influenced by the microstructure, e.g., tensile strength, elongation, and thermal or electrical properties. Understanding the relationship between microstructure and macroscopic properties is critical for the development, manufacture, and application of metallic alloys. For more information, refer to the article: Metallography – an Introduction

What is metallurgy?

Metallurgy involves the study of the physical and chemical properties of metals and metallic alloys. It mainly concerns the design, development, and production of metals and alloys used in consumer products. The knowledge gained from metallography about metallic microstructure is very useful for metallurgy.

What is the difference between metallography and metallurgy?

Metallurgy is the characterization, design, development, and production of metals and metallic alloys, while metallography is limited to the study of metallic microstructure. For more information, refer to the article: Metallography – an Introduction

What is a metallurgical microscope and how does it work?

A metallurgical microscope (also can be known as a metallographic microscope) takes advantage of different optical microscope techniques to reveal the metallic microstructure. Examples include incident brightfield mode as wells as less common contrast methods, like darkfield, differential interference contrast (DIC), and the use of color (tint) etching. For more information, refer to the articles: Metallography with Color and Contrast & Metallography – an Introduction

Metallic Alloys

Metallic alloys are important for many industries like automotive, aviation and aerospace, as well as other forms of transportation, and fields like materials science and engineering. Characterization of alloy microstructure, such as grain size, phases, and inclusions, using metallographic methods is very important for applications of alloys in these industries and fields. There are thousands of standard metallic alloys, for example, steel, aluminum, copper, etc., in use today and new ones with better performance are being developed regularly for various applications and demands.

Useful Sciencelab Stories

Precise and Practical Microscopy Solutions

How to Adapt Grain Size Analysis of Metallic Alloys to Your Needs

Metallic alloys, such as steel and aluminum, have an important role in a variety of industries, including automotive and transportation. In this report, the importance of grain size analysis for alloy characterization is reviewed, along with a practical, flexible microscopy solution using a high-performance software for easy user operation and image analysis.

Overview of standard analysis methods and practical solutions for evaluating steel inclusions

Rate the Quality of Your Steel: Free Webinar and Report

This webinar and report describe optimal microscopy solutions for rating steel quality in terms of non-metallic inclusions and review the various international and regional standards concerning rigorous quality assessment methods, e.g., EN 10247, ASTM E45, DIN 50602, and ISO 4967.

Automotive & Transportation

Automotive and Transportation microscopes from Leica Microsystems improve the reliability and accuracy of your work while assuring the high quality of your end product.

Rating Steel Quality

Foreign substances in steel, known as non-metallic inclusions, disrupt the homogeneity of the microstructure. They can have considerable influence on the steel’s mechanical properties, affecting performance and lifetime. Therefore, rating the inclusions is important for evaluating steel quality.

Industry & Manufacturing

Microscopes for Industry and Manufacturing from Leica Microsystems help you minimize downtime through a broad range of solutions and expert local support.

Read our latest articles about Metallography

The knowledge portal of Leica Microsystems offers scientific research and teaching material on the subjects of microscopy. The content is designed to support beginners, experienced practitioners and scientists alike in their everyday work and experiments.

Quality Assurance

Microstructural Characterization including Compositional Analysis

Leica Microsystems' versatile upright compound microscope, DM6 M, fitted with Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy module will let you not only analyze metallographically polished samples and conduct…